Kael kept staring at the wall covered in alien symbols. Each carving seemed like an eye silently watching him.
He approached the headless statue.
It stood tall and broken. Black chains wrapped around its body, made of a material Kael couldn't identify. But most striking of all... was the hand pointing upward.
> "A stairway...?"
Kael followed the direction of the statue's finger. On the ceiling of the underground chamber—which should have been just stone and dust—he saw a faint structure floating, made of seven steps, curled like a serpent rising into darkness.
But only Kael could see it. He was certain.
The stairway wasn't made of matter. But of... understanding.
And on the first step, a symbol hovered. The same symbol as the cracked mirror earlier.
---
"If I ascend this..."
Suddenly, a voice echoed inside his head—not one, but many voices overlapping like a distorted choir:
> "Rise... or Ruin.
Choose... or Be Chosen."
---
Kael stepped forward.
The first step—he stepped on nothing, yet it felt solid. The world around him began to tremble, walls melting like ink.
He ascended again. The second step.
Another symbol appeared—an inverted eye.
And at that moment...
Memories not his own flooded his mind.
A robed man burning a city. Kael saw through his eyes. Felt his rage, faith, and emptiness. Then a flash of light, screams, and... destruction.
---
Kael staggered backward.
> "What was that? Who was he?"
"Is this part of the 'Mark'?"
Then a voice spoke—from within him. But not him.
> "The Mark is not power.
It is a wound that cannot heal."
---
Suddenly—the stairway vanished. He was thrown back onto the cold floor.
The statue was destroyed, reduced to broken chains and dust. But Kael now knew one thing:
He had begun to Ascend.
And the world would never be the same.