(Arc 1: The Heaven's Cry)
— The Blood-Sealed Vault
The silence of the inner world was endless — vast enough to swallow sound, light, and thought.
Vaen sat upon the black stone at its center, eyes half-open, his reflection mirrored in the silver river winding through the void.
The world he had created inside the Seed had grown… strange. The trees bent toward him as if seeking warmth. The rivers curved to pass near his feet.
Even the air seemed to breathe with him — alive, waiting.
But within that stillness, a faint pulse echoed.
Thud.
Once. Then again, deeper — like a heartbeat beneath a mountain.
Vaen's gaze shifted.
The ground far to the east rippled as a line of crimson light split the soil, etching symbols he did not recognize — yet knew.
They were written in blood older than creation.
He rose, barefoot, robes whispering against the ground that trembled with each step. The familiars stirred — beasts of shadow, spirit, and mist — lowering their heads as he passed.
"Stay," he said softly.
They froze mid-motion. Even time seemed to obey.
When he reached the rift, the light flared. A whisper rose — neither voice nor sound, but the echo of a memory buried in his blood.
> The vault opens only when the child of the forgotten god breathes the world's name.
Vaen's eyes flickered. "The world's name?"
He didn't know it — yet his body did. Instinctively, he exhaled, and the breath that left his lips became a current of symbols — twisting runes that resonated through the space around him.
The crimson fissure widened. The land groaned.
From beneath, a structure began to rise — a colossal temple carved from obsidian and bone, its surface veined with living light.
The air grew heavy. The world itself bent toward that place, drawn like prey before a sleeping beast.
Vaen's pulse never changed. His face remained calm — serene in the way oceans hide storms.
He stepped inside.
The vault's gate recognized him. Blood on the carvings liquefied, spreading toward his feet as if greeting its master.
He descended the steps into the dark.
---
Inside, the vault was endless — a labyrinth of mirrors reflecting not the present, but memories of the past.
In one, he saw a man whose face resembled his own — standing before gods that trembled.
In another, the same man placed a seed of light within a woman's hands.
He stopped. The last mirror showed something that froze even his unshaken heart.
The gods kneeling before a shadow.
That shadow had his eyes.
> "The one before the beginning… we name thee Aen'varen," the gods whispered.
"Grant us the right to exist."
The mirrors shattered.
A voice, old and broken, filled the chamber — the remnant of his father's soul, sealed within the vault.
> "If you are hearing this… then the heavens have failed to kill you."
"Good."
A faint smile touched Vaen's lips. "Father."
> "You do not remember who you are — they erased it. They will try again."
"But there is one truth they cannot bury."
A heartbeat shook the vault.
The runes on the walls ignited, revealing a colossal sigil — a spiral of blood intertwined with the language of creation itself.
> "You are not their creation, Vaen."
"They are yours."
The air fractured. The vault began to collapse. The message burned itself into his mind before fading into silence.
Vaen stood amidst the falling debris, calm as the world broke around him.
He looked toward the shattered mirrors, the last of the light reflecting in his eyes.
"Not their creation…" he murmured.
"Then why did I give them life?"
The walls crumbled into dust. The bloodline seal dissolved into mist.
Above, the world seed trembled. The false sky cracked, revealing glimpses of the mortal realm beyond — a place he had never seen, yet felt intimately familiar with.
As he gazed upward, his reflection in the falling fragments of glass no longer showed a boy — but something older, colder.
A being who once named the stars.
He smiled faintly.
> "It seems… the world has begun to remember me."
And with that, the vault finally broke apart — releasing a surge of divine essence that tore open the path to the mortal realm.
Vaen stepped forward, his shadow swallowing the light.
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