The forest was unnaturally silent.
No wind. No leaves rustling. No distant howl of beasts.
Just the quiet buzz of Erik's thoughts.
He stood under a canopy of violet sky and blackwood trees, their bark shimmering faintly like starlight. The soil was soft, warm even, like it remembered footsteps long vanished. Veyrion remained sheathed on his back, heavy but calm—almost contemplative.
He walked slowly, hand brushing against trunks that pulsed faintly at his touch, as if the forest itself recognized him.
"This place… isn't normal," he muttered.
The soul inside stirred for the first time since the Archive collapse.
No. You've stepped into a realm of echo.
"What does that mean?"
The trees here are made of forgotten possibilities. Abandoned timelines. Thoughts that were never finished.
"Then why am I here?"
Because they put you here.
He stopped.
"You mean the Architects?"
No. Not them. Something older.
Erik narrowed his eyes. "Older than the beings who created gods?"
Even they didn't create everything.
He didn't have time to question further.
Because the forest shifted.
One moment, trees stretched for miles.
The next, they opened into a clearing… and a figure stood in the center.
A child.
No older than ten.
Barefoot. Hair silver-white. Eyes entirely black.
They stared at Erik like they'd known him forever.
"You're the Key," the child said.
Erik hesitated. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Lock."
And before Erik could ask anything else, the child raised one hand—
The entire clearing collapsed inward.
Not physically.
Reality itself folded, twisted, melted into something far more fluid.
Erik now stood on a battlefield made of glass. Sky swirling above in spiral shapes. Lightning struck sideways. Time ticked backward for a few seconds.
The child floated ahead of him, unchanged.
"You were never supposed to come back," the Lock whispered.
"What does that mean?"
"You weren't meant to remember. You weren't meant to reach the Archive. You weren't meant to unlock the third glyph."
Erik stepped forward, trying to steady himself as the very ground under him shifted into water, then sand, then air.
"Then why am I here?"
"Because something chose you," the Lock said.
"Veyrion?"
"No."The child pointed to Erik's chest."You."
He looked down.
And for the first time, saw a fourth glyph.
Dim. Faint. Etched into his chest.
"I never activated a fourth," Erik whispered.
"You didn't need to," the Lock said. "It was always waiting. Buried beneath the rest. This glyph doesn't unlock power. It unlocks access."
The child walked toward him—eyes blank, but voice full of ancient weight.
"Every world has a heart. A source. A place that keeps reality stitched together. In your realm, it's buried under time. Hidden behind stories. Guarded by those who fear what lies beneath."
Erik clenched his fists. "The Architects."
"No. They fear it too. Because it doesn't follow their rules. It existed before rules. Before gods. Before anything."
Erik stared at the child.
"You're telling me… I can unlock that place?"
"You already have," the Lock said.
"You are the path to it."
Thunder cracked sideways again.
The battlefield turned red.
Erik felt the ground rumble—not from below, but from inside himself.
The fourth glyph began to glow brighter.
And suddenly—
He remembered.
A gate of bone.A sky of ink.A blade stabbed into the heart of a dying world.
Not just a past life.
A sealed life.
A choice made by a previous self… to bury a piece of something no one should ever find.
And now—
He was standing at the edge of that secret once again.
The child placed a hand on Erik's.
"You can still walk away," the Lock said. "Live as Erik. Forget. Fight your little wars. Love. Die. Repeat."
Erik stared at the fourth glyph now shining across his chest.
"And if I don't?"
The child's face darkened.
"Then you open the Vault. The place where fate goes to die. The place even the First Seer swore never to return to."
Erik looked around.
Time slowing again.
Reality growing thinner.
Everything… waiting for him.
For a decision.
"Why now?" he asked. "Why not before?"
The Lock smiled.
"Because you're finally ready to ask the right question."
Erik exhaled.
"I'm tired of forgetting. Tired of running. I want to know what I am. Who I was. Why I'm being hunted."
He extended his hand.
"I'm ready."
The child nodded once—and their body dissolved into light.
Not death.
Release.
Chains shattered across the false sky. The fourth glyph exploded in fire.
And in the distance, far beyond the stars—
A door began to open.
One that hadn't moved in eons.
Veyrion vibrated with dread.
The soul inside Erik whispered—
What you're doing… even I can't follow.
And Erik, heart steady, mind burning with questions he couldn't un-ask, whispered back:
"Then it's time I go somewhere even the gods fear."
He stepped forward.
Toward the Vault.