Location: Mind Vault – Substructure Theta beneath Lira's Sanctum
Time: [Cycle 11 : 02:15 – 02:48 Local Drift]
Ren walked in silence.
No footsteps.
No echoes.
Only the soft hum of unwritten thought, pressing against his bones like psychic humidity.
The air buzzed with mental pressure, like someone's memories had been stretched into wires and strung through the stone.
FROST (softly):
"This place isn't just sealed. It's alive."
CORE:
"The Mind Lock doesn't hide.
It invades."
Ren reached the last arch.
Before him: a circular room layered in floating glyphs, spinning like mental satellites.
And at its center, seated in midair, eyes closed, floating just above the Mind Lock:
A pale figure wrapped in silver cloth, head tattooed in inked constellations, third eye open and pulsing.
Commander Vehlis.
The Sentinel Mind.
Lira's most loyal defender.
She opened her eyes.
"So. The Riftborn reaches the final lock."
"And I… the final question."
Ren readied Vey'stryx.
"Let me guess. You're going to try to talk me out of this?"
Vehlis floated down, landing silently.
"No."
"I'm going to give you a choice. The last one you'll ever get."
The glyphs pulsed around her —
forming memories, visions, possibilities:
Lira crying over Seren's body.The council branding her as unstable.The first time she touched the Vein Root... and didn't scream.
"She never wanted to rule," Vehlis said. "She wanted to rewrite pain."
"The Verge Ring? Broken."
"The other planets? Corrupted."
"She's not destroying them, Kaelreth.
She's… editing them."
REN:
"With how many deaths?"
VEHLIS:
"Enough to build something that doesn't hurt."
She raised a hand.
"Let me show you. I'll burn the madness away. You'll see what she sees."
"And if you still want to kill her?
Then fight me."
Ren hesitated.
Then?
"No more gods whispering in my head."
"I'll break this one the old way."
He raised Vey'stryx.
Vehlis smiled.
"So be it."
Vehlis: Moves with the flow of thought — she doesn't strike with blades, she reverses Ren's intent mid-attack, turning aggression into collapse.She splits into three psychic avatars — each wielding a memory of Ren's worst failure.
BLAZE (hissing):
"She's using your own guilt against you."
VEY'STRYX (snarling):
"She can't rewrite my edge."
FROST (deadpan):
"Let's cut her like a bad habit."
Ren focused.
Let the voices balance him — not bind him.
He triggered a glyph override, blurred through Vehlis' projections, and rammed Vey'stryx through her third eye.
Her body staggered—
And collapsed—
But didn't bleed.
She dissolved into static.
Then—
From the shadows behind the Lock…
A step.
A presence.
Not Lira.
Not Vehlis.
Not even Eclipsis.
But the Watcher.
Tall.
Wrapped in voidlight.
Eyes hidden behind a veil of driftglass.
Hands behind its back like it was bored.
It tilted its head.
Spoke.
"You disappoint her,Ren."
"But you entertain me."
Ren raised his sword.
The Mind Lock behind the figure opened.
The final vault… now exposed.