The air grew colder as they descended deeper underground, the heat of the Verdant Vault replaced by a biting chill. The natural glow of living walls gave way to jagged rock and fractured mineral surfaces. Roots no longer thrived here — they clung to cracks in the stone like forgotten veins, brittle and drained.
Ren's steps slowed. Every instinct urged him forward, but a weight pressed on his shoulders, not from exhaustion but from pressure. Atmospheric. Spiritual. Like they had crossed into sacred ground desecrated long ago.
System Alert: You are entering a Dormant Faultline
Environmental Stability: 34%
Warning: Dormant Seismic Node Detected – Proceed With Caution
Ilis knelt by a patch of shattered obsidian embedded in the earth. "This place was scorched. Not by fire… but by stress."
Kael clicked his visor. "This was no battle. It cracked from within."
Meka's scan beeped once, then died.
"No signal. We've crossed under the convergence point of three leylines. Energy is being pulled away. Like something's feeding off it."
They reached a vast chamber where the ceiling had collapsed eons ago. Shafts of dim light pierced through the dust, illuminating massive stone formations that spiraled downward like a broken helix.
At the center, half-buried in stone, was an enormous construct. It resembled a seed—but distorted, elongated, and bound in iron veins.
System Notice: Seed Signature Inverted
Status: Rejected / Locked
Identifier: Faultborn Core – Type Omega
Response Protocol: Undefined
Recommend: System Shield Active
"What is that?" Ren asked, voice low.
Ilis frowned. "Not a Seed. A wound."
Lythros' voice echoed faintly through their comms, almost out of range. "That was once a possibility… rejected by the Earth itself. A Seed that absorbed too much loss. It tried to root in sorrow. It failed."
The ground trembled beneath them.
Without warning, the Faultborn Core pulsed. Lines of red light surged across the rock, and from the cracks emerged shapes — figures formed of obsidian, ember-eyed and twisted. Their bodies were hollow, yet their movements were purposeful.
"Guardians," Kael muttered, blade already drawn. "Or what's left of them."
System: Combat State Engaged
Enemy Class: Core Revenants
Weakness: Emotional Counter-Surge
Passive Defense: Fragment Reflection (Physical attacks echo damage back)
Ren raised a hand, activating a defensive barrier. "Don't hit them directly. We need to find the root of their pain."
Ilis took a step forward, eyes narrowing. "They're not fighting us. They're defending something inside."
Suddenly, a voice — younger, desperate — burst through the chamber, not from the system, but from within the Faultborn Core.
"I tried to save them! I begged the Vault, the others — but they sealed it! Left it to break!"
A memory. A soul echo. Trapped.
Meka turned to Ren. "It's a Seedbearer. One who never made it back."
Ren reached for his system, heart racing.
System Accessing: Emotional Archive Interface
Archived Memory: Bearer X-09 | Last Transmission
Message Fragment: "The bloom failed. The pain kept growing. I couldn't let it die, so I became the soil."
He understood now.
This chamber wasn't just a wound. It was a tomb — not of death, but of unbearable hope. Someone had tried to force growth through grief. When the Seed refused, they bound it, caged it, and became part of it.
Ren stepped toward the Core, the revenants surrounding him but not attacking. He opened his system and projected his own resonance.
[System: Heartseed Pulse Initiated]
Infusion Type: Acceptance | Signal Frequency: Compassion + Closure
Effect: Purges Emotional Static | Grants Rest to Residual Consciousness
Light poured from his chest, weaving around the revenants like threads of gold. One by one, the creatures froze. Then, silently, they disintegrated into ash, carried upward by invisible wind.
The Faultborn Core cracked open slightly.
A figure knelt inside. Humanoid. Ancient. Hair fused with vines, skin like cracked bark. Their eyes opened, not hostile — just tired.
"You found me…" they whispered.
Ren nodded slowly. "You were never lost."
System Update: Fault Core Purified
Name Restored: Emberseed of Solace
Feature Acquired: Core Integration | Fault-Based Bloom
Trait Gained: Empathic Conduit — Transfer suppressed emotional weight into temporary energy reserves
Status: Seismic Instability Neutralized
As the chamber stabilized, the oppressive atmosphere lifted.
Ilis helped the kneeling figure out, though their body was fading fast. "We don't have much time."
The old bearer touched Ren's arm. "Don't let them bury the truth. Even the broken threads are still part of the weave."
He faded like dust in dawn light.
Ren stood in silence. Another name lost. Another step forward.
Kael touched his shoulder. "You're not just gathering Seeds. You're gathering ghosts."
Meka looked up. "What's next?"
Ilis pointed toward a narrow tunnel now revealed on the eastern wall. Its walls were etched with ancient script glowing faintly.
"That," she said, "leads to the Memory Vault."
And for the first time since the journey began, Ren didn't just feel the weight of the past.
He felt ready to carry it.