The wind in Noctheron Marsh didn't whistle.
It howled.
Even as they stepped out from the collapsing dungeon, the air still carried the scent of decay and raw aura. The sky above was blackened—not by clouds, but by fractured mana that lingered from the Executioner's fall.
Kael Arclight stood at the edge of a shallow ravine, his hand still trembling.
He wasn't sure if it was from exhaustion… or the voice he heard just before the Executioner crumbled.
A whisper. Faint. Human.
And terrified.
Lyra checked the surroundings, but her eyes kept flicking toward him. "You're still shaking. What happened in there?"
Kael didn't answer immediately.
He couldn't.
Instead, he reached inside himself—not for aura, but for the memory. That moment, the Echo Rend struck, the scream rose… and something inside him broke.
Or awoke.
> Passive Triggered: Echo Drift – Recovered Fragmented Memory of Defeated Aura Entity.
Kael staggered as his vision blurred.
In its place came a memory.
But it wasn't his.
[Flashback – Unknown Timeline]
A man knelt, chained beneath a violet moon.
Skin scorched. Eyes burned blind. Yet he still smiled.
"You think I'll regret it?" the man rasped. "Even if I die... I burned their gods. I made them bleed. That was enough."
The voice that answered him was not of this world. Nor this realm.
"You were human, Arcton. You should never have touched the Rift."
The chained man—the original Executioner—spat blood.
"Then why do your kind keep sending monsters… afraid of what humans can become?"
Kael gasped, stumbling backward.
Drayke caught him before he hit the dirt. "Oi, Kael! You spacing out again? Don't tell me you're talking to ghosts."
Kael's eyes focused, slowly. "No… I think…"
He looked down at his hands. They were still his. Still human.
But that memory?
That was someone else.
And yet it came through him.
"Executioner wasn't just a monster," he murmured. "It was a person once. A warrior."
Lyra's eyes widened. "Wait—what?"
Kael stood, wiping blood from his mouth. "He rebelled. Against the Eternals. They turned him into that thing to punish him."
Drayke let out a low whistle. "Damn. No wonder he hit like a grudge."
Kael turned toward the marsh horizon.
The world was starting to change again.
Not from the dungeon's collapse.
From within.
Back in Sunspire
> Classified Report: Riftborn Collapse – Level S Danger Suppressed
Team: Independent
Survivors: 3
Name Identified: Kael Arclight (Unknown Class Type) – Cleared Dungeon Solo Kill on S-Rank Boss
Status: Under Investigation
Council members murmured inside the high court.
Golden robed Wardens whispered to one another while Veyl Solane, the current Vanguard Leader of Sunspire, reviewed the recorded fragments with narrowed eyes.
"He copied the Executioner's technique," one of them whispered. "That's forbidden mimicry. Aura replication should be impossible."
Veyl tapped her fingers on the marble desk. "And yet he did it."
She leaned back.
"Contact Zera Vaelith. If Kael's truly tapping into pre-Eternal knowledge… we need to know how much he remembers."
Meanwhile, in the Shadows of Lirael's Divide
Zera stood atop a ruined spire, eyes closed.
A Wraith Bell in her hand chimed.
Only once.
She smiled to herself.
"So… you heard it, Kael," she whispered. "The ash doesn't lie. And the past always echoes."
A cloaked figure behind her spoke. "He's not ready."
"He doesn't have to be," Zera said. "He just has to survive."
Nightfall – Their Campfire in the Marsh Outskirts
Crickets chirped.
Frogs croaked.
It should've felt peaceful.
But Kael's thoughts didn't rest.
Not with what he saw. What he felt. What whispers still lingered behind his ears.
"You good?" Drayke tossed him a roasted fen-lizard on a stick.
Kael caught it, blinked, then let out a small chuckle. "You're the worst cook I've ever met."
"Wrong," Drayke said proudly. "I'm the second worst. The guy who taught me exploded his food."
Lyra sighed. "You two are impossible."
Kael bit into the lizard anyway.
Even burned, it grounded him.
But not enough.
Lyra scooted closer, voice gentler. "You don't have to carry everything alone, Kael."
"I'm not," he replied, barely a whisper. "But… something's changing in me. Every time I fight, I'm less myself. Or maybe I'm becoming something I always was."
He looked at them both.
"I just don't want to lose my grip on what matters."
Drayke tossed a small rock into the fire. "Then let us be what matters."
Lyra smiled. "Exactly."
Elsewhere – A New Threat Stirs
Deep in the Elarith Peaks, a colossal gate of blackstone creaked open.
A figure cloaked in starless smoke stepped through.
> Eternal-Spawn: Sable Priest of the Void Choir – Rank SSS (Awakened)
It opened its maw—not a mouth, but a chasm of silence.
"The Ashen has heard the Forgotten."
And the world began to shiver.