This world is like wood burned by fire until it becomes charcoal and ash, but not for the still-unconscious Sora. The world around him was full of suffering from every experience he had and his past. While still unconscious, Sora found himself standing in the middle of a vast and endless barren, red field. The sky above was red as if burned by something, with clouds of black smoke above it, and beneath his feet was not earth, but a collection of ash formed from a great burning. Sora, looking confused because he remembered being with Kaelith, was now in a strange place without her presence. He then realized, after looking at himself and discovering the impossible, that he had become a young boy again, and he now knew he was in his subconscious. Sora saw that he was naked, wearing no clothes, and looked like a wandering spirit. His body felt cold when the wind blew towards him, and what's more, he was all alone there in the middle of the barren field. When Sora realized this, he tried to scream to see if he could speak or not. However, no sound came from his throat; it was the same as always.

  When he looked ahead, he saw the shadow of a hut that resembled the one he had lived in during his childhood, with the characteristic torn cloth marker on its old and shabby front door. Beside it, a figure was sitting in a rocking chair near the door. It was not like an ordinary human; as Sora slowly approached, he saw it was a figure that almost resembled a shadow, possessing a very dangerous aura that Sora could feel. As Sora got closer, it was clear that the figure was... a decrepit old woman, hunched over as she sat in her rocking chair. Sora did not know who she was, but he had a bad feeling when he saw this. The old woman turned her head quickly towards Sora, her face now showing a curious expression, and the gentle smile on her face held a hidden meaning. The old woman remembered... something like a prophecy from the past and compared it to the present as she looked at Sora. Then the old woman spoke, pointing her wrinkled finger at Sora, "You should not have survived, and you should not be in this world right now."

  Sora was shocked to hear the old woman's words and slowly backed away. Soon after, another figure appeared behind him when Sora turned around. It was a figure he knew well and wanted to see, though the distance was not far. It was Eyla Varn, the woman who raised him when no one else would, as Sora himself was considered a cursed child unwanted by anyone except Eyla, who raised him until he was 7 years old. Sora's eyes could not believe he was seeing Eyla again, but the current atmosphere and condition did not evoke feelings of emotion or the desire to embrace the woman he considered a mother, but rather fear, as she looked very different from the person he knew. As Sora stood frozen looking at Eyla, she finally approached him slowly. When she was close, she reached out her hand to touch Sora, but as her hand was about to touch his face, it turned into ash and was carried away by the wind. Eyla's form vanished completely as the ash was blown away. Sora, seeing this, could only stand petrified, feeling that something was wrong, causing a sharp pain in his chest.

  As Eyla disappeared like ash on the wind, something tall loomed in the distance behind where her ashes had been. It seemed to be someone carrying a lantern, cloaked in bone like a grim reaper, its face hidden by a hood. Its hand holding the lantern was as if it were pulling a chain made of the echoes of everyone who screamed for something unspoken, for a clue to light their dark path. The creature walked toward the petrified Sora and, approaching him, whispered, "You were born of neglect, you were shaped by silence, and you were chosen... to be forgotten by most. Yet, what keeps you walking, young one?" The lantern the figure held transformed into a long, glowing chain like an ember and wrapped around Sora's arm when it was whipped towards him. Sora tried to free himself from the chain but could only surrender to his situation. A rising heat in his hand slowly spread through his body towards his shoulder, until his whole body glowed like flickering embers. The heat of the chain caused the rune inside his chest to burn, reactivating it. But the rune that now lit up was not a wound, but a sigil of resistance against the heat of the chain binding him. As the rune flared to fight what was wrapped around his arm, it caused the ember-like chain to shatter into pieces. The figure hissed upon seeing the power of Sora's rune, but soon after its hiss, a red storm appeared nearby, slowly growing larger. Sora braced himself against the fierce gusts that tried to pull him into the storm, and the figure was swept away by the red storm, vanishing from Sora's sight.

  Then—

  Sora, who had been bracing himself against the red storm with both hands, suddenly found himself in a place full of darkness, as if he had been abruptly transported elsewhere. Now, nothing was visible—not the barren land, the old hut he recognized, the lantern-bearer who turned into a chain, the old woman in the rocking chair, nor Eyla who turned to ash. There was nothing but the silence and darkness he saw and heard. Suddenly, from behind Sora, a hand was placed on his shoulder. Sora spun around and found Kaelith behind him. Her bow was slung on her back, and in her hand, she held a burning torch in the middle of the darkness. "You cannot stay here, not as long as this world still breathes your name to continue being a witness to its destruction." Kaelith's voice echoed as she handed him the torch, a light for the path ahead of him where there was no other guidance. The torch's flame leaped towards Sora's chest. The fire did not burn him but instead bound him, so that the candle in his heart would not be extinguished, as a reminder of his role and as a form of a human still living above the suffering he had endured. Right before the nightmare tore into a darkness deeper than before, Sora no longer saw Kaelith before him; she was consumed by the darkness within and her figure vanished. However, a whisper from an unknown source was heard in his ear, and it was certainly not his own. The whisper, at first faint, grew louder as it approached him until a voice emerged, hoarse and broken by its silence, saying, 'I am not finished yet.'

  Back in front of the cathedral.

  Sora's body jolted suddenly, waking him. He saw his surroundings, ignoring the severe pain in his bandaged wounds and blood. Kaelith, who had been sharpening her arrows with her whetstone, was startled to see Sora awake. Without realizing it, she dropped her whetstone and rushed to the side of the just-conscious Sora. Sora's eyes were wide open, trying to understand his current situation. A faint light shone briefly from his eyes, and the rune was still visible on his chest, looking like a scar that was slightly indented. His dry lips parted, and Sora tried to confirm one thing, but still, no sound came from his mouth. Kaelith, seeing him like this, tried to calm herself and spoke to him in a low, worried tone. "Hey... calm down, you're not dead yet." Sora's entire body was now covered in sweat mixed with dried blood on his skin after experiencing the nightmare while he was unconscious. Kaelith poured a few drops of water from her bottle to help Sora drink. Sora sat up towards Kaelith, who was helping him, still weak and covered in wounds patched with torn cloth, but he was now conscious and trying to force his body to rise from his injuries. "You scared me so much, seeing you gamble with your own death like a fool." Kaelith muttered to Sora after giving him the bottle to drink from on his own. Sora, leaving some water in the bottle, extended his hand holding the bottle, covered in fresh wounds though the bleeding had stopped to give it back. Kaelith took it, and for a moment, her gaze towards Sora was not that of a warrior, but of someone who cared for the person who had saved her life. Just two people surviving the world's decay that sought to slowly destroy them, sitting amidst the dust and ash, the ruins of forgotten gods beneath long-shattered stained glass, and the campfire Kaelith had made to keep their light alive in the darkness.

  Kaelith broke the silence with a faint smile, remembering the incident that would have cost her her life maybe 3 or 5 times over if not for Sora. "Next time, let me be the one who almost dies," Kaelith said, looking back at the fire burning between them. After they had rested long enough for the sky above to slowly turn dark, Sora, forcing himself to rise through the pain of his wounds, stood silently, checking his sword before placing it in the scabbard at his hip. There was no name engraved on its hilt and no particular skill to speak of from his time holding the sword that bore witness for him, yet the sword felt as if it spoke to his hand, saying that he was meant to be its owner. Kaelith, not far from Sora, was packing all the arrows she had collected into the quiver on her back. The bow she had received in the previous room hung on her back alongside the quiver. "So, you're not dead today. We should keep moving and see what else is inside this cathedral gate," she said to Sora while standing up. Sora followed, struggling to his feet, but he finally managed to force himself to walk, even though he wasn't fully healed. At least he could fight if needed.

  They walked towards the slightly ajar cathedral gate and entered through a gap just wide enough for one person. Inside, they found the cathedral full of broken wooden benches scattered everywhere, while the pulpit in the distance still stood, though it showed old burn marks. The colorful stained-glass windows above were partially shattered, and a symbol displayed above the worn pulpit was partly destroyed, a strange symbol depicting a partially ruined wolf's skull.

  As they looked around the cathedral area, they found a staircase leading underground behind the pulpit, hidden by its slightly shifted table. A visible gap made them both curious, and Kaelith pushed the table aside, revealing the staircase leading down. They descended the steps towards a place underground, finding unlit torches on the side walls. Kaelith took one and lit it with her flint, striking it repeatedly until a flame appeared on the torch, illuminating their path ahead. They continued down the path indicated by the stairs, the only sound being the echo of their footsteps. When the stairs ended, they saw a massive gate before them, as if it tightly sealed a secret beneath the cathedral. A body was slumped against a broken pillar in front of them, and naturally, this made Sora step forward slowly to approach it, his hand gripping his sword. As Sora tried to check on the figure, it moved, still breathing, and alertly heard the approaching footsteps, preparing the sword in its scabbard without drawing it. The figure was a man in worn armor bearing a symbol of a wolf, identical to the one above the cathedral pulpit. His face was partially covered by a worn steel half-mask that still showed parts of his face. The figure stared at them for a long time, recognizing that they were human and not monsters, nor were they his enemy at the moment. However, he wasn't exactly friendly either, as they saw a knight worn down by time, evident from his aged armor and mask.

  "Another bearer of silence and a shadow archer with eyes that have seen too much," he said in a faint, weary voice. Kaelith readied her bow as a sign of caution, while Sora, hearing the knight's words, lowered his guard, understanding the man's intent. "And you are?" Kaelith asked, aiming her bow at the knight. The knight reacted by raising both hands as a sign of non-aggression. "My name is Vael. Once a knight of the Borreal kingdom, and now just a relic of the past. As you can see, everything here has long vanished with time." Hearing this from Vael, the old knight of Borreal, Sora stepped slowly towards him. Vael, confused, tilted his head as he watched Sora approach, trying to read his movements and intentions, but he allowed Sora to stand before him and just observe him. "I saw you two defeated the sorceress above. I heard a song sung when your blood and the clash of your sword fell upon the stone," Vael said slowly, trying not to draw his weapon as a threat. "If you came here for safety, you will not find it. However, if you came seeking answers... you might find what you are looking for behind this door." Vael added, his statement making Kaelith narrow her eyes with suspicion. "And what if we came to end what has been attacking us from this kingdom?" Kaelith asked Vael cynically, seeking an answer to his previous, ambiguous statement. Vael only chuckled softly at Kaelith's question, the sound echoing as if mocking her. "If that is your goal, then you two are either cursed or chosen." Vael answered calmly, a response that seemed impartial, only beneficial to himself. The silence that followed was heavy, not with danger, but with history, after what Sora and Kaelith had experienced and now seeing a living knight still serving a long-ruined kingdom. Sora, increasingly curious about Vael, approached him again. Vael looked into his eyes and saw something, knowing Sora was someone he could not have imagined. "You cannot speak, can you? Yet, your silence seems to scream things many do not wish to hear," Vael said, realizing Sora was mute but that he could "hear" what he wanted to say from the fresh wounds of his battle above.

  Vael decided to try something with Sora, thinking he might be able to do something with an object he had long kept. Vael reached into a pouch on his armor and revealed a shard of a sigil, looking like a piece of glittering red glass that pulsed faintly like a heart. "This... is what remains of the royal sigil. The same blood that cursed this kingdom also flows through it. Touch it, and I want you to see what they buried. Try to explain to me what you see inside this sigil." Kaelith's hand quickly moved to Sora's arm, knowing this could have a similar effect to the rune Sora had activated. "Be careful," Kaelith said softly, worried for him in his wounded state. Sora nodded to Kaelith to show he understood and did not hesitate to touch the sigil Vael offered. He reached out and held the sigil, the shard feeling cold in his grasp.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Flash of Vision:

  The world Sora saw was as if bleeding, but white, the color of the snow-covered northern kingdom, Borreal. Sora stood in the midst of Borreal centuries ago, during its golden age of glory. The shouts of a festival, the ringing of bells, and towers so tall they seemed to reach the clouds the castle where kings once spoke to gods from their thrones. Then, fire and screams came from all over Borreal. An unknown robed figure chanted a spell before the throne, a ritual that caused the end of the kingdom's golden age. The sky cracked, and from the hole above, a horde of Varnished rained down like angels of death, beginning an era of chaos and endings. The people were turned into the living dead by the prophecy of a young scholar who had become the king's advisor, turning them into his puppets. The king, sitting on his throne, watched his kingdom burn with a bitter smile, fooled by the advisor he had trusted until death took him in his fiery throne. The last thing Sora saw, after all that remained was blood, ash, and chaos, was a child standing alone amidst the destruction. The child stood among the ruins, and his face was so very familiar to him. Shortly after Sora noticed the child, darkness spread over the entire area like a curtain, covering the memory within the stone shard.

  Back to the present:

  Sora jolted back, having seen what no one was supposed to see, and Vael, seeing his reaction, immediately asked him. "You saw it, didn't you? The ruin? Can you tell or explain what you saw?" Sora, still unable to believe what he had just seen, did not want to explain it to Vael. Kaelith, seeing Sora's shocked reaction, questioned Vael. "What was that?" Vael turned to Kaelith and tried to explain what he knew about the sigil. "A memory, stored in this stone shard and hidden by time." Vael looked at them both and saw Sora shaking his head at him. Vael understood that Sora did not want to explain what he saw and continued speaking. "You want to reach the truth behind this, don't you? If that is what you want, you will need me to achieve it. Ahead, the path splits into three branches: one leads to death, another to madness, and the last leads to the truth you seek."

  Hearing this, Kaelith immediately pulled Sora aside to speak with him privately, deeply suspicious of Vael's uncertain motives. Sora understood Kaelith's intent, and before she could speak, he raised a hand and nodded slowly to show he knew. Kaelith could only look at Sora with resignation before returning to face Vael. Sora nodded his head in agreement with Vael's offer. "In that case, follow me. But do not ask which path we take, as long as you are prepared to lose what you cannot imagine losing from yourselves," Vael said, turning towards the door before them, from which a purple mist now seeped from the crack below.

  The door creaked open wide, revealing another staircase leading down, even deeper than the one in the cathedral. This path led into the heart of Borreal, long buried by the truth that destroyed it from within. Iron roots could be seen on the curved walls, piercing through the broken stone, and their every step on the solid stone stairs echoed down the passage. Vael led the way, holding a torch given to him by Kaelith, while Sora and Kaelith followed behind. Kaelith followed, glancing at Vael's back, her fingers still gripping her new bow tightly, which pulsed gently in time with her breathing. Sora, as usual, was silent, but his eyes never left the moving shadows around them, full of vigilance.

  "This kingdom once lived in pride. The knights who once held its banners were blessed by the breath itself, their oaths binding them to this kingdom and its people. We were born under a sky that never forgot our names," Vael began, his voice low and almost reverent as he told them a little about Borreal. "And we were certainly very proud when we swore an oath to the people who considered us part of them, so we could not so easily abandon what we had sworn to protect until death itself honorably took us while we protected them." Vael added as he walked on, finally stopping at the end of the stairs, which revealed three branching paths lined with statues of weeping women covering their eyes with cloth. Their eyes were covered, and some statues were cracked but still perfectly intact. "And now, Borreal has been forgotten by its pride, consumed by it, and the knights who swore an oath to the kingdom regret the betrayal committed by the kingdom against their vows," he whispered, his voice faint and full of sorrow, as Vael was one of those knights. Kaelith stopped and interjected, slightly lowering the bow she had aimed at him. "You speak as if you still serve it?" Vael, hearing this, turned to look at Kaelith. The torchlight illuminated the hard lines of Vael's steel half-mask. "I only serve what is left of that on my oath... and of my former self." Vael narrowed his eyes, the memory still seared into his mind. Kaelith, seeing Vael's dejected posture, changed the subject. "You still haven't said why you're helping us." A heavy silence fell between them, and Kaelith's question echoed in the chamber. Then, with a weight like the armor he wore, he answered: "Because I failed to protect that which I was sworn to not break my oath over."

  He stepped into one of the three paths, taking the one on the left. Sora and Kaelith followed him from behind. As they walked, they reached the end and saw a strangely carved door next to some statues. Vael pointed towards it. The door was sealed shut by several rusty chains and had three holes in it. "That door will show us a tomb with names long erased and forgotten by time. The palace of the kings who were resurrected by a traitor and made into Varnished by him," Vael said, pointing at the door. Sora looked at the door's seal and felt something wrong; the blood in his body seemed to boil as he looked at it. "My oath was to protect the heir of Borreal. But I watched him fall into a madness I could not have imagined. And worse... I helped, under the pretext that it was part of my oath to my kingdom, to build the ritual that cursed this kingdom under the order of a king influenced by that man," Vael continued, his voice faint as his hand touched the hilt of his sword. Kaelith's hand froze on her bow as she heard Vael's confession, asking him as if she were listening to someone who had destroyed his own kingdom. "You what?" Vael looked tiredly at Kaelith's reaction, an unusual sight for him to hear of someone destroying their own kingdom. Vael turned back to the door to face the past that had tarnished a royal knight, to fully confront his regrets as he removed his worn mask. Beneath the mask, one side of his face was ruined from a knight's battles, his condition no longer human, with scars like hollows in weathered rock and facial bones showing old, hidden burn marks. His eye on that side blinked faintly, as if his life was no longer worth preserving to bear the shame, trying to maintain his sanity while he was still alive.

  "The one who betrayed us promised a rebirth. That, within the unveiled Veil, we would be purified of all sins, and our oaths would be our strength, a shield for the knights to protect the people and the kingdom. I believed him... until he summoned the Varnished himself, who began to sing a hymn of genocide against the people of the kingdom, causing everyone to start changing, to forget what was left of themselves and to kill each other, turned into Varnished by him." His voice trembled not with weakness, but with the shame and fear etched into him to this day. "I tried to stop him. I killed the Varnished with my own hands, even those who were once citizens of the kingdom and my comrades-in-arms, to force myself to strike them down. But at that time, the wound in my heart also opened little by little until a fear of living again grew within me, and the Varnished rained down from the sky relentlessly to slaughter all who were still alive in the kingdom." The torch slowly dimmed as if listening to the knight's story, who had unwittingly become a traitor but still held to the oath he had broken. Sora stepped forward, his hand moving with a simple, controlled, and patient gesture towards the dejected Vael. Kaelith, watching them, remained silent as Sora's hand patted Vael's shoulder. He was listening to the story of someone trying to forget and run from what he had regretted in his emptiness... and something deeper. A confession from someone who labeled himself a traitor and a kinship in a mistake borne alone for too long. Vael, feeling that Sora was trying to comfort him by understanding his guilt, blinked and then said, "You... you understand, don't you?" No sound came from Sora, but in the silence, there was an answer that could calm Vael. Kaelith watched them, her posture relaxed as she stretched her arms upwards, breaking the pause between them. "So, what now? The fallen knight and the silent one with an unpredictable past are friends now?"

  Vael chuckled softly at Kaelith's question and stepped towards the sealed door. "Now, we will awaken one of the former kings of Borreal, who was resurrected as one of the Varnished under his control. One for each oath that was betrayed." he said firmly, having regained his strength from Sora's reassurance. Vael drew his sword; its blade was still sharp and rust-free, as he had maintained it for years. Without hesitation, he gently scored the blade across one of his own fingers, and his thick, red blood, looking like oil, dripped into the first hole. The seal hissed and glowed from the blood. "One oath has been filled to open this door," he whispered softly. Kaelith stepped forward and tried to understand the meaning of this by asking Vael. "Wait, if it needs blood as a key to open the seal, what about—?!" Kaelith didn't get to finish her sentence as Sora had already stepped up beside her to do the same as Vael. Undaunted, he pressed his hand to the seal next to Vael's. Sora didn't need to cut himself; his wound from the fight with the sorceress was still fresh, and he only needed to place his blood-wet hand into the hole. The seal reacted instantly, glowing not red, but white, and the stone behind it trembled. "You... you are connected to the throne. No... it's connected to something beneath it," Vael whispered in astonishment. Kaelith, who had been watching them uncertainly, gritted her teeth, took out her own hunting knife, and did the same, though she was still hesitant and wary. She looked at them for a moment, then made a small cut on her finger to drip her blood into the last hole. The seal glowed green, and the chains on the gate trembled and then disintegrated as if corroded, vanishing completely. "Three oaths have been voided. Three voices, bound by their ruin," Vael muttered, watching the door's reaction.

  But before they could enter, the stone beneath their feet trembled, and a wind roared from an unknown source as one of the blindfolded statues beside them began to move.

  Wraith of Binding: they are ancient guardians bound by their oaths in silence to guard something, their souls tied to their creator.

  The statue attacked with spectral claws that whipped at Kaelith. She managed to dodge but was still scratched on her leg as she was startled by the statue's movement. Vael immediately moved towards the statue, shielding Sora and Kaelith. Vael was thrown back while protecting Kaelith from the statue's second attack with his drawn sword. Sora stepped forward quickly, his sword slashing at the statues. However, they all knew that the statue was stone, and it was impossible to fight such hard stone with any sharp blade. But Sora kept trying to at least damage the statue, and it was seen that his sword was able to create cracks on it, causing it to focus its attack on Sora instead of Kaelith and Vael. The clash between them began quickly and brutally. Sora's precise movements allowed him to penetrate its defenses and avoid its attacks, his sword slicing into the statue until, with a final thrust into its core, he destroyed it. The statue could only remain still as it shattered into stone fragments once its core was destroyed.

  And silence returned. They stood panting, especially Sora, whose old scars, combined with new bruises and bleeding from his reopened wounds, stained the floor with his dripping blood. Kaelith wiped the wound on her leg, a scratch from the statue's claw, and said, "Nice welcome for guests." Vael, who had taken a direct hit, forced himself to get up and walk towards the unsealed door. "We should rest first. The seal won't close again once it's open, and we still have plenty of time to prepare before facing the king of the Varnished, perhaps," he said, walking to the side of the door and sitting on the ground, placing his sword down. Sora and Kaelith agreed and rested where Vael was. Kaelith placed her bow on the ground, and Sora sat with short breaths, feeling his wounds reopen, but he tried to stay focused and regulate his breathing. Kaelith looked at Sora's wounds, which she had previously bandaged, now open again, and then at Vael, who was just looking at his still-shining sword, guarded like a part of himself and a symbol of the knights of Borreal.

  After a long pause, Kaelith broke the silence by asking Vael softly: "Why did you really come here, Vael? For your redemption or your revenge?" The knight looked at his nearly extinguished torch and answered Kaelith's question. "Because in my dreams, I still hear that child screaming, the one I could not save because of what I did to this kingdom and its people." Vael's eyes shifted to Sora, and for the first time, Sora felt that Vael was not looking at him, but past him, towards something else in the distant, waking silence. Was it a question or an answer for them as they rested? Or maybe... a forgotten memory of a mistake one never wanted to remember again?