MASTERS OF THE ETERNITY
CHAPTER 11: THE VAULT OF WAKING
The shrine beneath Mirewake wasn't built — it was carved. Hewn from living stone, black as oil and silent as the grave, it spiraled downward through jagged halls and forgotten prayer chambers.
Torchlight flickered as Raian descended first, blade drawn, every step echoing into cold nothing. Izek followed with the gravity lantern slung over his shoulder, casting an orb of weightless illumination across walls etched in old Hitorika runes. Lira came last, slower, her steps uncertain — the red mark across her chest still pulsing, faintly alive.
Beneath them, the silence changed.
It wasn't just quiet — it was listening.
"Third echo," Izek said under his breath. "We're close."
Raian gave a nod. "Vault should be behind the resonance seal."
They reached the final chamber: a circular room whose walls shimmered faintly in the dark. At its center stood a vault door shaped like a blooming iris — each petal etched with ancient constellations. A cracked inscription lay below:
> "Only the Awakened May See."
Lira stepped forward, palm hovering near the seal. Her light flickered. Then, without warning—
A blinding pulse shot out from the door.
Raian and Izek fell back, shielding their eyes — but Lira stood still, locked in place. Her body rose an inch from the ground, suspended by unseen threads. Her mouth opened — but no words came.
Just stars.
Light streamed from her eyes, cascading across the chamber, and the vault began to open with a sound like reversed thunder.
Then it stopped.
Lira dropped.
Raian caught her before she hit the floor, heart pounding.
"I'm okay," she whispered, voice dry. "It… showed me something."
He didn't press her. Not yet.
Inside, the Vault of Waking was less a room, more a reliquary.
Holographic star-maps hovered like frozen comets. Half-built blade constructs floated mid-air, tethered to long-dead energy cores. A mural stretched across the ceiling, depicting figures in golden armor battling shadows taller than mountains — and above them, a single weapon, radiant and pulsing, its edge curved like a crescent moon:
The Blade of Eternity.
At the far end, a pedestal stood. Upon it, a sphere of cracked crystal whispered constantly, like it was dreaming.
Izek reached for it, and the moment his fingers touched the edge, a voice filled the chamber.
> "You seek a gift. You carry burden."
The voice was not male or female. It was… layered. Ancient. Both tired and angry.
> "The Blade does not grant power. It takes.
It consumes.
It replaces."
Suddenly, the chamber darkened — and another presence stirred from the edge of the room.
It stepped into view from behind the pedestal.
Once human — now something else.
Its skin was cracked and glowing like embers, eyes twin voids. A Resonant Mark pulsed violently across its entire chest, crawling up its throat. Armor fused to its limbs, broken pieces of several blades embedded in its back like a twisted crown.
Lira gasped. "It was a bearer…"
Raian raised his sword. "Not anymore."
The creature spoke — barely a whisper.
"I held it. I thought I could control it… but it fed on what I was. Until all that remained was a shadow."
He stepped forward, movements jerky.
"The Blade is not a prize. It is a choice. And only one of you… will walk away whole."
Without warning, he attacked.
---
Izek slammed gravity down, forcing the room into a crushing field — but the bearer pushed through it, screaming in rage.
Raian danced between strikes, blade singing as it met fused metal. Sparks lit the chamber like stars in collapse.
Lira's hands trembled, Hollowlight bleeding through her fingers. She hesitated — then dove forward, unleashing a prism blast that shattered one of the spikes on the creature's back.
It screamed — not in pain, but in memory.
"I REMEMBER MY NAME!" it wailed. "I WAS…"
Raian moved in, blade to heart — and drove it home.
Silence.
Then, the body crumbled… not into ash or bone — but into glowing dust that drifted toward the crystal sphere.
And the sphere cracked open.
Inside, a single shard of glimmering silver floated upward. Not a weapon — yet. Just a piece. A whisper of the Blade.
Raian caught it, hand shaking.
And in that instant — he saw it.
A vision. No — a future.
Lira. Izek. Kaelith. War. A city drowned in stars. A mask shattered.
And Lira — on her knees, eyes hollow, whispering his name before vanishing in light.
Raian staggered back, breath gone.
"What did you see?" Izek asked.
Raian couldn't speak.
But he clutched the shard tighter.
---
Above them, in the forest outside Mirewake, the constellations in the sky… began to shift.
The Eclipse was waking.
And the Pale Twin was no longer alone.
TO BE CONTINUED…