The walls of the chamber shifted as the memory duel ended, stone panels grinding against one another like a puzzle rearranging itself. Where once stood a sealed door now opened a staircase, spiraling downward into a faint violet glow.
Serenya stared into the abyss. "Something down there… it's watching."
Lucien grunted. "As if the memory ghost wasn't enough."
Haruto sheathed the Nullblade. Its hum had calmed, but he could still feel echoes of the fight in his bones. "We came this far for answers. We finish this."
They descended.
The air grew colder with each step. Dust clung to the edges of glowing runes etched into the walls—symbols not just ancient, but forbidden. Haruto recognized them from the blade's fragmented dreams: the language of the Ashen Ones.
At the base of the stairwell stood a vast, circular chamber lit by ghostly fire. Floating books, shattered tablets, and rusted weapons hovered midair, orbiting a central figure seated cross-legged atop a dais made of collapsed thrones.
She opened her eyes.
Her hair shimmered silver like falling ash. Her robes were layered in tattered fragments of royal garb from a dozen fallen kingdoms. Her face was ageless—but her eyes were filled with centuries of mourning.
"You have walked far, exile," she said. "But even in your clarity, you do not know what you carry."
Lucien whispered, "That's… a Keeper."
"A what?" Haruto asked.
Serenya's expression darkened. "The Ashen Truths… were forbidden records of the gods' crimes. The Keepers were the last witnesses—those who remembered everything the world tried to forget."
The woman rose slowly, the chamber responding to her movements like she was gravity itself.
"You seek power, vengeance, perhaps redemption," she said, gaze locked on Haruto. "But the truth is older than your blade, older than this world."
She raised her hand, and a mirror of living ash formed in the air.
Inside it, Haruto saw flashes—himself standing in a realm not of magic, but metal skies and artificial stars. A world… not unlike his old one.
"You were exiled not by mistake," she said. "You were chosen. Because what you are… cannot exist in both worlds at once."
Haruto's breath caught.
Serenya turned to him. "What does she mean?"
But the Keeper said only this: "You were never summoned. You were split."