Chael stood there as he took in the towering murals before him. The sheer scale was overwhelming. Each carving was impossibly detailed, as though they were etched into the stone by hands that had known exactly how this story would be remembered.

  He stepped closer, lifting the torch higher. The first mural stretched across the farthest end of the library, and its imagery was so vivid it almost seemed to glow beneath the flickering light. His eyes narrowed as he traced the scene.

  It depicted what looked to be Nyrethil in its prime.

  From the looks of it, it had once been a kingdom.

  The cathedral stood at its heart. It was more like a royal palace; the mural depicted nobles, princes, princesses, and an army of knights situated on the areas around it. The cathedral rose so high into the heavens that its summit seemed to merge with the sky itself. At the very top, a brilliant light shone, its glow cascading over the entire realm. ‘It’s almost like… another sun,’ Chael thought. It shone so brightly that it reached every part of this realm like an eternal blessing.

  To the east, it showed the Yue Clan, including the mansion at its heart. It looked almost exactly as he remembered. The only difference was that in the mural, the Yue clan was thriving. It was full of people, poets, and nobles doing their everyday tasks.

  Below the cliffe beyond the cathedral, the vast cityscape of the City Below was carved in intricate precision. Streets lined with towering structures and people existed in perfect harmony beneath the cathedral’s light. There was no war and no unrest.

  And yet, something was missing.

  Chael’s gaze darted across the landscape, and then he furrowed his brows.

  "Where is the Fortress?" He muttered to himself.

  He had seen it with his own eyes, far beyond the cliffs. The huge fortress that was seemingly made from dark stone or some type of iron carved into the distant mountains. Yet here, in this mural, it didn’t exist.

  Lower on the mural, something else caught his attention. A massive being rested beneath the City Below. Its form was etched into the very foundation of the city. The way it was carved, it looked as if it had been slumbering for an eternity. Its presence beneath this realm was unmistakable, as if its very existence was tied to the kingdom above.

  ‘A deity…?’ Chael questioned for a brief moment before he shook off the thought. That was impossible. The dieties thousands of years ago didn’t co-exist with the humans, at least, not like this.

  Chael looked deeply at the first mural. A kingdom flourishing, a slumbering entity beneath, and a light burning bright atop this cathedral which provided light to the entire realm.

  But then, everything changed.

  The second mural was starkly different.

  The cathedral still stood with its summit glowing, but something was brewing beneath the surface. A gathering of people had formed. From the structures around them, Chael concluded that it was in the Yue Clan. Their figures were distinct from the worshippers in the previous mural. These people did not kneel, but rather, they stood tall and defiant.

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  At the center of them, Chael saw a woman.

  She was clad in darkened armor, a massive greatsword slung across her back. Her long, black hair was braided over one shoulder. And that was the only part of her appearance that could be seen. The rest of her face had been left unfinished..

  Beside her stood a towering, muscular man.

  Chael narrowed his eyes. ‘That man looks familiar… but from where…?’

  Something about him felt familiar. His stance, and the shape of his body. It was like something he had seen before. He felt as though the memory was in his grasp, but something was blocking it, and the more he tried to think about it, the more his head hurt.

  Chael sighed and let go of the thought. His eyes darted back to the woman.

  It was obvious who she was because there was a massive statue of her right outside the cathedral. The ghosts feared and revered her. The Hollowed Choir worshipped her.

  The Saintess of Carnage.

  Yue Yuelian, the scion of the Yue Clan.

  She was gathering people, but why? What kind of a movement was this?

  Everything looked so perfect. Why would anyone plan conflict?

  He moved to the third mural.

  And suddenly, he couldn’t breathe.

  Everything was in ruin.

  The Yue Clan and the cathedral were amidst the flames of conflict. Smoke and fire consumed the area, and bodies lay strewn across the ground, as if a war was taking place.

  The towering cathedral stood tall. At its summit, the radiant light that once shone so brilliantly was shattered, its fragments raining down like dying embers. The divine beacon of Nyrethil was now destroyed. There was no longer a shining bright light but rather a pale and ashy atmosphere.

  Much like the atmosphere outside right now.

  Chael’s hands trembled slightly as his gaze lowered.

  The Saintess of Carnage stood over the corpse of the king.

  His crown was split in two, and his body was discarded.

  This wasn’t just a conflict, it was a coup.

  His pulse pounded in his ears as he scanned the figures surrounding her. Among them, the tall, built man from earlier stood proudly, but what caught Chael’s attention were the cloaked individuals who wielded staffs, their faces obscured beneath deep hoods.

  Chael’s blood ran cold.

  He knew exactly who they were.

  The Hollowed Choir.

  His breathing slowed, his mind racing as everything started to piece together. They weren’t just mindless phantoms wandering the ruined halls of this cathedral. They had been real.

  No wonder they were worshipping the statue of Yue Yuelian. They had fought for her and possibly worshipped her. And they had helped her tear this place apart.

  A bitter taste filled his mouth as he steadied the tremor in his hands and moved his gaze to the fourth mural.

  The story wasn’t finished.

  His eyes swept over the scene before him. This mural was a continuation of the last. It was a depiction of the aftermath of Yue Yuelian’s rebellion. The battle had been won, and the victors now stood over the fallen.

  The people who had once resided in the cathedral were being pushed out, forced to retreat into the mountains as the Saintess and her forces drove them away.

  Chael’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the cliffs and the jagged peaks.

  Then, realisation struck him.

  They were being driven toward the very place where the fortress stood now.

  ‘Ah, so they must’ve built a fortress in the mountains…!’ Chael thought.

  The ones who had once ruled here had been exiled and driven into the harsh wilderness. There, they must have started as a small settlement and later down the line, build a towering and ominous fortress.

  But then what? Did they survive? Did they wait in the shadows for the chance to reclaim what was lost?

  There was no answer in the stone.

  Chael swallowed and moved to the fifth mural.

  If the fourth had unsettled him, this one unnerved him even more.