The world was trembling, but most didn't feel it—yet.
Kael stood in the central chamber of the Sanctum, surrounded by projections from the three fragments now aligned within his system. The Veilshard Core shimmered faintly inside his palm, syncing with the fragments of Elaran and the Origin Crest.
"Three fragments... and still the truth is fragmented," Kael murmured.
Lyra appeared beside him, a map flickering into view.
"There's something calling from beneath the Ruined Delta. An anomaly buried under ten kilometers of collapsed oceanic crust. We found an old name tied to it... 'The Chorus Below'."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Another fragment?"
"Maybe. Or maybe a lock."
Into the Depths
Three days later, Kael, Lyra, Riven, and Aeris boarded a subgravitic divecraft—The Hollowwake—and descended into the broken seafloor.
The light died as they went deeper, swallowed by silt and fractured dimensional strands. Strange fish shimmered with runes etched into their scales. Voices, muffled by water and void, whispered through the hull.
Then they saw it.
A massive circular structure beneath the crust—half temple, half machine—pulsing with impossible resonance. Thousands of metallic cables spiraled upward into nothingness, severed from an unknown source.
The entrance yawned open as they approached, as if expecting them.
The Guardian of Songs
Inside the temple, sound replaced sight.
It wasn't noise—but memory rendered audible.
They saw glimpses of ancient users, worlds before this one, systems stacked on top of systems. And then they heard her.
A voice like shattered crystal wrapped in silk.
"You who bear the Third... enter, and be seen."
From a chamber of echoing resonance, a woman emerged.
She had silver-blue hair that drifted like mist, skin marked by fractal runes, and eyes that pulsed with shifting musical notes. She wore a dress made of interwoven crystal strings, each humming faintly.
"I am Nythera—The Last Cantor. Bound to the Chorus Below since the Fragment War."
Lyra flinched. "She's... not fully human."
Kael stared. "What are you?"
Nythera bowed, every movement harmonizing with the walls.
"I was once human. Now, I am a living interface to the Archive's twin—the Subverse, a memory so deep even the system cannot rewrite it. I have sung alone for eons... until you came."
The Trial of Tone
To claim the fragment below, Kael had to undergo the Trial of Tone.
Within a chamber of harmonic prisms, Nythera guided him. Each step forced Kael to relive his deepest choices, but in alternate melodies—scenarios where he had chosen differently.
In one, he had saved Lucian but lost his fire.
In another, he had killed Lyra during her awakening, fearing betrayal.
Each time, the prism rejected the false Kael.
In the final test, he was forced to face himself—a mirror Kael, corrupted by pure system logic, devoid of emotion.
They battled within the resonance space—blade against blade, mind against mind. Kael struck true, but only when he embraced the chaos and sang back—echoing his own will, not the system's.
The chamber shattered.
System Update: Chorus Fragment Acquired.
New Skill Unlocked – Harmonic Override: Cancel one enemy system action or ability every 24 hours.
Nythera has been added as an Observer. She may join your party under certain emotional resonance conditions.
Whispers of the First User
As the group prepared to leave the temple, Nythera stood before Kael, expression unreadable.
"You are not the first to walk this path, Kael Virell. But you may be the last to finish it."
She held out a glowing shard. "This... is not part of your system. It predates it."
Kael accepted the shard, and his vision burned.
He saw a figure in white and black, standing on a world made entirely of code. This being—cloaked in voidfire—turned to him.
"So... another candidate reaches this point."
Kael stepped back, breathing hard. "Who was that?"
Nythera's voice was faint. "The First User. The one who wrote the base code the system was built on. He has watched from the void beyond layers... and he is waiting for your ascent."
An Oath in Silence
Back at the surface, Kael stood atop his base, watching the stars.
Lyra approached silently. "We're close to something irreversible."
Kael didn't speak for a while. Then:
"This system... it wasn't made to help. It was made to choose. But I won't let it dictate who I become."
Behind them, Nythera stood at the edge, her form glowing faintly in moonlight.
She spoke in song, words laced with unknown power.
"The lock has turned. The Fourth Fragment will awaken not beneath, but above—where stars have fallen and never risen again."
Kael looked up.
To the sky beyond the Archive, beyond the Astral Court...
Where a shattered ring of moons hung—called by the ancients, The Vault of Origin.