By IMERPUS RELUR
--
It began with silence.
Not the silence of peace.
Not the silence of sorrow.
But a held breath, stretched across the tapestry of divinity.
Auren stood at the edge of his evolving domain. The soil beneath him pulsed with the presence of the Remnari. His cloak—the Nameless Mantle—flowed in the windless air, responding to more than breeze.
The seal of Kaelrion's regret still flickered faintly beneath his heart.
And then…
it arrived.
A golden sigil appeared in the sky—not cast by force or threat, but by invitation.
A single path of light descended into Auren's realm, carving no destruction, only stillness.
Eléa emerged beside him.
> "He comes not as challenger," she said softly, "but as witness."
> "Who?" Auren asked.
The light shifted.
From it stepped a god wrapped in flowing white robes, embroidered with the pattern of every divine race ever known. His hair was silver. His eyes were sealed by a band of woven memory threads. And behind him floated dozens of tiny, translucent beings—no race. No weapon. Only watchers.
He spoke.
His voice was quiet. Measured. But in that voice, every age trembled.
> "I am Velareth. Firstborn of the Witnessed Pantheon. Keeper of the Lost Heralds."
> "And I kneel to no one."
"…Yet today, I bow to you."
Auren's eyes widened.
The god stepped forward and, slowly, deliberately—
knelt.
The world paused. Even the Remnari, so in tune with resonance, dared not breathe.
> "Why?" Auren asked.
Velareth did not look up.
> "Because I once erased an entire race… by refusing to remember them.
And now, I see you. A god who carries what the rest of us buried.
A god who dares to evolve not through conquest… but by feeling."
"The Watchers have spoken. You are the first of the Living Sutra."
The words struck like lightning, but not as destruction—as truth.
---
System Announcement:
[You have been granted the Living Sutra Path.]
> A rare divine cultivation route where truth, memory, sorrow, and healing merge to form an evolving philosophy rather than static power.
Passive: Every race that acknowledges your remembrance becomes part of your living doctrine.
Active Sutra Invocation: "Resonant Bow" – A single divine being may kneel willingly to you once. If they do, they regain a sealed part of themselves and become forever immune to your harm.
---
Velareth rose, and the threads over his eyes unraveled. He looked at Auren for the first time with true sight.
> "You will be hunted," he warned, "by gods who cannot remember what they've done."
"But you will not walk alone."
He placed a small crystal into Auren's hand—pulsing with soft light.
> "This is a Herald Seed. Plant it in your realm, and one day… a race of Witnesses may rise."
He turned, robes trailing light.
> "And when the gods who forget come to destroy you… remember, even forgetting is a story."
Velareth vanished.
---
Auren stared at the crystal.
The Remnari stepped forward. Not in awe. Not in worship.
But in understanding.
They knew what was coming.
Auren—who had no lineage—now stood as a living path.
A god others would fear.
And others… would kneel to.
---
Far above, a fifth Watcher blinked.
And for the first time…
> Laughed.