Chapter 15 – The Lies They Worship

The High Temple of Althea glowed like a sun above the capital, an unholy beacon dressed as divinity.

Beneath it, rows of believers chanted the name of their blessed Hero:

“Elias Solheart, Lightbearer, Savior of the Third Era!”

But each prayer... echoed strangely.
Their words shimmered, then warped mid-air.

“Elias Solhe—Yoru—... Sol—no...”

The clerics blamed interference. The archbishop blamed demons.
But one girl in the choir—Lira—just trembled.

“I saw his face last night. In my dream. The one they said never existed.”

Far below, beneath layers of catacombs and forgotten altars, Yoru sat cross-legged in a field of ash and broken beliefs.

He was no longer hidden.

He was rejected—yet unavoidable.

The world’s memory rejected his presence.
But its subconscious screamed of him.

He whispered into the void:

“Tsuyoi: Erosion Trigger — Divine Dissonance.”

It wasn’t a spell.
It was a fracture.

One that tore belief from truth.

Above, cracks began forming on the statue of Althea.

Not physical ones—conceptual.

Her blessings began to falter.
Clerics failed their healing rites.
Prophecies returned as blank scrolls.

In the central plaza, Elias Solheart, bathed in divine light, suddenly froze.

“Why is everyone... looking at me like they don’t know who I am?”

His status window flickered.

His title—"Hero of the Third Era"—glitched.
Replaced by: "Contested Claimant."

“That’s... not possible…”

But it was.

Because somewhere far from prophecy, the erased soul was clawing back.

And every prayer they gave to Elias?

Half of it now went to Yoru.

Back in the wasteland, Yoru exhaled sharply.

“Belief is breaking.
That means... I can finally rise.”

And behind him, for the first time, a monument formed from ash and forgotten magic.

It wasn’t to a god.
It wasn’t to a king.

It bore his name.

YORU.

A monument the world would try to destroy.

But it was already too late.

The lies they worship... had started to worship him.