The Vault of Burnt Echoes whispered in voices no longer belonging to the living. Each echo seemed to remember Ren's name even if he didn't remember theirs.
He stepped further into the vault, boots crunching on fractured glass and scorched stone. The immense chamber curved upward like the inside of a bell, walls etched with glowing glyphs that shimmered between blue and violet. Suspended in the middle, pulsing slowly, was the ancient book. No chains. No pedestal. Just a field of gravity-defying stillness.
Valka hovered near the edge, her silver eye flaring with deep unease. "This isn't a library. It's a graveyard."
Ren nodded. "And that book?"
"A coffin."
His instincts told him otherwise.
The book called to him, not with sound, but with pressure behind the eyes, like a migraine of meaning. Each step closer, the air thickened. Memories clawed at his thoughts—not his own.
---
MEMORY FRAGMENT "UNKNOWN PROTOCOL - YEAR 0039 A.S."
Subject Zero screamed as the wires stitched through his nerves, converting synaptic reactions into raw code. Beyond the glass, the Overseers watched, unfazed. One jotted down notes, humming.
"Subject still resisting?"
*"Not for long. Once the burn phase initiates, he'll beg to forget."
"And yet, he remembers everything. Fascinating."
---
Ren stumbled, the memory vanishing like smoke. The book pulsed faster.
Valka caught his shoulder. "You alright?"
"I saw something. A lab. Me… someone like me. Being burned alive inside his own head."
"The vault must be syncing with your blood."
"My blood?"
She nodded grimly. "Soulburned and Chosen share similar resonance. The vault is a Memory Engine—a relic left from before the Collapse. It records everything its wielder sees, hears, feels. And if the user dies… it keeps watching."
Ren exhaled slowly. "A surveillance ghost."
"Worse." Valka gestured at the glyphs. "This one? It doesn't just remember. It rebuilds. It feeds memories into the souls of the next bearer, forging a mental fortress from their pain."
Ren frowned. "So this is the Soulburn Protocol?"
"Part of it. A weaponized inheritance. That book doesn't just contain knowledge—it inflicts it."
---
MEMORY FRAGMENT [ECHO CYCLE 27 - CLASSIFIED]
Two figures kneel before a shattered altar. One holds the helm. The other, the book.
"You know what will happen if we merge them."
"It doesn't matter. He deserves to know."
*"And if he can't bear it?"
"Then he'll become what we couldn't."
---
Ren reached the floating tome.
The moment his fingers brushed the cover, fire raced through his bloodstream. His knees buckled.
Memories poured in—wars fought beneath broken moons, cities that screamed as they fell into the sea, a woman with flame for hair whispering in a language that shook the stars. And always, the helm.
His helm. The one in his pack.
He gasped, withdrawing his hand, but it was too late.
The book was open.
On the first page, a single line burned itself into his mind:
"Only those who died before may rewrite what comes next."
Valka's eye widened. "It bonded to you."
"No," Ren muttered, staring at his trembling hands. "It remembered me."
Behind them, the door to the vault slammed shut. The glyphs flared red.
A low hum began to rise from the walls.
Valka drew her blade. "We're not alone."
Shadows slithered between the broken pillars, their shapes barely human.
Ren tucked the book under one arm and drew the helm from his satchel. As soon as he put it on, the world slowed. Light bent. Sound dulled. The shadows screamed, but now he could see through them—into their memories.
They were failed Reclaimers. Echoes of souls who couldn't endure the Soulburn Protocol.
"Let them come," Ren whispered, voice hollow inside the helm.
The book flared. A glyph formed in the air before him—a sigil of binding.
Ren spoke its name aloud, and fire answered.
One by one, the echoes burned.
Valka stood frozen. "Ren… your aura—it's not human anymore."
He looked back at her, eyes glowing from within the helm.
"It never was."
A/N: OH. MY. VOID.
Ren's soul just barely survived that descent into the Whispersong Rift—and what even was that memory buried in the Core Sequence?
Are the voices he's hearing... echoes of the First Soulburners? Or something far worse?
Tell me what you think!
💬 Drop your theories below:
1. What was the true cost of Ren entering the Rift?
2. Will he survive the next collapse of his memory?
3. And who is this new masked figure watching from the spire's edge?
🔥 Things are only getting deeper from here—mystery, betrayal, and a new phase of Ren's power is coming.
💎 Power Stones fuel this world and keep the story visible!
➕ Add to Library so you don't miss the unraveling madness.
Thanks for reading — xamichoclate