Ashland Vale didn't sleep that night.
Not that sleep was even possible in
the Trial Realm. Time felt unglued here—soft around the edges. Dreams arrived
while walking. Exhaustion crept in when still. And the stars didn't rise or
fall; they watched.
The first Ascension Trial was over,
but the resonance it left behind hadn't faded.
Ash sat on a fractured step of
obsidian, one leg pulled in against his chest, the other stretched out, his
back resting against a half-buried pillar. In the distance, the Hollow Spires
slowly rotated in the sky like drifting moons, their ribbons of light fading as
dawn—if it could be called that—glimmered across the black horizon.
The air was quiet.
Except for her.
Iriis stood nearby, not asleep, not
entirely awake either—resting in the way summons do, suspended in a twilight
state between consciousness and stillness. Her form shimmered faintly in the
dimness, silver-blue fire flickering behind the hollow slits of her helm. One
gauntleted hand rested on the hilt of her shadowforged blade, while the other
extended toward the sky, almost as if feeling for something that was no longer
there.
She hadn't spoken since the memory
trial.
And Ash didn't push.
He could feel it now—her silence
wasn't absence. It was mourning.
He leaned his head back against the
stone and closed his eyes.
But the System had other plans.
[SYSTEM – BINDER STATUS: SYNCHRONIZED
PRIMORDIAL CLASS]
Ashland Vale
Class: Primordial Binder (Unrefined)
Rank: Unranked
Bonded Summons: 1
— [Iriis, Bound Sentinel of the
Forgotten Court] —
• Sync: 31%
• Level: 1
• Form: Semi-material
• Known Abilities: Silent Edge
(Passive), Soulveil Step, Echo Memory (Locked)
• Trait Active: Dual Conscious Lv.1
Core Trait: Primordial Binding – Tier
1
➤ Allows bonding with ancient, sentient entities beyond
traditional Beast-class summons.
➤ Summons grow in intelligence, agency, and evolution.
➤ Bond sync unlocks Memory Fragments and Echo Traits.
Bonus Trait: Unyielding Will –
Resistance to soul pressure, illusions, and despair-type effects.
Current Progress to Class Ascension:
18%
Time Remaining: 4 Days, 11 Hours, 07
Minutes
Next Phase Objective: Seek the Echo
Below.
Optional Bonus: Locate the "Graven
Womb."
Note: Further evolution requires
descent into the sealed zone beneath the Trial Realm.
Ash exhaled slowly.
"Descent, huh?"
He rose, brushing dust from his coat.
His body felt stronger—not fully healed, but stabilized. The lingering damage
from the Shardcrawler ambush was now dull, like phantom pain instead of open
wounds. The System, or perhaps the Bond itself, had begun reinforcing his body.
He could feel Iriis's strength pulsing faintly through him. Not magic,
exactly—not like mages who hurled flame or warped time—but something deeper.
A borrowed instinct.
A borrowed grace.
And it was growing stronger.
He turned toward her.
"Iriis," he said quietly. "It's time."
She didn't speak, not at first.
But her hand lowered. Her helm tilted.
And then her voice, low and cool, slipped through the quiet like silk drawn
over glass.
"I felt the tremor too."
Ash nodded.
"System wants us to go below."
Iriis turned fully, the flames in her
eyes sharpening.
"Then we descend."
They walked.
No more floating spires. No riddles of
memory. No suspended monuments in the sky.
Now came the earth.
And what lay beneath it.
The entrance was easy to miss. Tucked
between the roots of a petrified world-tree, obscured by broken relics and
thick coils of umbral ivy, the mouth of the descent wasn't marked by runes or
symbols. Just a narrow stair of black stone descending into deeper black.
Ash stared down the stairwell. He
wasn't sure whether it was carved or grown. It pulsed faintly—not with life,
but with anticipation.
"What's down there?" he asked.
Iriis's voice came soft behind him.
"The part of the Trial most don't
reach."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Because they
die?"
"No," she said. "Because they turn
back."
They descended in silence.
As they moved deeper, the stairs began
to twist—not just turn, but bend, like they were descending through something
alive. The air grew cold. Thin. Colors shifted subtly. Occasionally, Ash would
blink and see something impossible—a corridor looping back on itself; a torch
that flickered without casting light; his own shadow stretching sideways across
the wall instead of behind him.
Iriis remained calm. If she noticed
the distortions, she didn't show it.
Eventually, the stairs ended.
They stepped into a vast cavern.
And Ash's breath caught.
The Graven Womb.
It was no ordinary chamber. It was a
crypt built to contain, not honor. Massive rib-like pillars curled upward from
the floor to the ceiling, forming a dome of bone and black crystal. The air
shimmered with faint heat. Dozens of suspended sarcophagi floated in the upper
reaches of the room, bound by violet chains. Each coffin was etched with runes—inverted
runes, like echoes of spells meant to silence instead of cast.
At the center of the cavern stood a
stone cradle—twisted, organic, and softly glowing from within.
A heartbeat.
A real one.
Faint.
But growing louder.
Ash stepped forward, cautiously. "What
is that?"
Iriis followed, her blade now in hand.
"An Echo," she said. "Unbound.
Unremembered. Waiting for a name."
The moment he stepped into the ring of
bone around the cradle, the air exploded with motion.
A shriek.
A blur of metal and teeth.
A presence older than fear.
The beast emerged from the shadows
behind the sarcophagi.
At first glance, it resembled a wolf.
But wolves didn't have three jaws.
Or eyeless sockets that bled memory.
Or wings made of screaming light.
It landed in front of them with a
crash that cracked the floor, baring teeth that dripped liquid void.
[SYSTEM WARNING – Aberrant Guardian:
Soul-Class Entity Detected]
Name: Xeravon, the Starved Warden
Classification: Relic-Eater
Threat Level: A-
Behavior: Instinctively Aggressive
This Echo was imprisoned to protect
the Graven Womb. It is starving. It will consume either the unborn within… or
you.
Ash's heart slammed into his ribs.
He reached for his Summoner's mark—
Iriis was already moving.
Her blade shimmered. She vanished with
a flicker—Soulveil Step. She appeared above the creature in mid-air, her blade
arcing downward—
But Xeravon twisted with an inhuman
flex of its spine and caught her sword in its jaws.
The clash rang like a bell.
Ash didn't hesitate.
He dove forward, sliding between two
bone pillars and extending his arm. Chains erupted from his palm, grappling the
beast's hind legs—not to bind, but to redirect.
"Iriis—NOW!"
She vanished again, reappearing behind
Xeravon. This time, her blade struck true, cleaving deep into its hindquarters.
The beast roared.
Not in pain.
In joy.
It wanted this fight.
The battle raged.
Ash directed, weaving chains not to
bind but to guide. He felt her instincts, her rhythm, her timing—like he was
dancing alongside her with his thoughts.
They were synced now.
Partially.
But enough.
"Left flank—now!"
Iriis vanished again.
This time, she didn't strike. She touched
the beast.
And Ash felt something pull.
A memory.
Xeravon, before it was bound. A
guardian. A sentient one. Starved not of food—but of purpose.
It hadn't always been a beast.
It had been a knight. Like Iriis.
Bound to the Court. Forgotten when the Court fell.
"It's not just a beast," Ash said
aloud. "It's like you."
Iriis hesitated.
"Then what do we do?"
Ash stepped forward.
The mark on his hand glowed.
"We Bind it."