Chapter 3 — Whispers Beneath the Ash
The sky above the First Spire had bled dry, and the sun had not risen for days. Only the pale blue glow of drifting embers lit the ruins surrounding Erevan. They floated like mournful fireflies, remnants of a once-living world, now reduced to dust beneath his boots.
He didn't look back at the burning fields behind him.
He hadn't looked back in a long time.
The Tower's lower levels shifted as he walked. Paths bent, structures reformed, the very stone writhing like a living creature desperate to confuse or crush him. But Erevan moved with the confidence of someone who had memorized this madness long ago.
He passed a shattered statue of a Guardian, its once-holy helm cracked down the middle. A single word—TRUTH—had been engraved on the base, now smeared in black soot.
He spat at it without stopping.
The voice of the System whispered in his ear again, low and dispassionate:
[NOTICE: Dimensional Sync – Stable.]
[Remembrance at 2.4% — Partial Recovery Enabled.]
He paused.
The stat again.
Remembrance.
Every time it appeared, he felt a ripple—like an echo of himself brushing against the walls of a memory he couldn't fully see. A feeling, not a thought. A warmth in his chest. A name on the tip of his tongue. A war long past, yet still unfolding in his blood.
She had golden eyes, didn't she?
The thought came uninvited.
And she believed in you.
He crushed it.
"Not now," he muttered, voice low and sharp.
His journey took him to the Ashen Atrium—a domain once filled with light and the sound of distant music. Now, only silence lived there. The air reeked of static and blood. Petals of ash fell from the crumbling arches overhead. A garden of wilted vines twisted along the walls like veins choking a dying heart.
And at the center stood a girl.
No… not a girl.
A mimic of one.
Her limbs were too thin. Her smile too perfect. Her eyes lacked pupils—just endless white light bleeding through.
"Welcome, Challenger Erevan," she said with a lilt too cheerful for this graveyard. "I am Seraphina, Memory Warden of Layer Three. I will assess your cognitive integrity before granting passage."
Erevan stopped just a few steps away.
"I've already passed the Trial of Flame," he said. "I don't need your permission."
She tilted her head. "That trial was calibrated for those with souls still intact."
A long pause.
Then she smiled again.
"You are fractured. Your Remembrance bleeds through. How do you plan to ascend when you cannot even face the reason you fell?"
A low hum echoed behind Erevan's ears. That name again. That warmth.
Golden eyes. A promise. A betrayal.
He clenched his fists, skin shimmering as his cosmic aura pulsed briefly beneath his cloak. A line of constellation-like fractures glowed across his forearm.
"You don't know anything about me."
Seraphina's eyes widened slightly, curious. "Don't I? You've worn pain like a crown for so long that you think it makes you a king."
She lifted a delicate hand. The room shuddered.
A mirror rose from the cracked floor.
But it was no ordinary mirror—it didn't reflect Erevan's current form. Instead, it showed a younger version of him. A rebel. A boy with fire in his eyes and a girl standing beside him, holding his hand. Their fingers intertwined like hope clinging to a blade.
Erevan flinched.
"Stop—"
The image changed.
Now it was the girl alone.
Falling.
Bleeding.
Screaming his name as the Tower consumed her.
"STOP."
The mirror shattered.
His voice had thundered through the Atrium like a god's wrath. The vines recoiled. The ash halted midair.
Seraphina said nothing.
But in that moment, Erevan saw something flash behind her glowing eyes—something human.
Pity.
He hated it.
"Let me pass," he said, his voice low and cold again. "Or I will tear this place apart until there's nothing left of your goddamn scripts and protocols."
A flicker passed over her smile.
"Very well."
She stepped aside. A gate behind her began to unfurl like petals opening in reverse—metal and magic twisting, releasing a low chime.
As Erevan walked past her, she spoke once more:
"Remembrance will not save you, Erevan. But it may be the only thing left of you when this is over."
He didn't reply.
He didn't look back.
But deep in his mind, the System whispered again:
**[Remembrance increased to 3.2%]
[Hidden Memory Fragment Unlocked — Entry 1 of 7.]
"She believed we could change everything." <<**
And for the first time in what felt like centuries…
Erevan's hand trembled.