"Names are more than labels—they are chains.""And here, every chain still rattles."
The deeper Lucien went, the less real the world became.
The Vault's lower levels didn't follow architecture or gravity. The stairs floated in fractured space, hovering like broken thoughts. The walls were not stone, but memory made visible—vague figures whispering in frozen time, faces half-formed, names half-spoken.
His interface stuttered.
[Stability Warning: Dimensional Drift Detected][Caution: Soulframe integrity at 61%]
Lucien pressed onward.
The Mask of the Last Scion adapted as he moved—its eyes glowing faintly, filtering illusion from truth. Still, the psychic pressure here was overwhelming. He wasn't walking through corridors anymore.
He was walking through testaments.
The Vault wasn't a prison.
It was a library of erased people.
And every name still wanted to be remembered.
The stairs ended at a door that wasn't there until he touched it.
It opened without sound—revealing the Chamber of Echoing Names.
It was vast.
A dome without walls.
Instead, thousands—no, millions—of names floated mid-air in spectral chains, orbiting a central platform. Each name glowed in a different color, reacting to Lucien's presence. Some pulsed in recognition. Others recoiled in hatred. One or two simply wept.
[Location Confirmed: Chamber of Echoing Names][System Message: Legacy Binding Possible]
In the center, a console of light waited.
But it wasn't a machine. It was a soulcore—the combined essence of every Hollowblood who had died with a name unspoken.
Lucien approached.
As he placed a hand on the core, the voices ignited.
"Vaelthorn...""The One Who Forgets...""The Inheritor...""Breaker of Echoes..."
"Why have you returned?"
Lucien stood his ground.
"Because they took my name.""And I want it back."
"Then take ours."
The core exploded in light.
Lucien was engulfed.
He stood in a battlefield made of glass and bone.
Storms howled in the sky. Armies of faceless soldiers clashed against Hollowbloods wielding memory-forged weapons. At the center of the chaos stood the first Vaelthorn—no mask, no throne—just fire in his eyes.
This was not a dream.
It was an ancestral trial.
A woman appeared beside Lucien. Young, silver-haired, wielding a chainstaff that shimmered with names.
"You came here for truth?" she asked. "Or power?"
"Both," Lucien replied without hesitation.
She smiled sadly. "Then you'll have to survive us."
Suddenly, the names floating in the air turned into blades.
Lucien grabbed Veyrion and moved.
The duel began.
They fought in an arena of memory.
The woman was fast—too fast. Her chainstaff bent space. Each strike sent ghostly names flying, clawing at Lucien's mind.
"You left me behind, Lucien.""Why did you let me die?""You wore my name and forgot my face."
He gritted his teeth.
"I'm not the man who abandoned you!" he roared.
"No," she whispered. "But you carry him inside you."
Lucien fell to one knee.
The names weren't just memories.
They were weights.
But something sparked in him.
He focused—not on the guilt, but on the fragments of truth buried in the voices.
He heard them say—
"You tried to save us.""You died with us.""You are the echo that remembers."
Lucien stood.
His sword began to glow.
Not with Hollowfire—but with recognition.
"I'm not a mistake," he said. "I'm a continuation."
"And I won't let you be forgotten."
He thrust his sword into the ground.
The chamber trembled.
The names stopped attacking.
They hovered—waiting.
The woman lowered her weapon.
"Then speak it," she said. "Speak the name that was buried."
Lucien closed his eyes.
He didn't know where it came from—but the name surged from his soul.
"Seradin Vaelthorn. Keeper of the Ninth Key. The One Who Stood at the Final Gate."
The room ignited in gold.
Chains shattered.
The names began to sing.
And Lucien felt something enter him—a warmth not born of power, but acknowledgment.
[Legacy Assimilated: Name Echo – Seradin Vaelthorn][New Title Acquired: Heir of the Forgotten Gate][Ability Unlocked: Echo Chain – Bind Memory to Reality]
The battlefield faded.
Lucien opened his eyes—back in the Vault chamber.
The names now floated peacefully.
Some even followed him, like glowing fireflies.
He had earned their respect.
He was not just Lucien now.
He was a chorus of those who came before.
And that meant one thing.
He was no longer alone.
Just then, a chime sounded in his interface.
[External Transmission Incoming: Origin – Crownless Citadel][Sender: Unknown. Message Encrypted.]
He accepted.
The message was a single line of text.
"The Choir has moved. They know you've awakened. Find the Ninth Vault before the Sovereign Singers do. Or everything ends again."
Lucien clenched his fists.
"Time to move."
To be continued in Chapter 9: The Crownless Citadel