The wind in the Wailing Wastes screamed like a dying god.
Otoku stumbled through the dunes, Gravy limp in his arms. The pup's fur flickered like a candle about to die. Every breath Otoku took scraped his lungs—ash and cursed sand choking the air.
Before him rose a stone archway half-buried in the desert: The Echogate. Ancient, forgotten, and humming with star-eater energy.
"This place wasn't on any map." Gravy's whisper trembled. His golden eye blinked once. Twice. Then dimmed again.
Otoku's left arm—now black from elbow to fingertips—ached with hunger. The Codex pulsed at his hip, whispering names not his own.
> "Speak the Gate's Name. Pay its toll."
He stared at the arch. Symbols flickered. A single name carved deep into the stone:
"KAELITH."
The name of his father's betrayer. A man Otoku had never met.
He grit his teeth. "I speak it. I pay it."
The arch screamed.
Veins of shadow peeled from the air. Otoku's shadow was ripped from his feet, stretched, and twisted into a second Gravy—but wrong. Its eye burned crimson. Its smile was made of teeth that never ended.
"Payment accepted," the gate said.
---
Scene 2: Mira of the Moonlight Blades
Inside the Echogate waited Mira, cloak of twilight shadows flowing like water. She crouched beside a fire made of ghost-flames, sharpening her crescent blades.
"Didn't think you'd survive the Trial," she said without looking up.
Otoku dropped Gravy's body at her feet. "You knew I'd come?"
Mira's golden eye gleamed. "No. But I hoped."
Behind her, a dying phoenix spirit chirped once, then collapsed into ash.
Otoku didn't flinch. "Why are you here?"
She smiled, and it broke something in the air. "The Jade Concord ordered me to kill you. I changed my mind."
"Why?"
"I want to see what you'll destroy."
---
Scene 3: The Bone Prodigy
Before they could speak again, something rose from the sand. A towering figure made of bleached bones and living frost.
"Trespassers."
His voice was like flint striking marrow.
Zavren, the Bone Prodigy—first of the Ashen Games' guardians.
His spine coiled like a serpent. He reached for Mira.
Otoku moved faster.
Voidlight burst from his hand, lancing through the air. But Zavren laughed, scattering into a swarm of skeletal crows.
"Not enough," Mira hissed, vanishing and reappearing behind Zavren. Her blades cut deep—but hit only illusion.
Gravy's broken body twitched. "Let... me... eat... him..."
Otoku hesitated. The Codex whispered:
> "Feed the shadow. Lose a memory."
Otoku nodded. "Do it."
Gravy's mouth split wider, consuming shadow, frost, bone—
—and Otoku forgot his mother's voice.
The Bone Prodigy screamed as his magic collapsed inward. His skeleton turned to glass, then melted into nothing.
Gravy stood again, whole, eye gleaming. "Tastes like lies."
Otoku swayed. Mira caught him.
"You fed your memory to your pet," she whispered.
He didn't answer.
---
Scene 4: The Map of Kings
In Zavren's remains, a scroll lay unburned. Mira opened it.
A map—etched in blood and void-ink. Five kingdoms marked:
1. Qaireth – City of Soul Alchemy, ruled by the Glass-Eyed Queen.
2. Varnok's Crown – Fortress of war mages. Everyone's a weapon.
3. Thessara – Elven refuge, now split by civil war.
4. Nyroth Hollow – Land of whispering ghosts and forbidden magics.
5. Ashveil Academy – Training ground for the next god-killers.
At the center: a symbol drawn in Otoku's own blood.
A throne of stars.
Above it: One word.
"Otoku."
---
Chapter End:
Mira folded the map.
"They're not hunting you anymore," she said.
Otoku blinked. "What?"
She smirked. "They're preparing for your coronation."