"Names are nails in the wood of existence. Hit the wrong one and the whole barrel will crack." — An excerpt from the Cult of the Faceless, a banned Estral manuscript
The world around them was strange and unnaturally quiet. The blue flame, barely reaching the height of a man's knee, trembled motionlessly on the dark ground, covered with frost and remnants of ashes.
It was as if it could hear the forest breathing around it, hoarsely, with shortness of breath, like a creature that had survived a catastrophe and was barely holding on to life.
While the System was scanning the surrounding space, a change was brewing inside the Spark. From the moment he woke up, he went from an instinctive struggle for survival to the first choice, to the first hint of personality.
The "Path of Ashes" is exactly how the System designated its first form of evolution.
[Confirmed: The Ash Path is active.] [Unlocked ability: Leftover Absorption — Level I.]
[Unlocked function: Memory Perception.]
The air trembled. Through the mist and shimmering snow, the contours of something ancient emerged. Nearby lay the remains of an ancient warrior, almost fused to the ground.
Rusty iron, charred finger bones, a dull fragment of chain mail embedded with moss. But above all this, there is an unnatural, translucent glow, like a mirage over a scorching earth.
The flames came closer. And the memory—or the spirit, or the shadow of the soul—came alive.
... "They came from the north. The crows were screaming above us. We burned trees, we called a name that must not be pronounced..."
A lump of darkness and ashes burst out of the warrior's chest, where his heart had once been beating. The spark sucked him in.
[Absorbed: Fragment of the Echo Shadow. The essence of fear, rage and will.] [Evolution progress: +1.7%]
It felt... strange. Something has changed in him. Not just power. Someone else's memory, someone else's pain became a part of him. And with that came…
[Initialization of the name in an unstable form.]
The flame flickered. For the first time, it felt like someone-or something—was seeing it. As if its existence up to this point was just a slip in the code.
"You'll be voiceless for too long. And if others give you a name, they will become your masters."
The system didn't speak in a monotone voice like before. There was a hint of concern in those words. Or regret. Or... something more ancient than just algorithms.
[Name protocol: temporary assignment... "Lukar"]
"Lukar is a name from the Song of Ashes. There was someone who burned his body to become himself. You're not him. But you can become something like that."
The name echoed inside like an echo in an empty room. It was foreign, but it felt like it had been forgotten. As if someone had called him that before. Or so he called himself when he was someone else.
Lukar.
So the Spark became something more than just a flame.
The silence broke. In the forest, where the wind was the only sound, there was now...
no sound. Not a sound. Feeling.
To the north, beyond the hills, beyond the crooked trees and dead tree stumps, something was moving. The old one. Blinded. Forgotten.
[Event: The Echo Shadow is coming] [Danger: unstable remnant from a 1.4 km battle]
"You've become noticeable. Now you're not the only one who sees the world. The world sees you."
The flame wavered. It felt warm. Not his own. Someone else's. Residual. It was as if someone was looking out of the northern darkness. Not with my eyes. With wings.
..."The Raven was the first. He took the Fire away in his beak to hide it from the Ice. He became a Charring God, a Devourer of light, and a Bridge Between Worlds..."
[What did you see, Lukar? ]
The System asked, but not as a program anymore. Like genesis.
The flame couldn't respond with words. But his heat flared, pulsing. It felt the name. Crow. Not as a word. Like a will. He's here somewhere. Or was. Or it will come when the darkness becomes dense again.
And Lukar knew that his path now was more than survival.
He must absorb the memory of this world.
And become someone whose name will one day be forgotten, but whose actions will change the Raven's song.
The silence was broken again. But not with sounds, but with vibration. The space, the air, the very fabric of darkness around them trembled as if under the onslaught of something ancient.
The Scandinavian forest, gloomy and scorched, did not move — even the wind had retreated, leaving only snow falling endlessly from the gray sky. Lukar, the blue flame, fluttered.
[Scan: An Echo Shadow Has Been Detected. The distance is 1.1 km. Remainder class: Undefined. Behavior: Abnormally active.]
This entity was not moving along a trajectory. She wasn't walking. She slipped, fell through, shimmered through reality, leaving a trail of translucent horror in her wake.
Lukar felt it, as one feels the approach of a thunderstorm or the vibrations of a distant roar of an animal — at the level of instinct, proto-language.
And with that feeling came thirst. Not hunger, like an animal, or interest, like a human, but a thirst for knowledge.
He wanted to understand what this creature was, where it came from, why its shadow was full of ashes and pain, and—most importantly—could it have absorbed it?
He moved, gliding across the dead earth, pulsing with a soft light that did not warm or illuminate, but simply was. Every meter was difficult. Not from fatigue, but from the strangeness of the world itself.
It was as if the forest rejected him, as if the whole area knew that he was something alien, untimely, uncontrollable.
The System's alarm was getting more alarming by the second.
[Echo Shadow's radius of effect is increasing.]
[Risk: Absorbing unstable will.]
[Recommended: avoid direct contact until the completion of the Full Evolution Stage I.]
But Lukar did not back down. Inside, at its very core, something new was born — a challenge. Not a voice, not a command. He just felt that if he retreated now, he would never be able to come back again. He will remain nothing.
Ahead is an ancient mound, almost leveled to the ground. There was a battle here once. One of those songs they don't sing about anymore.
But the memory remained. The land here is not just dead, it is mutilated. Twisted trees, black with old fire, shriveled into the shape of screams. Dice. Dozens. Hundreds. Ash. And... something else.
Lukar felt something seeing him.
[Contact: Echo Shadow has identified the subject as an anomaly.]
[Initiation of coupling: instability level is increasing.]
She appeared through the fog.
High. Shapeless. She had no legs, but she was standing. Having no eyes, but looking. Her body was made up of ashes, shadows, and fragments of dead voices.
It seemed that she was still fighting—waving away, screaming, dying—endlessly, in a vicious circle, not realizing that the war had ended long ago.
And when she "saw" Lukar, her ashen "eyes"—empty funnels of fear—flashed red.
[Event: A fight with Echo Shadow is imminent.]
[Activating the survival mode.]