The moment I passed through the obsidian archway, the world didn't just change—it reconstructed itself. The trees behind me faded like smudges on a painting, replaced by looming statues with cracked faces and broken crowns. A chill air, thick with a scent like burnt parchment and rain-soaked stone, pressed in from every direction.
Memory Fragment Detected – 1/7, the system had said.
And now, with every step I took, I could feel something tugging at my mind. Faint impressions. Sounds. Echoes. Not quite memories, but whispers of them.
Ahead, a long corridor of pillars stretched out, each one depicting scenes I couldn't fully understand. Armored warriors kneeling before a cloaked figure. A crowned man atop a throne forged from bone and crystal. A child holding a blade far too large for him. It all felt... wrong. Familiar, but twisted.
I ran my fingers across one of the carvings. The stone pulsed faintly.
A voice—low and feminine—slipped into my mind.
"You were born not to lead, but to destroy the chains of those who do."
I flinched back. "That's... not ominous at all."
The corridor ended at a great circular platform suspended over nothingness. The floor was a mosaic, shattered in places, but still showing pieces of an ancient battle—one where I seemed to be at the center.
A familiar chime sounded:
[Trial Initiated: The Forgotten Throne]
Objective: Reclaim what you once lost. But beware—some memories are better left buried.]
Great. Another puzzle with cryptic warnings. I stepped forward.
The platform trembled.
From the darkness around me, seven doors emerged—tall, made of black iron and glowing faintly blue. Each one bore a sigil. One had a serpent devouring its tail. Another, a rose wreathed in flame. The third bore a broken crown.
One by one, the doors pulsed—alive.
I walked to the one with the crown. As I reached for the handle, a force surged through me. Not painful, just… heavy.
Suddenly I was somewhere else.
---
A memory. Or a dream. Or both.
I stood in a throne room bathed in twilight. Soldiers lined the walls—my soldiers. I could feel the weight of the crown on my head. Feel the hilt of a blade—my blade—at my side.
Before me knelt a man with silver eyes. "I failed you, Your Majesty. The breach could not be contained."
I opened my mouth to speak—but no words came. The memory collapsed in on itself.
---
I staggered back as the vision ended. My hand clutched my chest like I'd been stabbed.
[Memory Fragment Recovered – 2/7]
I sat down on the edge of the platform, breathing hard.
So… I was a king? And someone betrayed me? Or… I let them fall?
Whatever happened back then, the weight of it still sat heavy on my soul.
"You look like a guy who just remembered he left the stove on in a different lifetime," a voice called.
I turned sharply.
A hooded figure stood just beyond the platform, but not like the others. This one was short. And slouching. And holding what looked like a glowing chicken.
"What… are you?" I asked.
"I'm the caretaker of this place. Kinda like your tour guide. Except instead of a nice brochure, you get cryptic trauma and vague flashbacks."
"Helpful."
"Hey, don't knock it. Most people would kill to be part of a king's journey of redemption. You, though… you just look lost."
"Because I am."
He chuckled. The chicken glowed brighter.
"You've still got five fragments left. They'll be in the other doors. Each one will give you more of who you were. But remember… memory doesn't always mean truth."
Before I could ask anything else, he vanished.
---
I chose the second door: the one with the rose wreathed in flame.
Inside, I was hit with a wave of heat and sorrow. A burning village. Screams. A woman—someone I knew—reaching for me as the flames swallowed her.
I couldn't move. I couldn't save her.
[Memory Fragment Recovered – 3/7]
More pain. More guilt.
The third door was the serpent.
This memory was quiet. Just two voices—mine, and another's. A pact made in desperation. Power for loyalty. The serpent's eye blinked as it coiled around my arm.
[Memory Fragment Recovered – 4/7]
I pulled back, shivering.
---
Hours passed. Or maybe days. Time didn't work right here.
By the sixth door, my head throbbed with broken truths and the image of a younger me standing above a battlefield, crying while everyone below me cheered.
[Memory Fragment Recovered – 6/7]
I stumbled to the final door. The last piece.
It opened into a mirror.
There I stood. Rael. No crown. No blade. Just me.
And the reflection whispered:
"To reclaim your throne, you must forgive the boy who lost it."
A tear slipped down my cheek.
I touched the mirror.
[Memory Fragment Recovered – 7/7]
[Quest Completed: Prove Your Worth]
Reward Unlocked: Class Awakening – Sovereign of the Fractured Realm]
[Chapter end]
What powers come with the Sovereign class? Who is the one Rael made a pact with? And what will the hooded figures say now that he has remembered everything?
Next chapter: The Sovereign's Wrath!