**Cloud Vein Sect – Night**
The moon stood still.
Not metaphorically — literally.
Zeravon stood beside Instructor Wei, who held a black token in hand, shaped like a fang biting its own tail.
Before them, deep in the forest behind the sect, stood an **ancient stone gate** embedded into the mountain. Its surface was **featureless**, except for one thing:
A single word carved at the center — one that no one alive could read.
Except Zeravon.
His eyes narrowed.
> *"That's not a word,"* he whispered. *"It's a memory."*
Wei looked puzzled but said nothing.
The token in his hand pulsed, and the gate **shivered**.
Stone did not open. It **vanished**, like it was never real to begin with.
---
**Inside the Silent Vault**
The air was **wrong**.
It didn't move. It didn't breathe. It didn't carry sound.
It simply *existed* — heavy, ageless, watching.
Zeravon stepped inside, and the world behind him disappeared. Literally.
No door.
No way out.
Wei did not follow.
Zeravon was alone.
And the silence here… was not empty.
---
**Steps Into Memory**
As he walked deeper, the stone path beneath his feet began glowing with soft white light. The walls around him pulsed with ancient symbols — ones he **could not read**, but his soul *flinched* at the sight of.
Suddenly, the seal on his chest began to itch.
> *"You… are not ready,"* came a whisper.
Not from around him.
**From within him.**
> *"Yet you are here."*
Zeravon clenched his fists.
> *"Then show me why."*
The hallway ended at a circular room — perfectly carved, flawless, with a single pedestal in the center.
Upon the pedestal rested… a **mirror**.
But not one of reflection.
**It was a mirror of form.** Of *what you were before memory*.
---
**Vision Awakens**
The moment Zeravon looked into it, he saw not himself… but **an empty throne**.
Stars spun wildly around it. Suns burned and vanished. Nebulas collapsed into silence.
And then…
A single word.
Burned into the center of the mirror:
**"Oblivis"**
His second name.
And with that, the **second seal cracked.**
Not fully — but enough.
Zeravon's body trembled.
His eyes rolled white.
The ground **split** beneath him — not broken, but **rewritten**.
---
**Flashback – Unknown Voice, Unknown Realm**
A voice, deep and serene:
> *"If you awaken both names… the third shall find you."*
> *"And when that happens, the Vault will no longer hold."*
---
**Back in the Vault**
Zeravon fell to his knees. A golden circle appeared around him — sharp, layered, changing every second.
Inside the circle, **a new entity began forming** — not spirit, not beast, not man.
It had no face… only hands. Thousands of them.
They reached for Zeravon, whispering in a language older than silence.
But before they could touch him—
**The entire Vault burned white.**
A light emerged — from Yueyin's pendant that hung on Zeravon's neck.
Her voice rang through the chamber:
> *"You are not his."*
> *"Not yet."*
The hands retreated.
The mirror shattered.
Zeravon collapsed — this time, unconscious.
---
**Meanwhile – Sect Council Hall**
Elder Lin stormed into the restricted archive.
He opened a forbidden record — one sealed 90,000 years ago.
Inside, only a single sketch.
It showed a man, standing before a crowd of kneeling gods.
The note beneath it read:
> *"The Seal is not to protect the world from him…"*
> *"…but to protect **him** from remembering the world."*
Lin whispered:
> "He's not regaining power…"
> "He's regaining memory."
---
**Final Scene – Vault, Later**
Zeravon woke.
He was lying in the same chamber.
But everything had changed.
The mirror was gone.
The pedestal was gone.
Only a single item remained.
A **mask** — carved from obsidian, humming faintly.
And a whisper that wasn't his own:
> *"Wear it, and forget again."*
> *"Or walk forward… and become what they fear."*
Zeravon stared at the mask.
And chose neither.
He stood.
And walked deeper into the Vault — where even **time had forgotten its path**.
---