Chapter 7: The First Memory
907 Words
Chapter 7: The First Memory
Darkness stretched endlessly in every direction.
There was no sky above.
No ground beneath.
Only an endless sea of black that reflected countless stars, as though Aiden were standing between heaven and the abyss.
The man before him—the Immortal King—remained perfectly still.
His silver eyes carried neither pride nor anger.
Only a deep, unbearable loneliness.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Aiden was the first to break the silence.
"So..."
He swallowed.
"You're really me."
The King smiled faintly.
"I was."
"And now?"
"Now I'm only what remains."
Aiden frowned.
"I don't understand."
"You will."
The King looked around the endless darkness.
"This place is called the Soul Sea."
"It exists inside every living being."
"But yours..."
He paused.
"...is unlike any other."
Aiden followed his gaze.
For the first time, he noticed something enormous beneath the dark surface.
It moved.
Slowly.
Like a sleeping mountain beneath the ocean.
"What is that?"
The King's expression turned solemn.
"Power."
"So much power that even I feared it."
Aiden stared at the endless darkness.
"You feared your own power?"
The King nodded.
"Power without wisdom destroys everything."
---
Outside...
The crimson sealing formation continued to close.
The seven Void Sentinels stood unmoving, pouring their energy into the spell.
Crimson chains emerged from the ground, wrapping around Aiden's body.
His breathing became weaker.
Seraphina desperately tried to cut the chains, but her sword bounced off as if striking diamond.
"It won't break!"
Lucien stepped beside her.
"It isn't a physical prison."
"It's binding his soul."
Seraphina looked at him.
"Can you stop it?"
Lucien remained silent.
Then...
"No."
She stared at him.
"You can't?"
"I can."
His eyes hardened.
"But doing so would expose my existence."
Seraphina's jaw tightened.
"You care more about hiding than saving him?"
Lucien looked directly at Aiden.
"No."
"I care about keeping him alive."
"If I reveal my full strength..."
He looked toward the dark clouds gathering above the city.
"They will come."
Seraphina understood immediately.
Her face turned pale.
"The Council..."
Lucien nodded.
"And if they arrive now..."
"They will kill him before his memories return."
---
Inside the Soul Sea...
Aiden folded his arms.
"If you're really me..."
"Tell me something only I would know."
The King laughed softly.
"When you were ten years old, you secretly climbed onto the roof of the orphanage every night."
Aiden blinked.
"You watched the stars."
"You believed your parents were looking at the same sky."
Aiden's expression froze.
No one knew that.
Not even Mira.
The King continued.
"You cried every year on your birthday."
"Not because you were lonely."
"But because you wondered whether someone, somewhere..."
"...still remembered you."
Aiden slowly lowered his head.
His chest tightened.
Those memories...
They belonged to him.
His life.
His pain.
The King walked closer.
"I remember every tear."
"Because I lived them."
Aiden looked up.
"If you remember everything..."
"Why don't I?"
The King's smile faded.
"Because I sealed myself."
"You... what?"
"I erased my own memories."
Aiden's eyes widened.
"You chose this?"
"I had to."
"Why?"
The King looked away.
"Because there was something inside me..."
"...that should never awaken."
---
Suddenly...
The endless darkness trembled.
A deafening roar echoed across the Soul Sea.
Aiden instinctively turned.
Far away...
Something enormous began rising from beneath the black water.
A gigantic golden eye slowly opened.
Its pupil was vertical like that of a dragon.
It stared directly at Aiden.
The pressure alone forced him to his knees.
"What..."
His voice shook.
"What is that?"
The Immortal King's face became serious.
"Don't look at it."
Aiden couldn't.
The eye held his gaze.
Ancient.
Cold.
Hungry.
The King immediately stepped in front of him.
"You are not ready."
The giant eye blinked once.
Then the ocean exploded.
A monstrous roar shook the Soul Sea.
The King's expression changed for the first time.
Fear.
Real fear.
"We're out of time."
He grabbed Aiden by the shoulders.
"Listen carefully."
"Everything you believe about our death is a lie."
"It wasn't Lucien."
Aiden froze.
"What?"
"He betrayed me..."
"But he didn't kill me."
Before Aiden could ask another question...
The Soul Sea shattered like glass.
---
Outside...
Aiden's body suddenly floated into the air.
The crimson chains snapped one after another.
The ground beneath him cracked.
A pillar of violet light erupted toward the heavens.
The seven Void Sentinels stumbled backward for the first time.
The leader spoke in a calm voice.
"Soul synchronization..."
He paused.
Then, for the first time, fear entered his tone.
"...Ten percent."
Aiden slowly opened his eyes.
They were no longer brown.
They glowed with brilliant silver light.
He looked at the leader of the Sentinels.
His voice carried two echoes.
One belonged to Aiden.
The other belonged to someone far older.
"I remember..."
The rain stopped.
The wind disappeared.
Even time itself seemed to hesitate.
Aiden took one step forward.
"...your faces."
The seven Sentinels unconsciously stepped back.
For the first time in a thousand years...
The aura of the Immortal King had returned.
And somewhere beyond the heavens, twelve ancient figures opened their eyes at the exact same moment.
One of them whispered in disbelief.
"He remembers..."
Another slowly rose from an enormous throne of black crystal.
"No."
His cold voice echoed through the silent hall.
"He has begun to remember."
"Prepare the Judgment."
The war that had slept for a millennium had finally begun.
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