The Empire does not lose control.
It rewrites the rules.
In the core chambers beneath the capital, where the stars had been long forgotten, thirteen robed figures knelt in a circle of blood. At the center stood Inquisitor Malrek.
His hands were bare. His mask—off.
On the floor lay a slab of white iron, etched with old glyphs. The blood of thirty executed prisoners flowed through channels carved into its surface, forming the Empire's most forbidden sigil:
The Blood Script of Tracking.
One of the kneeling priests looked up. "Are you certain, Inquisitor? That he's Unwritten?"
Malrek's voice was quiet, but absolute. "I saw the fracture. He has chosen his own fate. That cannot be allowed."
He stepped forward and dipped his finger into the pooled blood.
Then he wrote a name.
Not Kael's number. Not his title.
His true name.
The blood hissed as it touched the rune.
[ Target Engraved: KAEL ASHMARK ]
[ Status: UNWRITTEN – ROGUE VARIABLE ]
[ BINDING BEGUN ]
Far away, Kael felt it.
Like a knife carving into bone.
He staggered against a rusted barricade, breath catching.
The sky around him darkened—not with clouds, but with pressure. Reality tightened. His system screamed silently.
[ External Identifier Detected – Inquisitorial Blood Script Engaged ]
[ WARNING: Fate Signature Compromised. ]
[ Initiating Countermeasure: Reality Echo Alpha Test ]
[ Success Probability: 17% ]
Kael gritted his teeth.
"I don't care if it fails. Do it."
The world rippled.
And then… duplicated.
A ghost of Kael split off from his body, semi-transparent and flickering like a dying memory. It took one step left—then another right—then vanished.
The effect spread.
Ten Kaels. Twenty. Each one a fragment of possible motion.
To the system's watchers, Kael's presence became unstable. Impossible to pin. His timeline jittered across the chart.
The binding halted.
The blood hissed—and fought back.
In the capital, Malrek's eyes narrowed.
"He's using an Echo protocol," he said.
The robed priests flinched.
"That's not supposed to exist anymore."
Malrek said nothing.
He stood, donned his mask again.
And gave the order:
"Send the Eaters."
Meanwhile, Kael collapsed behind an overturned truck on the edge of Blackline's ruins.
The Echo had stopped. His skin felt scorched. His body trembled.
But he was alive.
For now.
"System," he whispered. "That worked?"
[ Echo Disruption: Partial Success. ]
[ Warning: Cooldown for Echo Mode: 72 hours. ]
[ Tracker Resistance Level: Temporary. Reengagement Expected. ]
He exhaled.
Then a shadow moved beside him.
Lyra.
Again.
"Still breathing, I see," she said.
Kael looked up, weariness behind his glare. "Barely."
She crouched beside him.
"You just triggered a Blood Script," she said. "You know what that means."
"I do now."
"They'll send something worse than hounds."
Kael didn't speak.
Lyra pulled something from her sleeve—a vial filled with swirling gold and violet light.
"What's that?" he asked.
"A tether anchor. Old tech. Cloaks your Echo trail, if used right."
She offered it.
Kael hesitated. "Why help me?"
Lyra's expression was unreadable.
"I haven't decided if I want you dead yet."
Kael took the vial.
The swirling light inside seemed alive—shifting with his breath, pulsing faintly in time with his heartbeat.
He uncorked it and drank.
The taste was metallic and cold. It burned down his throat like starlight and smoke.
[ Anchor Cloak Initiated. ]
[ Echo Residue Suppressed. ]
[ Visibility to Inquisitorial Grid: 0% ]
For now.
Kael exhaled slowly. The pressure faded from his skull.
"Thanks," he said.
Lyra stood. "Don't thank me. This doesn't mean we're allies."
Kael rose to his feet. "Then why are you still here?"
Her expression flickered—guilt? Doubt? Something else?
"I told you. I want to see if you're the one who survives it."
Kael looked away. "So I'm a story to you."
"No," she said. "You're the ending."
They traveled together across the broken countryside—through fields scorched by orbital fire, past shattered temples now used as shelter by scavengers and silence. Kael spoke little. Lyra less.
As dusk settled, they reached the edge of a ravine.
A place not marked on any map.
The air shimmered like heat distortion. The rocks pulsed faintly blue. The sky above it curved slightly wrong.
Kael felt it in his bones.
[ Warning: Spatial Disruption Zone Detected. ]
[ Designation: GODSCAR / MIRACLE FRACTURE ]
[ Risk Level: Undefined. Exploration Discouraged. ]
Lyra stepped forward.
"This is the only path left."
Kael looked at her. "You've been here before?"
She nodded once. "Twice. Once with a mission. Once alone."
"And both times you survived."
"No." She met his eyes. "Only part of me came back."
They entered the Godscar.
The shift was immediate.
Time flowed unevenly. Shadows moved in reverse. Kael's breath fogged and then dissolved before reaching the air. Gravity pulsed with his heartbeat. The world here didn't obey rules—it remembered rules and then reconsidered them.
Kael's system trembled.
[ System Stabilizer Active. ]
[ Reality Echo shielding enabled. ]
[ Echo trail restructured: Safe within field. ]
And yet, Kael felt something watching.
Something beneath the surface.
A scraping. A whisper. A hunger.
"What is this place?" he asked.
Lyra whispered, "It's where the first gods bled."
Kael turned sharply. "Gods?"
She didn't answer.
They came upon a monument.
A slab of stone, taller than ten men, covered in writing Kael couldn't read—but somehow understood.
A warning.
A promise.
A name:
THE EATERS COME FOR THE UNWRITTEN.
Kael stepped back.
His vision blurred.
The system pulsed.
[ Incoming Signal Interference… ]
[ Host Position Compromised: Tracers Approaching ]
Lyra drew her weapon.
Kael's fist clenched.
And somewhere, beneath the shifting stones, a low growl echoed up from the dark.
The Eaters had arrived.