Lucien stood at the threshold of the new chamber. The world behind him, the sealed sanctuary, the fractured sky, the Phoenix's remnants felt like the surface of a dream slowly being swallowed by something deeper, darker, and ancient.
Before him lay the descent.
Winding stairs carved into obsidian led down into the Echo Vault. The path was lit not by flame, but by flickering glyphs pulsing against the stone walls, each one a piece of a language he didn't recognize… and yet understood.
Behind him, Hana touched the edge of the doorway. Her fingertips trembled against the stone as if it might burn her or pull her in.
"I've seen this place before," she whispered.
Lucien turned. "In a dream?"
"In all of them."
She looked at him. Not as Hana, not even as No-eul, but as someone older. Someone who had walked this path too many times.
Seonwu nodded gravely from behind them. "The Vault was never meant to be opened. Not in this life. But it seems the thread of fate has other plans."
Ae-rin drew her coat tight, the dagger still sheathed at her side. "We go together. There's no turning back now."
Lucien glanced once more at Hana. "Stay behind me."
She didn't argue. She just reached for his hand.
The four of them descended, step by step, into the forgotten layer of reality, where the Echo slept.
Or waited.
Below – The Chamber of Memory
As they reached the final stair, the space opened into a vast underground cathedral of sorts, stone pillars stretched into shadows, and a massive circular altar stood at the center.
Lucien stepped forward.
On the altar, etched in bloodstone, were the same glyphs he saw in his mind the day he first touched the Oracle blade. But these weren't memories.
They were prophecies.
One stood out.
When the soul that chose love over eternity returns to the gate of the beginning, the first betrayal shall awaken. He who bore the mark will become its vessel. And she who sealed time will have to choose again.
Lucien's blood ran cold. "This prophecy…"
"It's about us," Hana said softly, eyes scanning the same glyphs.
Seonwu circled the altar, staring at the stone slab. "I don't think this is where the Echo sleeps."
Lucien raised a brow. "Then what is it?"
Ae-rin inhaled sharply. "This… is a map."
The glyphs on the walls and pillars flared with light as if on cue. The room shimmered, and the altar unfolded like a blooming flower. A dome of memory, like a living vision, formed above them.
They saw glimpses of the past.
A field of white blossoms.
A child born beneath a blood moon.
A man holding a baby wrapped in silks.
No-eul Hana whispering a name.
"Yul."
The child.
Their child.
Lucien fell to one knee as the memory gripped him. It wasn't just sight. He felt it. The weight of the infant in his arms. The heat of battle on the wind. The warmth of No-eul's tear-streaked face.
And then the sound of betrayal.
Swords clashing.
The crack of magic.
A scream.
Lucien turned away from the vision. His chest heaved. "We… lost him."
Seonwu lowered his head. "No. You gave him up. To protect him. To protect the world."
Ae-rin added, "But that protection broke when someone tampered with the Seal of the First."
Lucien stood slowly. "Yul's soul wasn't just lost. It was taken."
"And now it's trying to find its way back," Hana whispered, horror dawning in her eyes.
"Or trying to bring you back to it," Seonwu corrected.
Lucien clenched his fists. "We need to find where Yul's soul is being held. Before the Echo fully possesses it."
Ae-rin stepped to the edge of the vision dome. "There's something else here."
She placed her hand on a second symbol an ouroboros encircling a teardrop.
With a pulse of light, another image appeared.
A fortress. Floating above the sea. A place untouched by time.
Lucien narrowed his eyes. "That's…"
"Where the final seal is," Ae-rin confirmed.
Seonwu's jaw tightened. "The Fortress of Relics."
Hana looked between them. "Then that's where we go."
Lucien nodded. "But we're not walking into that place unarmed. The Oracle Blade was one weapon. We need more."
Ae-rin moved to the side wall, pressing into a hidden panel. The stone ground shifted, revealing a vault of ancient artifacts some shattered, others humming with residual energy.
She pointed toward one in particular.
A black mirror, covered in chains.
"The Mirror of Silence," she said. "Forged in the last days of the Celestial War. It reflects not what you see… but what your soul hides."
Lucien approached it cautiously. "What good does that do us?"
"It will reveal your greatest weakness… and your deepest link to the Echo," she replied.
Seonwu crossed his arms. "And if you're not ready for it… it'll destroy you."
Hana stepped beside Lucien. "Then I go first."
Lucien reached to stop her, but she was already standing before it.
The mirror unchained itself.
And her reflection No-eul stepped forward.
But there was something wrong with it.
The eyes weren't hers.
They were Yul's.
And they were crying.
Lucien grabbed her arm. "Hana, step back!"
But the mirror pulsed, wrapping both of them in a sphere of shadow.
Inside the Mirror Realm
Lucien turned, finding himself in a field of white blossoms once again.
The scent. The wind. The warmth. It was the moment before everything had fallen apart.
And standing ahead of them was Yul.
Still a child. Still innocent.
But behind his eyes, a silver flame.
"Papa?" he asked, tilting his head.
Lucien took a step forward. "Yul?"
The boy smiled. "Why didn't you save me?"
Lucien's voice caught. "I tried. We tried."
"You left me," Yul said, his voice now echoing, layered with something older, something monstrous. "You sealed me. In a prison made of love and memory."
Hana reached out. "We had no choice. You would've been consumed..."
"I was consumed," the boy snarled, his face distorting briefly into the shape of the Echo. "And now I'm hungry."
Suddenly, the vision cracked.
Lucien and Hana were flung backward.
And the mirror shattered
Back in the Vault
Lucien gasped, slamming into the altar floor.
Hana was next to him, her hands shaking.
Ae-rin rushed forward. "What did you see?"
Lucien didn't speak for a long moment.
Then, finally, he whispered:
"The Echo's not coming…"
He looked at Hana.
"It's already here."