🧩 Chapter 80
"To awaken what you sealed… is to question why you sealed it in the first place."
🪨 Scene 1: Beneath the Foundation
At midnight, Aeren quietly slipped away from the academy's inner gates, following the whispered vision that had haunted his dreams for nights.
He crossed the threshold of a forbidden chamber, long thought to be abandoned: The Forgotten Vaults of Sinjai.
Most students didn't even know these catacombs existed. Those who did… feared them.
As Aeren moved deeper, his Clock Core pulsed in rhythm with the air—as if guiding him. Every step led him closer to a presence he couldn't explain… but felt connected to.
🔐 Scene 2: The Labyrinth Activates
A circular platform opened beneath his feet. Symbols swirled. The room twisted—and suddenly, Aeren was inside a time-locked labyrinth.
Stone walls rearranged themselves like a puzzle with every breath.
A silver voice echoed through the void:
"Only the true bearer of the Clock may pass.All others... shall lose themselves in the loop."
The walls glowed. Time illusions formed—Aeren saw himself, at different ages, facing different choices:
Save a friend or defeat an enemy?
Use his power or hide it?
Let go… or hold on?
Each decision he made rewrote the maze.
🔓 Scene 3: The Prison of Echoes
At the labyrinth's core, in a chamber wrapped in gold-threaded chains and layered with temporal seals, he found her.
Suspended mid-air, locked in stasis: a girl with pale-white hair, blindfolded eyes, and a broken golden collar around her neck.
As he stepped closer, the seals lit up—recognizing his energy.
The girl whispered, without waking:
"You finally came… my king."
Aeren froze.Something inside him trembled.
She knew him. But not as Aeren.
As Veleor.
He reached out—
The chains resisted, shaking the ground, almost breaking the chamber apart.
🧠 Scene 4: Her Mind Unlocked
The moment Aeren touched the seal, his mind was dragged into hers.
He saw flashes:
The girl fighting beside him in a forgotten war.
Her name—Seris, the Dreambinder.
She had the power to reshape reality through thought, and her bond with Veleor made her the only one who could calm his rage.
He also saw the moment he sealed her—to protect her.
"Your power was too linked to mine. If I fall, you fall. So I must bury you before they take you."
"But you promised we'd stay awake together…"
🩸 Scene 5: The Seal Breaks
As the memory faded, Aeren's Clock Core flared.
The final chain cracked.
The collar on Seris shattered, and her eyes fluttered open—glowing deep azure, swirled with silver.
She gasped for breath.
"You're… not fully him. But you're close."
"I'm… Aeren now," he said.
She nodded, weakly smiling.
"Then Aeren… I remember the truth they want buried.I know what Nexilis really is.And I know who your other half really is…"
Before she could say more—the chamber exploded with a dark pulse.
Kael stood at the shattered door, clapping.
"Well, well. Reuniting with your favorite relic, I see."
⚔️ Scene 6: Kael's Reveal
Kael dropped his disguise—black and crimson armor wrapping around him.
On his back: a swirling void sigil glowing with Nexilis corruption.
"I was never after you, Aeren. I was after her. She's the last key."
"Key… to what?"
"To unlocking the Crimson Throne. The same one your other self tried to burn down."
Kael launched a pulse of black fire—
Aeren blocked it, barely. Seris stood up behind him, still weak but her voice firm:
"You'll have to get through both of us."
Kael laughed.
"Gladly."
🔚 End of Chapter 80