The air in the tomb was no longer still. A slow, crawling chill crept up Kaelen's spine as the deep voice resonated through the cavernous chamber. It did not simply echo off the stone, it existed within it, layered within the very air they breathed. It was ancient, weighted with unseen power, and it carried the unmistakable tone of something waking from a slumber far too long. Rina's hand shot to her blade, her breath controlled but her knuckles whitening around the hilt. Eryndor stood motionless, his golden eyes narrowed as he observed the shifting darkness around them. The runes along the sarcophagus flickered erratically, caught between dormancy and awakening.
Kaelen swallowed hard. He had known, the moment he set foot in this place, that they were disturbing something buried beyond time. He had felt the pull, the resonance, but now he felt something else, recognition. The presence in the tomb was not unfamiliar. It was waiting. For him. The shadows at the far end of the chamber writhed, twisting unnaturally as the unseen entity moved through them. Slowly, a form began to take shape within the darkness. A pair of glowing eyes, crimson as dying embers, emerged first. They burned like twin stars, piercing through the void.
A figure stepped forward, wrapped in tendrils of black mist that coiled around its body like living armour. The being was tall, towering even, its presence commanding the space with an authority that sent a pulse of warning through Kaelen's very core. The silhouette was humanoid but warped, its body shifting between corporeal and incorporeal, flickering as though straddling the veil between existence and nothingness. And then it spoke again.
"The cycle repeats, yet this time… the Harbinger is incomplete."
Kaelen's breath caught. He had no idea what that meant, but every part of him bristled at the weight behind those words.
Eryndor took a measured step forward, his voice steady. "We do not come seeking destruction. Only truth."
The entity tilted its head, as if studying him. "Truth?" It let out a low, guttural chuckle, the sound reverberating through the walls. "The truth is carved in the bones of those who came before you, little seeker. The truth is buried beneath the weight of forgotten oaths."
Kaelen's fingers curled into fists. He wasn't here to listen to riddles. "Who are you?"
The crimson eyes shifted to him fully, and for a brief moment, the weight of their gaze nearly brought him to his knees.
"You already know me."
Kaelen gritted his teeth. "Then say it."
The darkness thickened, swirling around the sarcophagus. A name, unspoken yet known, whispered through Kaelen's mind; Duskbane. Kaelen's heart slammed against his ribs. He had heard it before, in the Codex's visions, in the echoes of something long forgotten. But hearing it spoken here, in the voice of an entity that did not belong to the present, made it real.
"You're lying," Kaelen growled, but his voice wavered. "That name belongs to..."
"To those who carried it before you," the entity interrupted. "And to those who will carry it after. The Harbinger is never one, but many. You, child, are merely the latest to walk this path."
Rina exhaled sharply. "That doesn't make any sense. If this cycle has happened before, where are the others?"
The entity's burning gaze flickered toward her. "Dust and echoes."
The words sent a chill through the chamber. Kaelen clenched his jaw. He didn't know whether to trust this creature, but deep down, something inside him understood. It was as though a door had been left cracked open, and the memories of another life, another Kaelen, were pressing against the threshold, waiting to be let in.
He took a step forward. "Then tell me what I'm meant to do."
The entity's form flickered, its mist-like tendrils extending toward him, though they did not touch. "The past cannot guide you. The choices of those before you are their own." The glowing eyes narrowed. "But if you seek what was lost, if you wish to wield what is rightfully yours… then prove you are worthy."
Before Kaelen could respond, the chamber shook.
The runes on the sarcophagus flared violently, casting the chamber in a pulsating red glow. The entity's form twisted, coiling into the stone itself, and then the heavy lid of the sarcophagus shifted, not by unseen magic, but by sheer force. Something inside was awakening. Kaelen barely had time to react before a deafening crack echoed through the chamber. The lid slid further, revealing a glimpse of ancient armour wrapped around skeletal remains. And then, A hand shot out.
A gauntlet, wreathed in flames of shadow, grasped the edge of the sarcophagus with inhuman strength. The very air turned suffocating as a guttural breath rattled through the tomb, followed by the slow rise of the being within. Kaelen's entire body tensed. This wasn't just some memory. This was real. The figure within the sarcophagus lifted its head, its hollow gaze burning with the same crimson light as the entity in the shadows. And then, in a voice that did not belong to a corpse, it spoke.
"Who… calls the Harbinger from his rest?"
The weight of destiny slammed into Kaelen like a tidal wave. The past was no longer buried. It was waking up.