Ayaka stumbled through a narrow corridor, her blade drawn, breath ragged.
One moment she was beside Kaizen, the next—a sudden burst of flame and light swallowed the chamber, and when the haze cleared, he was gone.
The Vault had shifted. The ground felt different.
Colder.
Dead.
"Kaizen!" she called.
Silence.
No echo. No answer.
Only the distant sound of something breathing in the dark.
She pressed forward, deeper into the underground maze. The walls here were different—covered in carvings not of warriors or gods… but of voids, suns eclipsed by black flame, and monstrous figures with no faces.
Then she saw it: a door of polished obsidian. No handle. Just a single inscription:
"To seek the truth is to invite the end."
Ayaka touched it.
It opened with a low groan, revealing a chamber choked in ash. At its center: a podium. Upon it—a tattered leather-bound journal.
Something compelled her forward.
She opened the cover.
The first page read:
> Scripture of the Hollow Sun
By High Priestess Elira — Year 000 of Flame Cycle
Ayaka's breath caught.
This was ancient.
She turned the pages, carefully. The ink was smeared in places, but the message was clear. The journal wasn't just a record—it was a confession.
> "We failed. The Veinborn Project was never meant to create heroes.
It was to create containment vessels.
For Him."
Ayaka froze.
The pages described the creation of Kaizen's bloodline—not as warriors, but as locks. Not protectors of humanity, but barriers to hold back something sleeping beneath the earth:
The Hollow Sun.
A godlike entity.
Born from the collapse of the first civilization.
Burning with sentient, devouring flame.
One line was underlined, carved into the paper as if the writer had screamed it onto the page:
> "If the Flame Eater awakens fully, the Hollow Sun will rise… and consume all light."
Ayaka closed the book slowly, horror crawling up her spine.
Suddenly, the ash in the room shifted.
And a voice whispered—
> "You were never meant to know."
She spun, blade raised—only to find a figure standing in the far corner.
A woman.
Pale. Eyes stitched shut. Lips sealed with black thread.
She pointed toward Ayaka's chest.
And Ayaka felt it—a burning ache in her veins. The same glow Kaizen sometimes emitted.
> "You carry it too…" the woman's voice echoed inside Ayaka's mind.
> "The Hollow Sun knows you.
And soon… you will hear it calling."
Ayaka stumbled back, nearly dropping the journal. "What do you mean?"
The woman's face contorted in pain.
> "You're the key. You both are.
One to ignite the world…
One to open the sky."
A deafening pulse rang through the room.
And the woman vanished.
---
Meanwhile, deep in the Vault…
Kaizen sat in silence.
He had awoken to a world frozen.
Everything around him moved in slow motion.
Even time felt broken.
But above him, engraved on the ceiling in glowing script, were the same words Ayaka had just read.
> "You are the Flame Eater.
The Hollow Sun's awakening begins with you."
He clenched his fists.
Memories flashed again—of burning villages, screams, ash raining down, and his own face laughing at the sky.
"No," he growled. "I'm not that. I won't become that."
But something answered.
A voice… inside him.
> "You were never given a choice."
---
Elsewhere…
In the topmost spire of the Obsidian Citadel, Nerovar stood before a burning pool.
Visions danced on its surface—Kaizen kneeling in the Vault, Ayaka clutching the Scripture, the world teetering.
A robed acolyte approached. "They're close to the convergence."
Nerovar's eyes flared with dark fire.
> "Let them.
I want him to see the machine he was born into.
I want him to understand his purpose—before I tear it from him."
---
Back underground...
Ayaka emerged into a chamber lined with mirrors.
Each showed a different timeline.
A different Kaizen.
In one, he ruled over a burning empire.
In another, he sat alone on a throne of corpses.
And in one… he lay dead, Ayaka's blade through his chest.
Tears welled in her eyes.
"No. I won't let that happen."
Behind her, the journal pulsed.
The last page had only one sentence.
> "When fire forgets it was once light, it becomes shadow."
She gripped her sword, flames sparking along its edge.
> "I'll save you, Kaizen…
Even if the whole world burns."
---
END OF CHAPTER 44
---
Next Chapter Hint (45): Squad Umbra starts unraveling as hallucinations, dreams, and memory distortions cause members to turn against each other in the Vault. One will vanish mysteriously, leaving only blood behind—and a message scratched into the wall:
> "HE IS ALREADY HERE."