"He fell from the sky not like a bird, but with a cry.
He didn't leave a body, just ashes and a thought.
We're piecing together his name.,
But it always slips away with the last breath."
— From Dust Songs. Scroll III. "The Raven and the Forgotten"
[Scan...]
Discovered: Echo is the Guardian of Ruins.
Type: Forgotten creature (semi-intelligent).
Energy: 211 units.
Reactivity: High. Aggression is average.
He wasn't going to fight. But he couldn't escape either. He needed to learn how to react. Learn to think like a predator, like a system.
The flame extinguished the brightness. She suppressed her aura. He crouched between the shadows.
The creature emerged from under the collapsed arched entrance. Ancient, covered with coral and moss, it was a man... once. Now it's more like a vessel of magic.
There were no eye sockets, only carved marks on the skull. One of them is in the form of wing feathers fading into ashes.
As it passed by, the flames trembled. Not from fear, but from recognition.
This sign... was the same one that flashed into his mind at the word "Ravan".
[Response: World signature is active.]
Genetic memory response: low resonance.
Suspicion: The host is associated with the Element of Emptiness * "Raven-Devourer".
Passive effect: Accelerated absorption from creatures with "infected memory".
(!!! New goal: To find out who the Raven-Eater is)
He waited until the Echo Guardian had disappeared. Then he returned to the slab and began to absorb the energy from the stone itself.
[Absorbed: 42 residual spells.]
Absorbed: Image fragment: "Grey Wing on a Throne of Ashes"
+1.3% evolution.
Current progress: 5.1%
The system did not explain what "genetic memory" was, who the "Raven" was, and why it reacted to ancient signs. But the flame knew:
He didn't just come into this world by accident. It was created. Or drafted.
Maybe not as a hero. It's like a fragment of something terrible and ancient that once burned and will return again.
He flew away from the ruins, taking sensations and images with him. For a moment, a picture flashed through his mind:
— a giant bird, blacker than the night, that descends on the battlefield;
— wings with stars curled up in them;
— and the fire... the blue fire bursting out of her chest like a heart...
"I'm not the first."
"I'm a fragment of something that wasn't completely burned out."
Not from the wind—it wasn't there. Not from footsteps — no one was walking.
He was trembling from memory, from the tension in the earth itself, as if somewhere deep under it someone had breathed through the ages.
The flames slid across the cracks of the stone plain, where the dead flora had fused with the bone.
A light reflection over the rocks is not a light, but a memory of it. In this world, light was rare, and every spark felt like a crime.
[Idle Absorption: 0.4 units of residual ether.]
[Evolution progress: 5.5%]
A crackle.
Sharp, dry. Not natural. Like the snap of a knuckle.
The flame stopped. It was hiding in a crack between two boulders. Watched.
Something came out of the fog—humanoid, hunched over, wrapped in crow's feathers and bandages. The skin is gray-blue. There were no eyes. Instead, there are embossed runes. He was dragging a massive, scorched staff with a raven's skull bone hanging from it.
And he was talking. Not with his mouth, but with thoughts that resonated in the air:
—I can feel you, Spark. Don't hide. I know you. I'm... one of the guardians. One of Those Who Heard The Song. One of the Burnt Ones.
The flame did not respond. But his mind was giving off an impulse: who are you?
—I'm the Eyeless One. I saw the Raven before I lost my sight. He is not a god. He is a remnant. The bite of oblivion. A sip of the Sun that was not swallowed.
Something inside the system trembled.
[Signature match. Lore's memory has been activated.]
["RAVAN" is an archetype: Devourer of Light. Status: Fragmented.]
[The Path Of Evolution Has Appeared.]
The hermit held out his hand. There was a charred piece of glass in it, with a small blue fire dancing in it.
—It was one of His pieces. The one that fell, but didn't disappear. If you are a spark... then you can choose what you will become.
The flames came closer. It felt strange. It was like the glass in the old man's hand was breathing.
[The Idle System opens The Way For The First Branching.]
[Selection:]
[Path of Flame]
You are the flame that destroys. You develop towards attack, heat, and strength.
‣ Damage: +
‣ Burn rate: ++
‣ Thermal pressure: ++
Loss of disguise
[ Path of Absorption ]
You are the flame that grows from the darkness. You feed on pain, shadow, and energy.
‣ Magic absorption: +++
Damage resistance: +
Vulnerability to light
[Path of Ashes]
You are the flame that remembers. Illusions, images, knowledge.
Access to Ent: ++
‣ Shadow Doppelgangers: +
Low direct power
The flame was trembling. Not from fear— but from choice.
And suddenly — a vision.
In front of him, a gigantic silhouette flashed in the sky: a raven with stars blazing in its wings. From his chest came a blue fire, the same one that danced in himself.
He was part of something great. Or terrible.
The creature retreated into the mist, leaving the staff and the ashen phrase.
— Choose, Spark. Before He gets back. Before he remembers you.
***
Glossary «Raven's Fire¹
Raven-Devourer is a divine entity, possibly a fallen god. His cult is associated with fire, death and rebirth. His sign is a black wing and a blue flame.
Groin Songs is a forgotten religion that practices contact with the memory of the world through ashes and bones.
Echo Creatures are semi-intelligent shells that have preserved the imprints of ancient magic.
Emptiness is the primordial substance of the world. Not evil, but the basis of entropy and change.
Idle is a system of passive evolution built into the consciousness of the GG. Its signature has a crow architecture.