The bell rang again.
Dong...
Its sound crossed mountains.
Forests.
Ruined roads.
Abandoned battlefields.
It passed through the night like the echo of an age that had refused to remain buried.
Kael stood completely still.
He had heard many impossible things during his journey.
The voice of the World Tree.
The whispers of forgotten civilizations.
The heartbeat of a life that had never existed before.
But this bell...
He knew it.
Not personally.
From history.
Lyra knew it too.
Her face had lost all color.
"...The Bell of Asterion."
Aren looked at her.
"You recognize it?"
Lyra nodded slowly.
"Asterion was the capital of the First Human Empire."
Selene's book trembled in her hands.
Kael looked toward her.
"Three thousand years ago?"
"Three thousand, one hundred and seventy-two."
Selene barely managed to speak.
"Asterion disappeared during the Night of Empty Stars."
Kael frowned.
"Disappeared?"
"Not destroyed."
Lyra answered this time.
"No ruins were ever found."
"No bodies."
"No weapons."
"No roads leading to where the city had stood."
"One night..."
She looked toward the distant horizon.
"...more than a million people simply vanished."
The bell rang again.
Dong...
The heartbeat beside Kael dimmed.
"...They're sad."
Kael looked at the tiny light.
"The people?"
"...Yes."
A pause.
"...But they don't know they're sad."
That answer was worse.
Aren drew his sword.
"How far?"
Lyra closed her eyes.
Mana spread outward.
Not wildly.
Precisely.
Invisible currents crossed forests, mountains, rivers, and settlements.
Her expression hardened.
"About four hundred kilometers northeast."
Kael stared.
"You can sense that far now?"
Lyra opened one eye.
"Focus."
"Right."
Selene's pages began turning again.
Names appeared.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands.
Hundreds of thousands.
Each name lasted only a moment before another replaced it.
Mothers.
Soldiers.
Merchants.
Children.
Priests.
Criminals.
Farmers.
Nobles.
Ordinary people.
An entire city.
An entire civilization.
Returning all at once.
Selene's breathing became increasingly unsteady.
Aren noticed immediately.
"Close the book."
"I can't."
"Selene."
"They're being written."
Her hands trembled.
"I've never seen this many names appear at once."
Kael stepped closer.
"What is the book telling you?"
Selene swallowed.
"They're dead."
"We know that."
"No."
She looked at him.
"I mean truly dead."
"These aren't people whose souls are trapped."
"They aren't undead."
"They aren't resurrected."
"Then what are they?"
Selene looked toward the distant darkness.
"...Memories."
Silence.
Kael's expression changed.
The World Tree preserved memories.
The First Garden preserved memories.
Selene herself could manifest memories.
But none of those memories believed themselves to be alive.
"What happens if a memory..."
Kael slowly asked,
"...doesn't know it's a memory?"
No one answered.
The bell rang for the fourth time.
Dong...
Then the screaming began.
Not nearby.
Through Selene's book.
Hundreds of voices erupted from its pages.
"WHERE ARE WE?"
"THE SKY!"
"WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SKY?"
"FIND THE EMPEROR!"
"THE SOUTHERN GATE IS GONE!"
"WHERE ARE THE LEGIONS?"
"MOTHER!"
"WHERE IS MY MOTHER?!"
Selene nearly dropped the book.
She slammed it shut.
Silence returned.
Her breathing was ragged.
Aren placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You alright?"
"...No."
"Good."
Selene stared at him.
"What?"
"If you'd said yes after hearing that, I'd be worried."
Despite everything...
She laughed once.
Weakly.
But it helped.
Kael looked toward the horizon.
"We're going."
Aren immediately nodded.
"Obviously."
Lyra raised her staff.
"I can take us."
Selene tightened her grip around the book.
"I'm coming."
Kael looked at her.
"You don't have to."
"Those people are memories."
She met his eyes.
"That makes them my responsibility."
Kael smiled.
"Then let's go."
The heartbeat floated between them.
"...Me too."
Kael hesitated.
"You don't know what we're walking into."
"...Neither do you."
Aren laughed.
"It got you there."
Kael sighed.
"Fine."
The tiny light brightened.
"...Adventure."
"Still not calling it that."
...
Lyra raised one hand.
The air folded.
Kael expected a teleportation circle.
None appeared.
Space simply...
Opened.
Like a curtain being pulled aside.
Beyond it stood a dark forest.
And above the trees...
A distant golden glow illuminated the horizon.
Kael stared at Lyra.
"You can just do that now?"
She stepped through.
"Yes."
Aren followed.
"Don't praise her."
"Why?"
"She'll become unbearable."
"I can hear you."
"I know."
Kael smiled and stepped through.
Selene followed.
The passage closed behind them.
Immediately...
Kael felt it.
Something was wrong.
The forest was silent.
No insects.
No birds.
No animals.
The trees themselves leaned away from the distant light.
The heartbeat moved closer to Kael.
"...I don't like this place."
Neither did he.
Aren crouched beside the road.
"Tracks."
Kael joined him.
Hundreds of footprints covered the mud.
Bare feet.
Boots.
Sandals.
Some belonged to adults.
Others...
Children.
All pointed in the same direction.
Southwest.
Kael frowned.
"They left the city."
Selene opened her book carefully.
"They're still leaving."
"Where are they going?"
She looked at the final sentence.
THEY ARE WALKING HOME.
Aren's expression darkened.
"This was their home."
"No."
Kael slowly stood.
"It was."
Everyone looked at him.
Kael stared at the footprints.
"Three thousand years ago."
"If they're memories..."
"...maybe they're trying to return to places they remember."
Lyra immediately understood.
"Villages."
"Families."
"Military outposts."
"Temples."
Selene's face paled.
"Most of those places don't exist anymore."
Kael looked toward the tracks.
"Then they'll keep walking."
...
They moved through the forest.
As they approached the golden glow, the road changed.
Modern stone disappeared.
Ancient white paving emerged beneath their feet.
Statues appeared between the trees.
Weathered?
No.
Perfect.
As though carved yesterday.
Then the forest ended.
Kael stopped.
No one spoke.
Before them stood Asterion.
The First City.
Its walls stretched farther than Kael could see.
Seven enormous towers rose into the night.
Golden bridges connected them hundreds of meters above the ground.
Thousands of windows glowed with warm light.
Banners moved in the wind.
Ancient symbols decorated white marble gates.
The city wasn't ruined.
It was alive.
People filled the streets.
Merchants shouted.
Carriages moved.
Soldiers guarded intersections.
Children ran between buildings.
Kael could smell bread.
Smoke.
Flowers.
Food.
He could hear music from somewhere beyond the walls.
It looked...
Normal.
The heartbeat whispered,
"...They don't know."
Aren tightened his grip on his sword.
Kael understood.
More than a million dead people were continuing the ordinary evening they had begun three thousand years ago.
A city trapped inside its final memory.
Then a soldier noticed them.
"Halt!"
Several guards approached.
Their armor was unlike anything modern armies used.
Bronze and white steel.
Sun symbols decorated their shields.
The leading soldier pointed his spear.
"Identify yourselves."
Kael glanced at Selene.
Her face was pale.
She could see something they couldn't.
"What?"
Kael whispered.
Selene stared at the soldier.
"His name is Marcus Tal."
The soldier's eyes widened.
"How do you know my name?"
Selene's book opened by itself.
Words appeared.
MARCUS TAL.
CITY GUARD.
AGE: 31.
FATHER OF TWO.
DECEASED 3,172 YEARS AGO.
Selene quickly closed the book.
Too late.
Marcus had seen it.
His face changed.
"...What does that mean?"
No one answered.
He stepped closer.
"What does deceased mean?"
Kael felt his stomach tighten.
Marcus looked genuinely confused.
Then afraid.
"My daughters are waiting for me."
He pointed toward the city.
"I'm finishing my shift in an hour."
His voice became defensive.
"My wife made stew."
Kael couldn't speak.
Marcus looked toward the sky.
Then froze.
His spear slipped slightly.
"...Where..."
He stared upward.
"...Where is the Crown Star?"
Lyra's eyes widened.
The constellation Marcus remembered had shifted thousands of years ago.
The soldier stepped backward.
"No."
Other guards began looking upward.
Confusion spread.
"The stars are wrong."
"What happened?"
"Captain?"
"Why are the stars wrong?"
Kael immediately raised his hands.
"Everyone stay calm."
But Marcus wasn't listening.
He stared at his hands.
For the first time...
Tiny cracks of pale light appeared beneath his skin.
"No..."
"My daughters..."
His breathing accelerated.
"I need to go home."
He turned and ran.
Not into the city.
Away from it.
Following the ancient road.
Walking home.
The other guards followed.
One by one.
Kael watched them disappear into the forest.
Selene whispered,
"It's beginning."
Behind the walls...
More people noticed the sky.
Voices rose.
Then screams.
The illusion of an ordinary evening began collapsing.
The city bells rang violently.
Dong.
Dong.
Dong.
Thousands poured into the streets.
Some cried.
Some prayed.
Some ran toward homes that no longer existed beyond the city.
Others simply stood in shock.
Then—
BOOM!
A wave of ancient mana erupted from the central tower.
Lyra immediately created a barrier.
Kael's coat snapped violently behind him.
Aren drew his sword.
Selene's book flew open.
The city gates slammed shut.
Across every tower, enormous golden symbols ignited.
A voice thundered throughout Asterion.
"BY IMPERIAL DECREE!"
"ALL CITIZENS ARE TO REMAIN WITHIN THE CITY!"
"THE DEAD SHALL NOT LEAVE!"
Kael's expression hardened.
Aren looked toward the central palace.
"Someone knows."
Lyra's eyes narrowed.
"Someone has always known."
Selene stared at her book.
Another line appeared.
Not black.
Red.
A name.
EMPEROR AURELIUS VAEL.
STATUS:
The letters hesitated.
Then changed.
UNKNOWN.
Kael stared at the distant palace.
At its highest balcony...
A lone man stood beneath a golden crown.
Three thousand years had passed.
An empire had fallen.
History had forgotten almost everything it built.
Yet its emperor remained.
And somehow...
He was looking directly at Kael.
The man smiled.
Then raised one hand in greeting.
The heartbeat beside Kael trembled.
"...Kael."
"I know."
"...He's not a memory."
Kael's seventh blossom slowly began to glow.
"No."
He stared at the ancient emperor.
"He isn't."