The village slept uneasily.
Fires smoldered in pits where monsters had fallen. The granary walls were cracked but standing. The air held the metallic tang of spent magic and scorched earth.
Arlen couldn't sleep.
He stood at the edge of the village, staring into the treeline where the vision had shown the figure. The forest was quiet — too quiet. No insects. No wind. Just a stillness that felt… intentional.
Mira approached, cloak wrapped around her shoulders. "You're doing that thing again."
"What thing?"
"Brooding."
"I'm analyzing."
"Brooding," she repeated, smirking.
Arlen sighed. "The trait showed me something. Someone. And I don't know if it was the past, the future, or a possibility."
Mira stepped beside him. "Then let's find out."
Before Arlen could respond, the system chimed:
Foresight Trait Resonance increasing.
Proximity Trigger Detected.
Warning: Vision Imminent.
Arlen's breath caught. "Mira—"
The world flickered.
The trees blurred.
The sky darkened.
The ground beneath him dissolved into shadow.
He wasn't standing in the village anymore.
He was somewhere else.
The Vision
A forest clearing.
Moonlight filtering through broken branches.
The air humming with quiet, unnatural energy.
And there — at the center — the figure.
Cloaked. Hooded. Face hidden.
But this time, Arlen could feel something radiating from them. Not malice. Not exactly. Something colder. Older. Like the echo of a forgotten rule.
The figure spoke, voice distorted, layered, as if several people were speaking at once:
"You are early."
Arlen froze. "Early for what?"
The figure tilted its head. "The fracture was not meant to open yet."
Arlen's pulse quickened. "You caused the sky to crack?"
"No." The figure's voice rippled. "We sealed it. Long ago."
Arlen swallowed. "Then what broke it?"
The figure raised a hand.
The sky above the clearing split open — a jagged wound of white‑blue fire, identical to the one above the village.
But this one was widening.
"Something is waking," the figure said. "Something that should have slept forever."
Arlen stepped back. "What does this have to do with me?"
The figure turned toward him fully.
And for the first time, Arlen saw their eyes — not human, not monstrous, but shimmering with the same blue light as his Class Fragment.
"You carry a shard of what was lost," the figure said. "And soon, it will remember you."
Arlen's breath hitched. "Remember me?"
The figure reached out a hand.
"Wake up, Arlen Thorn."
Back to Reality
Arlen gasped and stumbled backward, collapsing into the grass at the village edge. Mira caught him before he hit the ground.
"Arlen! What happened?"
He stared at the forest, heart pounding.
"They're coming," he whispered. "Not monsters. Not Guardians."
Mira's eyes narrowed. "Then what?"
Arlen swallowed hard.
"Something older."
He looked up at the cracked sky, now pulsing faster.
"And it remembers me."