The words hadn't left his mouth before the corpse vault began to tremble.
Not with collapse—this place was built to last.
But with awakening.
"Warning," the Revenant System chimed coolly in his skull.
"Dead zone breached. Ambient souls stirring. Graveborn anomaly detected."
Leonis's fingers twitched around the bone shard still slick with blood.
"Define 'Graveborn anomaly.'"
"Another survivor. Not you."
That was all the warning he got.
A body launched itself from the pile to his left—gaunt, fast, snarling. A pale face wrapped in broken chain and black tattoos lunged at his throat, teeth bared. Leonis twisted, slammed an elbow into its chest, and rolled over a shattered ribcage. He hit the ground hard and came up faster.
The thing was already circling him.
No—not a thing.
A man.
Skin like smoke, muscles lean and starving, but eyes… intelligent. Watching.
Not just rage. Recognition.
Leonis squinted through the gloom.
"…Kael Draythorn?"
The figure paused.
His voice was cracked glass over gravel. "Didn't think you'd remember me, Your Highness."
Leonis took a step back. "I remember the last time you tried to stab me. Ballroom. You wore priest robes and poison rings."
Kael chuckled, a rasping sound. "And you threw me through a stained-glass window. Fair trade."
His arms were still chained at the wrist—magic restraints etched with null runes—but the man moved like they were ribbons. Wild, broken, dangerous.
"Why are you down here?" Leonis asked.
Kael tilted his head. "Same as you, I reckon. Empire found it easier to throw me away than bury me deep."
"You're alive."
"I noticed."
A pause. Neither moved.
Then Kael said, "You're different."
Leonis said nothing.
Kael's eyes flicked over him—skin slightly gray, runes barely visible beneath the flesh, blood smeared like warpaint. "You're not breathing."
Leonis's knuckles clenched. "I don't need to."
Kael's lips curled. "Ah."
"Soul resonance detected," whispered the System. "Target compatible for pact or consumption."
"Choose: Absorb / Bind / Ignore"
Leonis hesitated.
Absorb would make him stronger. More skills. Another life added to his own.
Bind… was riskier.
"Explain Bind," he murmured aloud.
"Pact binds Revenant to a Soul-Shard Thrall. Thrall obeys, lives, and feeds power to master."
"But they keep their mind," Leonis realized.
"Correct. Loyalty must be earned."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking to the corpse, or to me?"
Leonis took a breath—habit, not need. Then, slowly, he approached.
"You tried to kill me. And failed."
Kael's grin widened. "You've got good memory for a dead man."
"I could drain your soul. Take your skills. Your life."
"You could."
Leonis crouched in front of him. His eyes were steady.
"…Or I could bind you."
Kael's grin faltered. "You serious?"
"I need a killer who hates the empire more than he hates me."
Kael's smile returned. Slower. Sharper.
"You want me to swear to a half-dead prince with ghost-light in his eyes?"
"I want you to choose your revenge."
Silence.
Then Kael extended his chained arms.
Leonis pressed his hand to Kael's chest.
"Pact Initiated."
"Soul-Shard Bond Established."
"Kael Draythorn: Bound Revenant Thrall. Loyalty: unstable. Potential: high."
Kael inhaled sharply as energy surged between them.
His chains shattered with a snap of blue fire. His veins glowed briefly—then darkened.
He stumbled, caught himself, and blinked like a man waking from a dream.
"…You really are dead," he said.
"I'm worse," Leonis replied.
They didn't have time for more.
Above them, torchlight flared through the grate. Voices again.
"—Guards are missing."
"Seal the vault. No one gets in or out."
"Burn it all if you have to."
Leonis turned to Kael. "You know another way out?"
Kael cracked his neck. "If I did, I'd have used it years ago."
Leonis narrowed his eyes.
Then the walls whispered.
He could hear it—not sound, exactly. More like pressure. The pulse of power, like breath behind stone.
The Revenant System spoke again:
"A hidden path lies beneath. A crypt once sealed by divine blood. Your blood."
Leonis blinked.
He followed the pressure—down, not up. Past a crumbling section of bones. Behind a mound of royal corpses. There, buried under loose stone, was a gold-etched slab marked with the Virelain crest.
He pressed his hand to it.
His blood—still cooling—soaked into the runes.
The stone trembled. Shifted. Sank.
A passage yawned open—narrow, spiraling, filled with whispers and cold.
Leonis looked back once at Kael. "Coming?"
Kael grinned, blood in his teeth. "Wouldn't miss it."
They stepped into the dark together.
Behind them, the vault roared with fire.
Ahead of them, the revenant path opened.