The council chamber of Valdros Academy was no place for mercy.
Its obsidian walls reflected the flickering torches in distorted shadows, and its high table was half-circled with ancient minds—elders, high instructors, arcane strategists. But today, they were quiet.
Because today, the discussion wasn't about curriculum.
It was about Karl Valen.
Elaris Caelestis stood at the center of the room, her violet eyes steady.
"He has awakened three glyphs, bonded with a Veil-class Soulbind, and now draws echoes from ancient memory. You called this meeting. What would you have us do?"
One of the older councilmen spoke, fingers steepled over his lips.
"Send him beyond the southern ridge. Let the frontier test him. If he falls—"
"He won't," Elaris cut in.
"And if he does, we lose a threat."
Another voice interjected.
"Or we lose our only hope of understanding the Gate before it opens again."
At the back of the chamber, a young instructor leaned closer to a colleague.
"What if he's the same as the one from the Fall?"
The other whispered, "Then we pray he chooses differently."
Dormitory Garden Tower – Same Night
Karl sat alone, the glass shard from the Soulshade visitor resting in his palm.
The black fragment vibrated faintly against his skin.
Raiven lay nearby, watching.
"You haven't told anyone about the third voice."
Karl nodded.
"I don't know what to say. It's like… it's waiting for me to remember it."
"Or to become it again."
His glyphs pulsed.
Then—heat.
Pain.
Karl winced, grabbing his right wrist.
A fourth glyph—barely formed—began to etch itself beneath the skin.
No pain rune. No summon trigger.
This one came with fire.
And memory.
Suddenly, he was elsewhere.
The room was small, dimly lit by floating candles. A girl sat on the floor, humming softly, tracing the outline of an old blade across the wooden boards.
She looked up—and her eyes locked on his.
Soft green.
Familiar.
"You came back," she whispered.
Karl blinked.
"Where am I?"
The girl stood.
"Where you left me."
He didn't understand.
But her words struck something inside him.
"You promised. You said when the Gate broke, you'd return. Even if your name was taken. Even if your soul was scattered."
Karl stumbled back.
"I don't know you."
Tears welled in her eyes.
"But I know you, Veynrith."
He gasped and snapped awake.
Raiven was already standing.
"The glyph awakened. You've been asleep for almost a day."
Karl looked at his wrist.
The fourth glyph was fully formed now—a ringed spiral, surrounded by jagged points like claws. But it hadn't stopped burning.
It felt unfinished.
Elsewhere – Aeris's Family Estate Archive
Aeris stood before a sealed tome, passed down through her mother's bloodline.
Her hand trembled as she opened it.
Inside, scrolls marked with Veilbound runes and a passage:
"If the Vessel rises again, we are to remain silent, observe, and destroy only if the Gate begins to echo."
Aeris clenched her fists.
"They were never planning to help him. Just use him as a measure of the apocalypse."
When she returned to the Academy, Elaris was waiting.
"You found the record."
Aeris nodded.
"So what happens now?"
Elaris looked up toward the mountain sky.
"Now, we prepare for when he awakens the fifth. And pray he remembers who he was… before someone else does."
Courtyard – Morning
Karl stood in training gear.
Students watched from afar.
But no one came close.
He drew the blade slowly, feeling the resonance of all four glyphs now humming together—still not in harmony, but no longer in conflict.
Then, a voice behind him.
"You found her, didn't you?"
Karl turned.
Aeris.
She stepped beside him, not smiling, but no longer guarded.
"You saw the dream girl."
Karl nodded.
"She called me Veynrith."
"That's your name. Your real one. From before."
Karl looked down.
"But I'm not him anymore."
Aeris shook her head.
"Maybe not. But part of you is. And that part still wants to protect this world… even if the world doesn't deserve it."
The wind shifted.
The fourth glyph glowed.
And in the sky, far beyond the horizon…
The fifth began to pulse.