The snow was endless.
Kael and Riven trudged through the winding cliffs of Frostglen Spires, guided only by the relic's steady pulse and the fading trail carved long ago by failed adventurers. Ice coated everything—trees, rocks, even the air itself seemed to shimmer with frozen breath.
Their cloaks fluttered behind them, enchanted gear pushing back the worst of the cold. Still, this place felt wrong—as if it remembered every scream, every death, and every failure that had touched its ground.
And then they saw it.
The entrance to the Temple of Frozen Echoes, buried halfway into the mountain, frozen solid with jagged ice and sealed by a door engraved with thousands of names—frozen in place as if time itself had stopped the moment they gave up.
Kael approached the door, the Flameheart Relic beginning to burn in his satchel. Heat met cold. The relic pulsed, and the door melted open, steam rising into the air with a haunting hiss.
Inside… the silence was loud.
Inside the Temple
• Walls were coated in ice mirrors that reflected the past—showing visions of other warriors, some alive, some falling, some screaming in silence
• Strange echoes whispered around them, repeating their own voices back to them—but twisted
• Riven touched one mirror and saw herself alone… standing in this temple, looking down at Kael's body frozen in time
She pulled her hand back quickly.
"This place wants us to lose our minds," she muttered.
Enemies:
As they moved deeper, the first wave struck:
[Frostshard Wraiths – Lv. 28-30]
Health: 9,000 - 11,000
Status: Immune to normal cold, weak to warmth and light
Special: Freeze-lock – Temporarily disables one skill per hit
Kael used Flame-Eater to cut through them, his twin blades melting icy spirits mid-strike. Riven launched her Icepiercer arrows into the upper walls, collapsing frozen columns to crush the mobs. They pressed on, deeper into the temple, solving mirror-based puzzles to redirect beams of reflected sunlight through ice prisms.
Each solved puzzle thawed part of the floor, revealing the way forward.
The Heart of the Temple
Eventually, they reached it: a circular chamber of suspended ice. At the center floated a frozen relic, wrapped in an armor of layered frost, untouched by time.
Guarding it was the temple's final trial:
[Fractalis – The Echo Dragon – Lv. 30 Boss]
Health: 34,000
Abilities: Mirror Flare, Frost Nova, Echo Snap, Ice Prison
Threat: Red – Death from reflection and freeze traps
The dragon didn't roar—it whispered.
"Show me what memory you fear most."
And then it attacked—splitting into reflected versions of itself using the mirrors around the room. Kael and Riven fought multiple images at once, dodging razor-sharp icicles and echo shockwaves. Riven nearly froze mid-air from Ice Prison, but Kael shattered it with a critical leap-strike.
Kael was down to a sliver of health when his blades flared with Flameheart's power, cutting through the main dragon in a blinding arc of fire and steel.
The ice shattered.
The dragon screamed—then fell silent, turning into glimmering snow.
[Relic 3/5 Acquired – Crystal of Still Memory]
World Gate Progress: 60% → 80%
New Coordinates Unlocked: Hollow Depths – Temple buried beneath the earth
Kael & Riven: Both reach Level 30
[Limit Break Trial: Unlocked]
You may now attempt to break the Level 30 cap… if you are ready to face your origin.
Back at Veilgrove
The moment they returned, a pulse echoed across the land. The skies darkened for a heartbeat. Townsfolk looked up. Guild leaders stirred. The Gate was nearly ready.
But something else was waking up, too.
Kael opened his menu—and a new quest glowed crimson:
[Quest Unlocked: "Origin Shattered" – Begin the Limit Break Trial]
"The world you left behind remembers you. And it is calling you home.