Darkness wasn't empty. It breathed.It moved.
Lyn and Kael descended the spiral stairs, each step echoing as though time itself were listening. The light from Lyn's crest illuminated stone walls etched with runes so old they had outlasted language itself.
"Umbra," Lyn whispered, "we're below the recorded vaults, right?"
"Below even memory," the wolf replied, voice resonant and distorted through the air. "They called this place the Vault of Echoing Shadows. The first tamers built it to contain what could not die."
Kael frowned. "You're saying the Council knew about this and kept it secret?"
"They didn't just know," Lyn said quietly. "They built their empire over it."
The stairway ended in a vast chamber — domed, silent, and drenched in black mist. Floating chains hung from the ceiling, humming with faint blue mana. In the center stood a stone altar carved in the shape of an open eye.
Lyn approached slowly. The moment his hand brushed the surface, the mist rippled outward — and hundreds of whispering voices filled the vault.
"You carry the Echo Crest.""The forgotten bond returns.""The chains remember the name Umbra."
Kael backed away, trembling. "They're… speaking?"
"No," Umbra said grimly. "They're remembering."
The altar pulsed once, then cracked open like a shell. A spectral figure emerged — a woman cloaked in robes of shifting silver. Her face was obscured, but her presence radiated power older than light itself.
"Who dares disturb the Vault of the First Bonds?" she intoned.
Lyn steadied himself. "Lyn Ashveil. Tamer. Bonded to the shadow wolf Umbra."
Her form flickered — recognition, disbelief, then a strange sadness. "Then the prophecy continues. The chain has not been broken."
"Prophecy?" Lyn demanded.
But before she could answer, a second voice cut through the chamber — cold, human, and sharp.
"Found you."
A squad of Runeguard elites stepped from the stairway above — their leader cloaked in crimson and white, the insignia of the High Council burning bright on his chest.
Kael's eyes widened. "That's— General Serath!"
"Step away from the altar, Ashveil," Serath ordered. "By order of the Council, you are to be bound and silenced."
Lyn's eyes darkened. Umbra's essence stirred like fire and storm."I'm done obeying orders built on lies."
"Then we fight, my Tamer."
Light exploded from the crest — gold and violet intertwining, forming spectral wings behind Lyn. Chains shattered, the mist ignited, and the entire vault trembled.
The spectral woman's voice rose above the chaos.
"Then let the Shadows of Rebellion begin."
The runes blazed alive, forming a seal that shattered the floor — and the three of them were swallowed in blinding light.