Names have power.And Kael just remembered the one that should have never been spoken.Not even by the gods.
The second Fragment pulsed against Kael's chest like a second heart. The moment he touched it, the Spire of Dust trembled — not from collapse, but from something deeper. Something metaphysical.
Time didn't fall apart.
Reality did.
The world twisted sideways. The floors turned into starlight. The tower became a hallway of burning mirrors.
And then… silence.
Kael blinked.
He stood in a place not built, but remembered.
Not Aeon's past.His.
A memory realm.
He saw a woman screaming as she gave birth — pale eyes, silver hair like his.
A brand was burned into the newborn's skin.Men in cloaks. Guild sigils. Incantations spoken in dead tongues.
"The vessel must survive.""Inject the null serum.""He's stabilizing—wait. No… the soul is rejecting—"
Pain lanced across Kael's spine. Even in memory, it hurt.
This was where it began. The scar. The silence. The curse.
The ritual hadn't just scarred his body — it tried to embed a god-fragment. Not from a Grave. But from before. A relic lost to time.
They wanted a god vessel.And somehow, they got him.
Kael staggered as the memory blurred. The air thickened like molasses. He felt his skin heat, bones creak. Something inside him… clicked.
A voice whispered.No—resonated.
"Kael'thaeon…"
The name wasn't just spoken. It echoed through every part of him.A name older than thrones, older than war. Not Aeon, the Arbiter.
But Kael'thaeon — the original self, before titles, before betrayal.
And suddenly, everything changed.
[Class Evolution: Graveborn Ascendant → Transcendent Soulbound]
New Trait Unlocked:Dual Core Channeling — Merge fragment power with internal soul resonance.
New Skill Unlocked:Echo Nova — Unleash stored fragment energy in an AOE burst that fractures space and time.
Kael gasped as power surged — not just through muscles, but through memory. He wasn't becoming Aeon.
He had been him all along.
Just broken. Fragmented. Forgotten.
But knowledge came at a price.
As the name echoed — Kael'thaeon — something rippled through the higher realms. A vibration. A name not meant to be spoken.
And the gods… heard it.
Some turned in fear.Others in rage.And one — deep in the void — smiled.
Kael dropped to one knee, panting. "What… what am I becoming?"
But deep beneath the tower — buried beyond even time — something ancient shifted.A pulse.A heartbeat.
Not from above. But from below.
The Spire's collapse had awakened more than memory.
[End of Chapter 8]
And from the ruins beneath the Spire, the Black Vault stirred — prison to the First Fallen… and it had just begun to crack.
Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 9: The Eye Above
Buried beneath the Spire lies the Black Vault — a prison sealed before the first god ascended. Its lock? A name. And Kael just spoke it.
Now, as Kara Yil deciphers ancient ruins and Guild armies close in, Kael must choose: flee, or descend deeper… into the one place even gods fear to tread.
For inside the Vault is a prisoner who remembers everything — including Aeon's greatest sin.