The wind in the Abyss's sixth layer did not howl.
It whispered.
Words Raen couldn't quite catch drifted across the cracked plains like smoke from a pyre. Hollowfang walked ahead of him, ears flat against its skull. Jester Wyrm floated in lazy spirals behind them, muttering riddles that weren't meant to be solved.
Despair Maw remained silent, as always—its grief too ancient for language.
They had passed three ruined shrines since crossing the Layer Five gate. Each shrine bore a symbol Raen had once seen in the war-torn corners of the Empire—places the histories pretended never existed. Symbols erased from maps. Names devoured by time.
But Raen remembered.
He remembered everything.
The path curved downward now, toward a ravine that pulsed with unnatural light. The ground was scorched. Not freshly. But as if some divine fire had once raged here and then regretted it.
[Proximity Alert: Unknown Entity Within Range. Bondable. Emotional Key: Anger Masked as Duty.]
Raen tensed. Not from fear.
From familiarity.
The System's voice had begun to sound more like his own thoughts lately. Or maybe he was just losing track of who he used to be.
A figure stood at the base of the ravine.
Not a beast.
A woman.
Clad in black armor stitched with flame, her face hidden behind a cracked visor. Her aura was suffocating—powerful, rigid, but brittle in the way that only long-held grief can be.
She turned slowly.
And Raen saw her eyes through the visor's split.
Gold, like his once were.
[Entity Identified: Ember Vow]
[Class: Forgotten Knight of the Abyss]
[Bond Type: Dual Flame Contract — Dangerous.]
She didn't speak.
She drew her sword.
And charged.
Raen dodged narrowly, her blade carving a burning scar into the earth behind him. Hollowfang leapt between them, but Raen raised a hand.
"No," he said. "She's not attacking to kill."
She was attacking to remember.
Blades clashed. Raen summoned no weapon, only dodged and endured. Ember Vow fought like a ghost seeking proof that she was still real. Her strikes sang of pain unspoken. Of wars lost inside the soul.
And Raen… understood.
He moved with her, not against her. Felt the rhythm of her fury—sharp, then faltering. When her sword hovered at his throat, shaking, he met her eyes again.
"You were like me," he said softly. "Bound by duty. Until duty broke you."
Her hand trembled. The sword clattered to the ground.
[Emotional Key Matched. Bond Available. Initiate Flame Contract?]
Raen stepped forward, offered his hand.
"Let it burn. But don't let it consume you."
She took his hand.
Flames erupted around them—blue, gold, violet. Not wild. Not destructive.
Cleansing.
[Bond Successful. Entity: Ember Vow. Soul Stabilization: 73% → 82%]
The flames settled.
And Ember Vow bowed.
Not to a master.
To a companion.
The group pressed on, crossing bridges made from scorched bone and memory. Jester Wyrm joked about how romantic fire duels were. Hollowfang ignored him. Despair Maw moved with a quiet reverence beside Ember Vow—as if sensing a kindred spirit.
Raen could feel it again. The pull.
Something deeper still awaited him in this layer. Not a beast. Not a relic.
But something older than either.
They came to a basin where the sky dipped too close to the ground. At its center stood a throne made of mirrors—each pane cracked, each reflection wrong.
Raen approached slowly.
The reflections showed versions of himself:
—A king crowned in ash.
—A beast with Raen's eyes but no soul.
—A child holding a sword too big for his hands, weeping.
He stepped closer.
[Warning: Trial of Black Glass Initiated.]
The throne pulsed.
And the mirrors shattered.
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