> System Notice
[Southern Passageway Unlocked]
[New Area: "Tomb of the Faithless"]
[Danger Level: Moderate-High]
[Environmental Anomaly Detected – Residual Memory Echoes]
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The doors creaked open, ancient and reluctant. A gust of stale, ash-scented air washed over Kael's face, carrying with it the unmistakable weight of a forgotten history. Beyond the threshold stretched a dim corridor, carved of dark stone and lined with fragmented statues of faceless warriors.
Kael stepped inside without hesitation. The air was thick with tension—like even the tomb itself resented their presence.
Behind him, Silna moved with silent precision, blade still in hand. "You feel that?" she murmured.
Kael nodded. "Like we're walking into someone else's memory."
They descended slowly. The walls bore the scars of age and battle—slices through stone, scorch marks, even claw gouges. Sigils lined the floor like forgotten constellations, cracked and drained of power. Every few steps, Kael's boots crushed broken crystal underfoot.
The hallway widened into a sanctum of ruin. Statues lay shattered in a pattern that almost felt ritualistic—knights impaled with their own spears, mages with tongues of flame scorched into their stone faces.
"These weren't destroyed in combat," Kael muttered. "They were executed."
Silna crouched beside a broken pedestal, brushing aside layers of dust. Beneath the grime, an etched crest shimmered faintly—an angular crown, cracked in half. The same emblem the Warden had worn.
Her expression hardened. "This was a purge."
Kael stood in silence, his fingers curling. "You wear a traitor's crown," the Warden had said. The phrase echoed louder now.
Was this tomb built for traitors—or for those betrayed?
A flicker caught his eye. One of the broken statues—headless, armor rusted—began to glow faintly. Then another. Light shimmered across the chamber like mist catching fire.
A projection sparked to life in the center of the room. A kneeling figure appeared, draped in black armor, helm removed. He held a fractured crown in bloodied hands.
> "We served the Crown until it turned on us. We died with our names erased… but even in death, we remember."
The image flickered, twisted, and shattered with a distant screech.
Silna straightened. "That was a warning."
Kael's eyes had locked onto the far end of the chamber, where an altar pulsed faintly with orange-red light. On it rested a crystal fragment—veined with silver, thrumming with restrained power.
A Crownless Sigil Fragment.
He stepped forward. As his hand hovered above it, the tomb responded.
The statues cracked. Stone groaned.
From the shadows behind the altar, a figure emerged—not quite alive, not fully dead. Metal twisted over bone, and two burning eyes blinked open in a face carved from war. It knelt like a knight... then lunged like a beast.
"Down!" Silna shouted, blade drawn.
Kael barely rolled aside as the creature slammed into the altar. Dust exploded around them, and the battle began.
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> System Notice
[Memory Guardian Encounter Initiated – "The Forsaken Knight"]
[Warning: Phantasmal-Class Construct]
[Victory Reward: ???]
[Failure Penalty: Crownless Fragment Loss – Moderate]
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Kael exhaled slowly. "So this is the price of remembering."
Silna smiled grimly. "Then let's earn it."
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🧩 [End of Chapter 14]