Mist coiled around the Hollow that morning.
Thin at first. Pale. Harmless.
But Kaien felt it. The weight in the air. The breath behind the wind.
He rose from meditation in the Oathstone chamber, dreamfire still flickering across his palm. His breath caught.
Something was missing.
Not someone.
Somewhere.
Outside, the disciples trained in the misted glade.
Rin struck through illusion drills, sweat and smoke dancing on his arms.Veyra meditated before a beaststone, her Judgment Brand glowing faintly.Seren walked the dreampath behind the Veilbranch, whispering the names of every disciple into flame—so they would not be forgotten.
The new recruits followed quietly. Tora helped Lenari balance her breath. Mazren studied formations. Even the Unnamed Boy sat near the edge of firelight, still unspoken by the system.
Everything felt normal.
Until it didn't.
"Where is the trial ground?" Seren whispered suddenly.
"It was here."
She turned—and the clearing behind her was gone.
Not burned.
Not destroyed.
Erased.
[System Alert: Memory Distortion Detected]
Origin: External Flamepath InterferenceAffected Zone: Sector 3 — Ember GroveOathstone Defense Barrier: Suppressed (Severance Song Active)
"They're here," Kaien growled."The Choir."
From the mist came the first note.
A single voice, low and warm, humming not a melody—but a pattern.The mist shimmered in reply. Trees bent. Names slipped.
Mazren stumbled, clutching his head.
"What's my name—?! Why can't I—!"
Lenari fell to her knees, sobbing. Even her flameroot flickered, no longer sure who it belonged to.
Seren struck first.
She inhaled deeply—and released a coil of dreamfire so sharp it carved the fog in three directions.
"Rin! Guard the recruits!"
"Veyra—strike anything that hums!"
And then they appeared.
Six of them. Robed in glass-threaded black. Faces veiled. Mouths sewn shut—yet their songs echoed anyway.
Severance Choir Disciples.
Kaien arrived like a falling brand.
His cloak burned away as he descended through the mist, one hand raised in Sovereign fire, the other drawing a symbol from the air—
寂 (Silence)
"You came to steal names," he said.
"I'll give you only one."
"Mine."
The first Choir disciple launched a Severance Thread—meant to unbind memory from bone.
Kaien caught it midair.
"I remember too much to forget now."
He turned it on its sender.
The man's body crumbled—but he did not die.
He vanished.
Not in blood.
In meaning.
Rin punched through a second songcaster. His chains rebounded, struck nothing—but left behind a name carved into the dirt.
"Hold the names!" he shouted."Speak them aloud!"
Tora screamed hers. Lenari followed.
Even Mazren found the strength.
But the Unnamed Boy said nothing.
Because the fog never touched him.
A third Choir member approached the boy.
Paused.
Knelt.
"You… you don't belong here," she whispered.
"You're one of us."
"You've already been forgotten."
And still, he said nothing.
He raised a hand—and the system flickered.
[Dormant Flame Reactivation – Catalyst Detected]
Name: ???Talent: UnmeasuredSkill: "Echo of the Vanished Self"Status: Partial Awakening
The Choir disciple recoiled.
Too late.
He exhaled—and around him, every voice that had sung to erase others—
was erased.
In the stillness that followed, Kaien walked to him.
"You're not like them," he said.
"But you were, once."
The boy looked up, finally speaking.
"Was I?"
Kaien smiled. Not kindly.
"We'll find out. Together."
The Severance Choir's advance had been shattered.
But the Hollow did not rejoice.
Because something deeper had been shown.
Seren's flame writhed that night in her dreams.
She saw a Choir chapel in ruins. A name written on the altar.
And Kaien kneeling before it.
Screaming.