The basin had stretched downward into silence, until at last Revyn stood before the Black Lake.
It didn't even seem like it was water.
The surface writhed like a mirror of oil, reflecting the bones of trees that no longer stood and the fractured sky above. The air smelled of rust and ash, every breath carrying the weight of centuries of decay. No ripple stirred the lake, not until Revyn stepped closer.
At its very center burned a flame.
So small and so very fragile. Yet it was brighter than the void that threatened to smother it out.
It pulsed faintly with every heartbeat he took, as if responding to him alone. The Pale Flame.
{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}
[SYSTEM ALERT – UNDEFINED ENTITY DETECTED]
[Designation: PALE FLAME][Classification: Primordial Memory]
[Warning: Interaction may alter host state permanently.]
Revyn's breath hitched. His red eye reflected the distant glow, burning like a shard of forgotten sunlight. Every fiber of him whispered one thing.
'Take it. Make it your own.'
But the lake stood between him and the fire, its surface whispering with voices that promised to devour any who touched it.
"Figures…" Revyn muttered. His grip tightened on the Godcleaver. "Nothing's ever simple."
He tested the edge with his blade. The ichor surface hissed, trying to climb the metal. He yanked the weapon back, cursing under his breath.
That's when he saw it — half-buried in the mud, beside a broken shrine. A container. Black iron wrapped around silver etchings, shaped like a lantern but built to hold something deeper, alive. Its clasp was engraved with runes of protection long since worn but not erased.
Revyn knelt, prying it free.
{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}
[ITEM OBTAINED – FLAME RELIQUARY]
[Function: Capable of binding a Pale Flame fragment.]
[Slot Available: Waist.]
"Guess you're mine, then." He fastened it to his belt. The reliquary pulsed faintly, as if aware of what it was meant to hold.
The lake stirred as if reacting to his very presence.
Revyn's Hollow Tendons stretched unnaturally, pulling him across broken stones that jutted like teeth from the shore. The ichor lapped hungrily at his boots, but the Godcleaver flared faintly, keeping the black tide at bay.
He reached the center of the Black Lake.
The flame hovered above the ichor, untouched, eternal.
Revyn raised the reliquary to the Pale Flame.
The Pale Flame bent suddenly toward him, almost willingly. Its light brushed against his skin, searing without pain. For an instant, he saw everything burn — cities, towers, gods themselves collapsing into ash. Then it flowed into the reliquary, sealing itself behind its etched walls.
The clasp locked with a hollow chime.
{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}
[ITEM UPDATED – FLAME RELIQUARY: BOUND]
[Contained Entity: PALE FLAME (Fragment)]
[Status: Dormant]
The reliquary throbbed faintly at his waist, warmth radiating through his ribs. For the first time since this nightmare began, the air around him felt less suffocating.
Then the visions came.
"Arrgghh!" Revyn screamed in pain as images flooded his head.
His red eye burned.
The world had tore open before his very eyes. He closed his eyes in fear and uncertainty.
Suddenly all the pain had stopped. All Revyn heard was pure silence, not the water from the Black lake, Not the chains rattling from the pursuer tailing him, Not the monsters that were hiding and waiting to strike, all he heard was just...Nothing. Confused, Revyn slowly opened his eyes and he was shocked to his very core.
He stood in a room of whitewashed stone, candles burning low. An academy infirmary. Medical instruments scattered on a table. A single window that let in pale moonlight.
And two figures leaned over a bed.
Revyns eyes widened as he saw who it was on the bed. The body on it was his body. laid completely still. Breath slightly faint.
'How is this possible?!' Revyn thought.
He saw two people standing over his body doing a checkup.
The first was a girl with auburn hair bound in a braid, her uniform marked by embroidered sigils of study. Her expression was sharp, analytical, every gesture precise as if she measured the world in exact strokes. Kayla Thorne.
The second stood opposite her, adjusting a vial of glowing fluid with care. She was tall, regal despite her simple clothes, her silver-gold hair catching the candlelight. Her eyes which violet, fierce, unyielding — held an authority that made the air around her heavy. Seris blume.
'Wait a minute, How do i even know these names?, I've never met these people before. Unless...I somehow knew them before i ended up here in this strange but godforsaken place these creatures or monsters call home.'
They weren't looking at each other. Their focus was on him.
Revyn's flame-lit vision trembled. Kaela's lips moved.
"…his pulse isn't steady. Not like any patient I've seen."
Seris placed a hand on the bedframe, her gaze tightening. "…And yet he's alive. He will wake. I know it."
Revyn staggered. The lake's darkness surged around him.
The vision suddenly shattered.
He collapsed to the broken stone, gasping. His eye throbbed, blood trickling from its corner.
The reliquary pulsed, as if satisfied.
{Ding!}{Ding!}
[SYSTEM NOTICE: VEILWALKER PROGRESSION – 27%]
[Warning: Visions may destabilize sanity.]
Revyn wiped the blood from his cheek. His lips twisted into a grim smile.
"So… I'm not as alone as I thought."
Above, chains rattled faintly. The Pursuer had not moved. Still watching.
Revyn rose, fastening the reliquary more firmly to his belt. The Pale Flame whispered inside, warm against his side, promising both salvation and ruin.
The Black Lake rippled behind him as he turned toward the spiral path downward.