Kael stood atop the descent ridge, overlooking a coastline torn in two by time and Dreamfire.
The Hollow Shores stretched before him like the corpse of a forgotten god—broken docks, half-submerged cities, and shipwrecks pierced by twisted coral that pulsed with faint Echo-light. The waves rolled in silence, as if sound had been banned from this place long ago.
A sharp wind bit through his cloak. Even the air felt hollow here.
Not empty.
Listening.
---
The jumpcraft behind him hissed as it powered down, cloaked in stealth mode. This wasn't a sanctioned mission. Sera had made sure of that.
> Mission Objective: Locate Sigil Shard — Hollow Shores (Status: Unstable)
Environmental Hazard: Echo-Tide Zone (High)
Warning: No communication relay. No Pact backup. Proceed at own risk.
Kael pulled the Revenant Edge from his back. The blade thrummed faintly, reacting to the unnatural pulse of the land.
As he stepped forward, he felt it immediately.
The call.
Not loud. Not urgent.
Just… persistent.
A pull, somewhere deep below the surface, like something buried was stirring.
---
He reached the first sunken district by midday. Half the buildings were swallowed by black seawater, their walls covered in vines that shimmered with Echo-energy.
Kael knelt near an old mural, faded but intact. It showed Pact Warden insignias, hands raised toward the sky. Beneath them, a sigil carved into stone—identical to the Mourning Sigil.
Except this one was cracked.
And beneath it: a single word.
> "BELOW."
Kael rose, eyes narrowing.
Not a warning.
An instruction.
---
He descended through the ruins.
Underwater paths twisted like veins, leading deeper into submerged tunnels lit by flickering red glyphs. Echo-pressure climbed with every step, thick as smoke in his lungs.
Finally, he emerged in what once must've been a ceremonial chamber—now drowned in oceanic rot and Dream-sickness. Cracked statues loomed from the walls. At the center—
A raised altar.
And resting on it…
A shard.
Roughly the size of a heart. Shaped like obsidian glass, but alive—pulsing with light, humming with a song Kael couldn't quite hear, yet felt in his blood.
As he stepped closer, the Veil of Null sparked, warning him.
> Caution: Echo Signature Exceeds Safe Threshold
Origin: Mourning Sigil (Fragment – Type IV)
Resonance: Matched. Lineage Confirmed.
Status: Reacting to Subject Kael Voss.
Kael reached out—
And the shard pulsed.
---
The world fractured.
Again.
But not into memory.
This was something else.
A vision, violent and raw, slammed into Kael's senses.
He stood in a field of dying stars. All around him were echoes—millions of them, crying out in a language older than time. And before him, suspended in a cage of collapsing light—
Renna.
Bound. Hollow-eyed.
Reaching for him.
> "Why didn't you save me?"
Kael tried to speak, but his mouth was sewn shut by silence.
And behind Renna—
The Harvester stepped into view.
Wearing his face.
Then the shard screamed—
And Kael was thrown backward, crashing against the ruined wall.
---
> Sigil Shard Claimed.
New Trait Acquired: Echo Pulse – Fragment Resonance
Warning: Mental Stability Risk Elevated.
Status: Corruption Level—5%
---
Kael lay in the wreckage, blood trailing from his nose and ears.
But the shard was in his hand.
And something inside him had shifted.
The silence no longer felt like an absence.
It felt like a gateway.
---
Suddenly, the water around him rippled.
Not from waves.
From footsteps.
Kael rose quickly, senses flaring—
And saw a figure step from the shadows beyond the altar.
Tall. Black-cloaked. Armor etched in moving glyphs of bone and light.
Kael raised his blade—
But stopped cold when the man removed his helmet.
Eyes sharp. Tired. Familiar.
> "You've grown," the man said.
Kael's voice was hollow.
> "...Father."
---
Veyr Dallen.
Still alive.
Still marked.
And on his chest—
The completed Mourning Sigil, half-burned into his flesh.
Kael's voice cracked. "What are you?"
Veyr stepped closer, his tone unreadable.
"Not your enemy. Not your ally."
He extended a hand toward Kael.
"I'm what you will become… if you don't break the cycle."
Kael didn't take it.
Not yet.
---