The wind over the Black Spire Mountains howled like a dying beast. The clouds above were crimson, swirling around the monstrous tear in the sky—a Gate not made by man or machine, but something far older.
Kael stood at the edge of a cliff, cloak whipping violently, the glow of the Chain etched across his body pulsing faster than his heartbeat.
The corrupted Kael stood before the opened rift, flanked by the first of the Forgotten—a towering Harbinger with crystalline limbs and a face carved from some ancient alloy, shimmering like obsidian in starlight. Its presence bent the air, distorted sound, and with each step, Kael could feel his memories flicker—like the past trying to rewrite itself.
"Brother," the Forgotten Harbinger said again, its voice like broken glass grinding against thunder.
Kael's corrupted doppelgänger smirked. "You hear it now, don't you? The truth beyond the Directive. Beyond their rules. We weren't meant to serve, Kael. We were meant to ascend."
Kael gripped the alloy blade Arion had given him. "And let the world burn in the process?"
The corrupted Kael tilted his head. "The world was always burning. We're just offering it light."
Behind Kael, the dropship descended, Arion and Vireya jumping out with a squad of elite Scouts. But the moment their boots touched the ground, the Forgotten moved.
One flick of its arm—an invisible pulse tore through the air.
The mountain cracked.
Arion barely dove aside in time. The Scouts were flung back like rag dolls, several crashing into jagged rocks. Kael's ears rang as he stood, trying to process the sheer weight of the thing before him. It wasn't just a machine. It wasn't even just a former Harbinger.
It was evolution weaponized.
---
Flashback:
Deep in the recesses of Kael's mind, Lira's voice echoed: "The Forgotten weren't erased. They evolved beyond the Directive, beyond morality. They are freedom incarnate... and chaos defined."
---
Kael charged.
The corrupted Kael met him halfway, and their blades clashed—Chain against Chain, light against shadow.
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
The corrupted version of Kael moved like a ghost—anticipating every strike, matching Kael's every tactic. It was like fighting a reflection that knew the future a second before Kael lived it.
"You still hesitate," the corrupted Kael growled, locking their weapons. "You still think they can be saved."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "And you've already damned them all."
Their Chain energies flared—one burning gold, the other black and violet. The clash sent a shockwave that shattered nearby peaks and cracked the face of the mountain.
Behind them, the Forgotten Harbinger raised its arms and began channeling something into the Gate—feeding it energy, expanding the rift.
Vireya, wounded but alive, crawled to a relay console and screamed into her comms: "They're opening a permanent Rift! We need orbital countermeasures now!"
Static. No response.
She cursed. "The Gate is jamming comms!"
Arion pulled her to cover and aimed his rifle at the corrupted Kael—but he didn't fire.
"I can't get a clean shot," he muttered. "They're moving too fast."
---
Kael ducked, barely dodging a downward strike that would've split the mountain.
"You can't win," his doppelgänger snarled. "You're still chained to your guilt. I broke mine."
Kael deflected and twisted behind him, landing a blow that carved across his shoulder—but instead of blood, a stream of raw energy hissed into the air.
"You're not me," Kael said. "You're what I refused to become."
The corrupted Kael smiled.
"And that's why you'll lose."
---
As their battle raged, the Forgotten's body began glowing, its arms reaching skyward, calling others through the rift.
Shapes began emerging from the storm—more Forgotten.
Some were only half-formed, others massive, crawling on all fours, pulsing with unnatural life.
"We're out of time!" Vireya shouted.
Kael heard her. Saw the figures spilling from the rift. He knew what had to be done.
He let go of the blade.
The corrupted Kael paused in confusion—just long enough.
Kael grabbed him with both hands and roared.
The Chains on both their bodies reacted—wrapping around them, binding them together in a snarl of light and shadow.
"What are you doing?" the doppelgänger hissed.
Kael's voice was steady. "Rewriting the ending."
He activated the Harbinger Core within his chest.
A failsafe.
A sequence not even the corrupted version knew existed.
---
FLASHBACK – ALPHA HARBINGER MEMORY:
"When the time comes, and you face the worst of yourself—remember this failsafe. It will cost everything, but it will stop the spread. It will stop the rift."
---
Kael screamed.
The light inside him erupted—pure, burning white.
The Chains began to unravel, disintegrating.
The mountain split as the feedback burst through the Gate, severing the connection between worlds.
The Forgotten screamed—howling as the Gate began collapsing in on itself, pulled inward by Kael's sacrifice.
His doppelgänger's expression shifted from fury to fear.
"You don't have the strength—"
"I don't need it," Kael said through gritted teeth. "I just need to end you."
---
From the skies, a flash of light: one orbital strike—triggered by Vireya manually overriding the failsafe codes.
The blast hit the mountain.
Everything went white.
---
Silence.
Ash fell.
The Gate was gone.
The Forgotten had vanished.
And Kael…
Kael was nowhere to be found.
---
Hours passed.
Arion and Vireya dug through the wreckage.
Only ruins remained. Shattered rocks. Melted alloy. The smell of scorched ozone.
But no body.
No Chain.
Nothing.
---
At dusk, Vireya stared at the horizon.
"He's gone," she whispered.
Arion stood beside her, silent.
Then something glimmered in the distance.
A fragment of a Chain—still glowing.
It pulsed once… then dimmed.
---
Cliffhanger:
In the ruins of the otherworld Gate, beneath the earth, something stirred.
A hand broke through stone.
Kael gasped awake in darkness.
But it wasn't his voice that echoed inside his head.
It was the Forgotten.
> "You broke the Gate… but you opened the door."
---