Marcel didn't remember standing.
One moment he was collapsed on the cold obsidian, the next—he was walking. Not by will. By pull. Something deeper than instinct, stronger than reason.
The system's glow flickered faintly in the air around him, like dying embers clinging to a storm.
> [Vital Stabilizing…]
[Temporary Buff Granted: "Echo of the First" — Duration: 10 minutes]
Ahead, a staircase descended into black fog, carved not by hand but by force. As if something had been dragged through stone, not gently placed within it. Marcel descended without hesitation.
At the bottom was a chamber smaller than the first. No guardian. No traps. Just a single pedestal made of bone and iron, cracked down the middle.
Atop it floated a shard.
Dark. Irregular. About the size of a blade fragment, yet it pulsed with the weight of something buried in centuries of hate. Runes shifted across its surface—not carved, but moving under the skin like veins.
He stepped closer.
> [Artifact Detected: "Whispershard"]
[Caution: Cognitive Hazard. Prolonged contact may result in Madness.]
He reached out anyway.
The shard slammed into his palm.
A voice screamed into his mind—hoarse, layered, not human.
"We burned for them. We shattered for them. And they sealed us like beasts."
His knees buckled.
> [System Override Detected.]
[New Skill Acquired: "Echo Sense" — Grants awareness of hidden relics and blood-bound seals.]
The shard vanished—absorbed into him.
Not fully. Not cleanly.
It was still whispering.
In a trance, atop a cracked pedestal hovered the shard—jagged, blackened, humming like it remembered pain.
Marcel reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed it, the room changed.
The stone walls twisted—no longer ruins, but whole. Polished marble, veined with gold. Candles flickered along once-dead sconces. A hall of memory, pulled from a time before time.
And there—across the room—stood a woman cloaked in chains of glowing script. Her face was hidden behind a blindfold of runes. She raised a hand toward him, not in welcome. In warning.
"You are too late," she said, voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere. "They shattered me. Not for what I did—but for what I knew."
Flames rose around her.
Nine silhouettes stood atop a burning dais. Faceless. Watching.
"Even broken, I remember," she whispered. "I remember the truth the Nine buried in blood."
The vision snapped. The chamber shattered back to stone and shadow.
The shard embedded itself into his palm, burning like betrayal.
> [Skill Acquired: Echo Sense]
> [Warning: Residual Memory Instability Detected]
Marcel staggered, gripping the edge of the pedestal.
The system didn't explain what he'd seen.
But he understood enough.
This shard didn't just grant power.
It remembered.
> [System Prompt: Exit Point Revealed.]
The far wall cracked, revealing a narrow tunnel leading to daylight. Marcel limped forward, bleeding, exhausted—but different.
His body hadn't healed.
But his mind had sharpened.
He felt pulled now, as if a tether had been tied to his soul, dragging him toward something bigger. Toward answers. Toward war.
When he emerged into the ash-thick dusk, the first thing he saw wasn't the village.
It was smoke.
Rising from the direction of his home.
And beneath the system's cold glow, a new message appeared:
> [Warning: Threat Detected — Multiple Hostiles Approaching. Estimated Rank: B to A.]
> [Side Quest Triggered: "Defend What's Yours."]