I Level Up by Killing Gods-Chapter 52: The Titan’s Whisper

Above them, the vault’s door stretched —a slab of pitted Etherite taller than three men, its surface etched with runes that writhed like serpents under torchlight.

Lira craned her neck, her Duskwyrm cloak shimmering as it could finally rest from repelling the Blight mist coiling around their ankles. Without it, her skin would’ve already bubbled.

Kael didn’t need the cloak. The Blight here welcomed him. It slithered through his veins, cold and familiar, a whisper only he could hear.

*...open us...free us...*

"Cheery decor," Lira muttered, prodding a skeletal hand protruding from the moss. The fingers clutched a rusted dagger.

"Last guy didn’t get the ’sacrifice’ memos, huh?"

Before Kael could reply, the runes flared.

Light pooled in the air, coalescing into a figure—a holographic guardian, its form flickering between humanoid and something else.

Six wings of fractured light fanned behind it, each feather a shard of Etherite. Its face was a shifting void, save for twin stars where eyes should be.

"The unworthy perish. The worthy surrender."

Its voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere, metallic and wet, like gears grinding through blood. "A sacrifice of memory. Offer it... or join the echoes."

Lira edged closer to Kael. "Okay, that’s slightly unexpected."

---

The guardian’s wings flexed, scattering prismatic shards that embedded in the walls.

Where they struck, the stone screamed, bleeding oily tears.

Lira grimaced. "Right. So, ’sacrifice of memory.’ Any chance it wants, like, a bad birthday party? I’ve got a few."

Kael stepped forward. The guardian’s stare pinned him, its voice reverberating in his skull.

"You carry the stench of divinity, thief. What do you offer?"

Lira snorted. "Thief? Please. We’re *enthusiastic archaeologists*."

The guardian ignored her. Kael’s hand hovered to summon Aether’valis, but the sword felt distant, muted.

This wasn’t a fight for blades.

"What kind of memory?" he asked.

"One that binds. One that breaks."

Lira tugged his sleeve. "Don’t. Heared of tnings like these, they eat memories. Was told a well known powerhouse in the Third Reach lost his own name and powers to a God trap."

But Kael was already reaching. The runes pulsed, and the chamber dissolved.

---

*

Fire. Ash.

A god’s corpse sprawled across a shattered plain, its ribs curving like ivory mountains. Kain stood atop its chest, Aether’valis buried to the hilt in the Titan’s heart. The blade drank deeply, its glow bleeding from blue to hungry crimson.

"Pathetic," Kain spat, wrenching the sword free. "You call this eternity?"

The Titan’s remaining eye rolled toward him, pupil blown wide with fear. "You... do not... understand..."

"I understand power." Kain pressed a boot to its throat. "And you’ve lost yours."

Behind him, shadows stirred. A figure robed in starlight—a Celestial?—reached out. "Stop. The Null will consume you."

Kain laughed. "Let it try."

---

The vision shattered. Kael staggered, bile rising in his throat. The guardian loomed, its void-face inches from his.

"A worthy offering," it hissed. "But not yours to give."**

Lira grabbed his arm. "What did you do?"

He shook her off. The runes were shifting, rearranging into a lock mechanism—a puzzle of light and shadow.

"It wants more."

"Of course it does." She yanked the disruptor from her belt. "How about we skip the melodrama and—"

The guardian’s wing lashed out, vaporizing a chunk of the wall. Lira ducked.

"Or... we play nice! That works aswell!"

---

Kael approached the runes.

They mirrored the patterns in his vision—the Titan’s ribs, the arc of Aether’valis’s strike. His fingers brushed the symbols, and they burned.

*Sacrifice. Surrender.*

He pressed his palm to the central rune. The guardian stiffened.

"You tread a path of ash, thief. The Titan’s curse follows."

The door groaned, its edges bleeding light. Lira whooped. "See? Teamwork!"

But as the vault split open, the guardian’s voice pursued them, colder now.

"Thief of the Divine... You. Are. Marked."

A shiver crawled down Kael’s spine. Behind them, the moss began to shrivel, blackening as if scorched by an unseen flame.

---

The vault’s innards were worse.

Fleshy tendrils webbed the ceiling, throbbing to a rhythm that matched Kael’s pulse. The floor was a mosaic of bone fragments and Godly circuitry.

And there, floating above a pedestal of fused skulls, was the Titan’s Heart.

It was smaller than Kael expected—a fist-sized orb of liquid Etherion, its light so pure it hurt to look at. Lira shielded her eyes. "Well. That’s... beautiful."

However she swiftly turned away and began to pack up all the other relics in the vault into a sack.

Kael on the other hand, reached for it.

"Wait!" She grabbed his wrist. "You heard the guardian. This thing’s cursed. Maybe we..."

Her words died as the Heart pulsed.

The tendrils above writhed, and the walls peeled back, revealing murals—Kain, Aether’valis raised, facing a Titan...a God.

Lira paled. "They say only Kain Valtherion could’ve killed a God. Myth, probably. But..." She eyed Kael. "That man, he’s got that look."

He didn’t answer. The Heart was singing now, a high, keening note that made his teeth ache.

*...claim us...become us...*

Aether’valis materialized in his grip unconsciously, its edge trembling.

The blade remembered.

So did he.

---

The first cut was instinct.

The Heart split like overripe fruit, its light spilling over Kael’s hands. Power flooded him—clean, scalding, alive. For a heartbeat, he felt invincible.

Then the pain hit.

His veins lit like fuse wires, burning white from fingertips to heart. He collapsed, the chamber spinning. Lira’s shouts sounded underwater.

"—ael! Kael!"

The murals were moving now, Kain’s battles replaying in a loop. The guardian’s voice boomed.

"The mark is set. The Watchers come. The God’s know."

Lira hauled him upright, her grip bruising.

"Time. To. Go."

They stumbled from the vault as the tendrils lashed out, the Heart’s light dimming behind them. Kael’s hand blazed where the Etherion had touched him—a sigil glowing beneath his skin.

The same sigil that had adorned the Titan’s corpse in his vision.

Lira cursed. "What did you DO?"

He didn’t know.

But the whispers did.

*...they see you now...*

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