Kael stood before a gate of scorched obsidian, deeper in the ember-vein valley. He didn't remember walking there—but his feet ached, and the ash on his robe had thickened.
His hand still burned faintly where the glyph had marked him.
The silence of the place no longer felt empty. It pressed inward.
Then: a breath.
Not his.
A presence stirred beyond the gate.
---
> [System Notification]
Initiating World Trial – Hollow Flame Sync
▪ Objective: Survive the Trial
▪ Reward: Class Refinement / World Trait
▪ Risk: Memory Fragmentation / Trait Mutation
---
The gate opened without sound.
Kael stepped through.
The world flipped.
---
He stood in a memory—not his own.
A battlefield made of crystal, fractured by flame. Corpses lay scattered: human, beast, and things without names. Above him, the sky bled rivers of fire.
Across the field, a lone figure knelt beside a burning banner.
It was him.
Or... someone who looked exactly like him, clad in ancient armor bearing the crest of House Virdane—but warped, corrupted, glowing with runes Kael couldn't read.
The air screamed.
> "You're not supposed to see this..." said a voice, familiar but wrong.
"...but then again, you were never supposed to exist."
The figure looked up.
Eyes like hollow suns.
---
Kael's body moved—dragged forward by the Trial.
The memory version of himself rose, sword of living flame in hand. His voice echoed with the weight of thousands.
> "One of us must burn. Only one."
Kael raised his hands.
No sword. No shield.
Only instinct.
The world bent. The flame flared. And the duel began.
---
They clashed—mind against instinct, memory against reality.
Kael could feel every blow not just in his body, but in his bloodline.
Fragments of names, ancestors, and forgotten titles flared across his vision. The Ninth Flame screamed—but not in pain.
In recognition.
---
Then, silence.
Kael stood over the ash of his counterpart, panting.
In the center of the field, a glyph rose: a twin flame wrapped in an eye of glass.
---
> [Class Fragment Refined: Emberborn Veinwalker → Hollowflame Veinwalker]
[New Trait Acquired: Scorched Legacy]
▪ +5 Resistance to System Intrusion
▪ Memory Archive Slot (Locked)
▪ Connection to Eldest Flame (Partial)
---
Elsewhere...
In the Frost Shroud, the oracle Valzeth Thousand-Eyes woke screaming from her mirror dreams.
In the depths of Aether Reaches, Father Drenhal began preparing the Scroll of Severing.
And in House Virdane, Lord Therion paused mid-meeting. His glass cracked in his grip.
> "He's awakened... not by design, but by survival."