Space warped around The Aegis Breaker, my personal interstellar flagship, forged from Precursor schematics and arcane alloy. It was more than a ship—it was the first true fusion of magic and science in this world, born from my hands and dreams.
Beside me, Elira stood silent, her gaze fixed on the obsidian vortex ahead.
"We're close," she whispered.
"The Key of Eyes is calling."
The stars shimmered unnaturally as we neared KAL-9—a forbidden planet hidden behind twelve layered cloaks of temporal distortion. Long ago, the Precursors sealed it away with a single law:
Nothing that enters remembers. Nothing that leaves can forget.
System Alert:
You are entering a Class-Ω Memory Lock Zone.
Systems dampened: Active Recall, Long-Term Perception, Dimensional Mapping.
Party Members protected under Starborn Cipher Immunity (Elira Valen).
Quest Phase Activated: "Break the Twelve Seals."
The planet appeared in fragments.
First, a ring of floating ruins—shattered obelisks carved with runes older than language.
Then, the sky.
A dome of frozen time.
And finally, the surface—a mirror ocean with no reflection, beneath which ancient towers glowed like bones.
We breached the final veil at sublight.
And KAL-9 awakened.
"Visitors…"
A voice flooded the ship—neither male nor female, but layered, echoing.
"You bring memory into the void. You bring purpose into silence."
I stood firm, hand on my holstered relic-blade, mind fortified.
"We bring a claim," I said. "By right of blood, by the fire of stars."
The voice grew amused.
"Then come, Heir of Infinity. Unlock what your kind has forgotten. But know this—the gods were locked here for a reason."
We descended.
And the ocean parted.
Beneath us: a city in stasis.
Towers that bled silver light. Streets lined with floating monoliths. No wind, no life—yet the pressure of presence pressed against my mind like a giant's palm.
As we stepped onto the surface, a glyph appeared beneath our feet—one of the Twelve Seals.
Elira reached forward.
Her fingers pulsed with Cipher-blood.
Seal One Broken: Gate of Echoing Time
New Trait Gained: Memory Immunity (KAL-9 Only)
We moved quickly.
Every seal was a trial.
Some were puzzles encoded in dream logic.
Some were guardians forged from discarded timelines—fragments of potential selves.
And some… required sacrifice.
At the Seventh Seal, I saw myself, aged, weary, broken by conquest. A future where I lost Elira. Where power had hollowed me.
I didn't hesitate. I raised my hand—and erased that version from existence.
"That's not me," I said.
"Not anymore."
Seal Eleven: The Vault of Forgotten Gods.
Elira bled from the nose. Her eyes were clouded.
"Jaden… something's waiting inside the last seal."
"A god?"
"No," she said softly.
"A child of one. Something born between realities. Something like us… but twisted by time."
We stepped through.
At the heart of KAL-9 stood a throne, and on it—
A boy.
No older than ten. Golden hair, eyes like nebulae. Skin marked by glowing runes.
He smiled at me.
"So. You're finally here."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm the one who stayed behind. The one they left to wait. Your brother, in purpose if not in blood."
"What's your name?"
He stood, and reality cracked behind him.
"They called me Vaerion. The Failed God."
System Alert:
New Lineage Detected: Paracausal Entity – Vaerion, Child of the Fragmented One
Warning: Entity unstable. Predicted convergence in 3 chapters.
New Questline: "When Gods Make Mistakes" unlocked.
The throne behind him shuddered.
And in its shadow, a cage broke.
From it came a single whisper that felt like the end of a galaxy:
"You… are not ready."