Three days had passed since the Violet Dungeon collapsed over Sector 19.
The scars it left weren't just on the street.
They lingered in headlines. In dreams. In mana turbulence that hadn't yet stabilized. And in the heart of Kaela Noctira Valen — where the final flicker of her mother's voice still echoed like a prayer through hollow halls.
Arcvale Cathedral of Light — Inner Sanctum
Kaela sat beneath the stained glass of the Aetherine Spire, the circular chamber glowing with radiant mana. The city's premier purification ward had been built on a convergence line of light-aligned ley energy, sustained daily by a council of priest-mages.
Today, it was empty.
Except for Kaela.
She knelt, eyes closed, the crystal shard from the dungeon hovering before her like a dying star. Threads of radiant aether pulsed within it — and within her, the System buzzed like a distant choir.
[Unidentified Core Fragment Detected]
Origin: Seralyth of the Azure Veil (Status: Deceased)
Soul Link: 3% Imprint Syncing…
Result: Dormant Residual Echo | Unlock Conditions: ???
Kaela felt the bond pulling at her blood.
It wasn't just energy.
It was memory.
"Flame and sky."
"You are both."
"But one must die for the other to live."
"I don't understand," she whispered.
But her voice didn't reach the shard.
Because the shard was waiting for something else.
Silver Vow Guildhall — War Table Chamber
Elsewhere, Kai stood with arms folded beside his aunt Alya, overlooking the guild's tactical map — now marked with four new dungeon rifts appearing along Arcvale's outer limits.
One of them was moving.
"I've never seen a mobile gate signature," Alya muttered. "It's not dimensionally stable. Like it's riding something."
Kai's jaw flexed. "Or someone."
Alya tapped a glyph, cycling through reports.
[Class: Indeterminate | Movement Detected | Affinity: Hybrid Core — Lightning/Void]
Estimated Level Range: ???
Classification Proposed: Wild-Type Gate
Exploration Authority: Pending
"Explorer Command is dragging its feet again," Alya said bitterly. "And the guilds won't act until someone official gives a thumbs up."
Kai turned. "Then we act."
"You and your sister just survived a Ghost dungeon. You're not cleared for deployment."
Kai's voice went cold. "That thing… had our mother's echo in it."
"And?"
"And that means it wasn't random. Something's moving against us. This isn't a natural cycle. The System's guiding us. And someone out there is guiding it."
Alya studied him for a long moment. Then, without a word, tapped a sigil that opened her private arsenal.
Inside: weapons older than the Fall of Veyndral. Armors blessed by pre-fracture deities. And at the back — a pair of chained tomes sealed with duskmetal clasps.
She handed one to Kai.
It pulsed red.
[System Permission Granted: Unlock Path — Draconic Heritage: Sovereign Initiate Tier]
Skill Added: Blood Weaponization (Locked)
Skill Tree Unlocked: Master of All Weapons (Level 1 — Dormant)
His fingers curled around the tome.
And his blood boiled with ancestral hunger.
Character Growth
Name: Kai Noctis Valen
Lineage: Half-Dragon (White Flame) / Half-Deity (Bound Class)
New Traits Unlocked:
[Passive] Adaptive Weapon Memory: Gain proficiency in any wielded weapon after 3 combat interactions.
[Passive] Instinctual Parry: Automatically react to unknown melee patterns.
[Active - Locked] Sovereign Dragon Form (Stage 1): Transforms user for 7 minutes, increasing all stats by 250% and granting elemental dragonflight.
Name: Kaela Noctira Valen
Lineage: Half-Dragon / Half-Deity
Class: Radiant Arcanist (Aether-Ascended)
New Traits Unlocked:
[Passive] Aetherial Memory Sync: Automatically access fragments of ancestor's skill trees.
[Passive] Mana Displacement Immunity: Immune to most mana-disruption fields (except Void).
[Active - Locked] Deific Veil Form (Stage 1): Manifest divine lightform, cleansing shadow-based enemies and bolstering allies.
The Mythical Prophecy UnsealedThat same hour, in the Vault of Archives, Mira and Rei stood before the Mythical Realm Scroll — long sealed by both Dragonblood and Deity Crest. It had begun glowing on its own.
Rei muttered, "This isn't normal."
Mira traced the glowing lines.
The prophecy began to reveal itself.
"When the Flame-Blooded Stars fall from the Myth Veil,
When the Warden of Chains weeps beneath the Worldroot,
When the twin-born of draconic blood and divine spark awaken without crown—
Then shall the Gates scream open. And the dungeons will bleed into sky."
"Only two shall rewrite the System.
Only one shall survive it."
Rei whispered, "That last line—"
"—is why they want the twins dead," Mira finished. Her hand trembled slightly.
And the scroll disintegrated into white ash.
The AssaultJust past midnight, the roaming rift reached the outer slums.
It cracked open above the Sunreach District, where refugee camps and mana-irradiated soil met concrete shelters and half-buried tech.
Out of the gate surged twisted Storm Revenants — humanoid wraiths covered in lightning tendrils, faces screaming static, eyes black with void mana.
The district's defense wards collapsed in minutes.
Government guilds refused to act.
Explorer Command stalled.
But Silver Vow moved.
Kai descended like a storm.
Weaponless.
Until he landed in the middle of a revenant swarm — and the System reacted.
[Weapon Conjuration: Blood-Imprinted Class]
Summoning: Titan Fang Spear — Style: Skyborn Tribes | Attribute: Wind/Steel]
A crimson-bladed spear manifested in his hand.
He spun — a blur of dragon force and bladed fury.
His mastery adapted mid-combat — and with each kill, the spear shifted shape.
Halberd. Saber. Twin swords. Bow.
He was becoming Master of All Weapons.
Kaela arrived moments later — descending on wings of radiant glyphs.
She raised her hand.
Skill Activated: Veil of the Dawnmother
The spell erased a hundred revenants in a burst of divine flare that cracked the air open with heatless light.
She wept.
And from the light, a figure emerged.
Her mother — not alive.
But watching.
The Final BreakpointThe rift overhead pulsed one last time — and out stepped something not listed in any codex.
A man-shaped figure, robed in voidsteel, crowned in broken time.
His presence stilled the sky.
A Deity-Class Intrusion.
Not just any god.
But one who shouldn't have escaped the Vault.
Name: The Revenant of Aevalon
Title: Former God of Memory | Current Status: Exiled / Corrupted
Threat Tier: S+ | Dimensional Sanction: Breach-Level Violation
Objective: Terminate All Lineage-Split Offspring
Targets: Kai Noctis | Kaela Noctira
He spoke once.
"You should not have been born."
Kaela raised her staff.
Kai stood beside her, conjuring a greatsword now pulsing with white fire.
Their eyes met.
No fear.
Just certainty.
The war for their blood had truly begun.
End of Chapter 4