The morning after Chi Yang's encounter with Arin began as usual—on the surface.
Chi Chu barged into his room humming a cartoon theme song, shouting about being late. Their mother served toast with peanut butter, reading the newspaper as if the world hadn't shifted slightly beneath their feet the day before.
But Chi Yang wasn't the same.
And neither was the world.
He could feel it. A faint ripple. Like a single thread in reality had been pulled—subtly, silently.
At school, Arin was absent.
She wasn't in her usual seat. The desk sat untouched. Her name was still on the roll call, but when the teacher called it, she simply moved on.
Chi Yang kept quiet.
He didn't need to ask. He already knew she wouldn't be here today.
Something was unfolding.
During recess, while most of the children rushed to the playground, Chi Yang walked calmly toward the tree behind the school building. The same one where he and Arin had spoken.
The wind brushed through its leaves. The dirt beneath it looked untouched.
But his instincts whispered otherwise.
He crouched low, his fingers brushing the ground.
There.
A subtle indentation in the soil. Too perfect, too smooth. Not made by small shoes or casual footsteps. This was deliberate.
He began to dig.
Just a few inches down, his fingers struck something hard.
Cold.
Metallic.
He cleared the dirt gently, revealing a small box. It was old—far too old for something buried at a modern school. Bronze edges, engraved with symbols that pulsed faintly with light.
He narrowed his eyes.
"System. Identify this."
[Item Identified: Sealed Relic – Echo Core][Status: Dormant. Origin: Unknown. Energy signature: Non-human.]
[New Quest Unlocked: Hidden Fragment – Echo of the Lost]— Investigate the relic's origin.— Activate the Echo Core.— Uncover the anomaly connected to Arin.
Chi Yang brushed off the last of the dirt.
The relic's lid slid open on its own. Inside was a sphere—translucent, swirling faintly with stardust.
He touched it.
A voice echoed in his mind—not from the system, but older, deeper.
"You who walk the fated path… the wheel has turned once more."
He yanked his hand back instinctively. The sphere floated for a moment, then fell back into the box, still glowing.
"System… that wasn't you."
[Affirmative. That voice was external. Unknown source.]
[Caution advised. Echo Core may be a memory fragment left by a god… or a fallen celestial.]
Chi Yang closed the lid, placed the box carefully in his backpack, and stood.
This… wasn't part of his original timeline. Not even his divine training had prepared him for an Echo Core buried under a school tree.
He couldn't shake the feeling that Arin had led him here without ever saying a word.
Back in class, the teacher asked students to draw their favorite animals. Chi Chu scribbled a tiger with rainbow fur. Others laughed and teased.
Chi Yang drew nothing.
His mind was elsewhere—locked on the relic, on Arin, on the quiet way the world was starting to bend.
That night, after dinner, he placed the box on his desk and sat in silence.
It pulsed faintly.
He placed his fingers on the lid again.
"Let's see what secrets you're hiding."
As the relic opened once more, golden lines of light shot upward, creating a shimmering holographic image in his room.
A vast hall of stone. A shattered statue. A sigil of a god long lost to memory.
And at the center… a child with glowing gold eyes.
Not him.
Someone else.
The same golden light. The same aura.
But a different face.
A different story.
Chi Yang's heart pounded.
There were others.
And this relic… this Echo Core… was a message from one of them.
[System Warning: High-Level Celestial Memory Detected. Playback unstable. Use caution.]
The vision flickered and cut.
But the message was clear.
This wasn't just a second chance.
It was a beginning.
He wasn't the only chosen.
And not all of them were on his side.
End of Chapter 7