The wind had teeth here.
Ren pulled his coat tighter as he followed the dimming trail marker the System projected on his HUD. Beyond the cracked ridge ahead, structures loomed in silhouette—tilted, overgrown, scarred. A city... or what remained of one.
[Alert] Entering Soulzone – Urban Ruin Class: Tier III. External corruption levels fluctuating.
[Alert] Active Soul echoes detected. Civilian lifeforms – status unknown.
The city had no name on the map. Only a whisper stitched into his memory interface:
SCAR CITY.
It looked like someone had tried to cut it out of reality.
Buildings sheared in half mid-air, as if unfinished.
Roads spiraled into the sky, crumbling before reaching anything.
Billboards displayed static faces, mouths open in endless, silent screams.
As Ren entered the outskirts, ghosts followed him.
Not literal ones—no chains or glowing eyes—but people-shaped holes burned into walls. Shadows that twitched when he wasn't looking. Figures frozen mid-sprint, etched in dust like carbon echoes.
He didn't speak. Even his breath felt intrusive here.
Until someone did.
"Hey. You don't look like a screamer."
The voice snapped the silence like glass.
Ren turned. A teenager in a ragged cloak, perched on the hood of a collapsed ambulance. Their eyes glowed faintly—not corrupted, but altered. Tuned.
"You've got the burn marks," the teen said, gesturing to his arms. "Soulbrand. Fresh. You're not from the Sink District. Too clean."
"Who are you?" Ren asked warily.
"I'm nobody," they said, hopping down. "But you just walked into a memory trap zone. So if you're not careful, you're going to remember yourself dead."
Ren blinked. "...What?"
They grinned. "Exactly."
They introduced themselves as Kesh, a Memory Diver—one of the few able to walk through Soulzones without falling apart.
"Think of it like this," Kesh said, leading him deeper into the ruins. "This whole place? It's echoing the last few hours before it fell. Memories stuck on loop, screaming themselves raw."
"And if you listen too long," they added, "you start thinking the screams are yours."
A scream cut through the air then—sharp, too real.
Ren tensed, drawing the metal shard still slick with past blood. Kesh didn't flinch.
"Just a loop," they muttered. "Ignore it."
But Ren couldn't. Not completely. The System buzzed a warning:
[Alert] Soulflare reaction: Echo Tether activating.
[System] Unsealing memory gate—external trigger detected.
Suddenly, the world bent again.
FLASHBACK SEQUENCE
Ren stood in the center of Scar City—but it was alive.
Vendors shouting. Music playing. Drones buzzing overhead.
Children chasing memory-balloons down a sunlit street.
A massive screen overhead playing a public broadcast: "Echoborn trials to begin today. Witness the next evolution of memory!"
Then came the crack.
Something hit the sky.
A sound like glass breaking inside a cathedral.
Flames. Screams. Sirens.
People collapsed. Their shadows burned before their bodies fell.
He gasped as the vision vanished. Knees hitting rubble.
Kesh looked concerned. "You synced?"
Ren nodded, breathing hard. "This city... it died in seconds."
"Not died," Kesh whispered. "It remembers dying. Every second. Every corner. That's why the Woken ones can't leave."
Ren looked up. "The what?"
Kesh just gestured past a collapsed column.
And then Ren saw them.
THE WOKEN.
A group of ragged survivors clustered around a dying bonfire. But none of them moved. Not truly.
Eyes glazed with memory frost.
Lips whispering things that made no sense.
One woman laughed as if someone had told her a joke ten years too late.
The System scanned them silently:
[System] Soul-hosts detected. Echo Imprint Level: 67%. Cognitive function impaired.
"They're alive," Kesh said softly. "But not here. They're... stuck inside what the city remembers."
Ren clenched his fists. "Can they be saved?"
Kesh hesitated.
"Maybe. But not by us. Not yet. Unless you want to lose your mind the first time one of them starts crying in your voice."
As they backed away, Ren caught sight of a mural behind the camp.
A faded painting of a man—his face looked just like Ren's.
But older.
Colder.
With burning marks across both eyes and the words: "We made the Echoborn to remember what gods forgot."
The mural had a name etched in blood underneath: CALDER-00.
Ren stepped back. Heart pounding.
[System] Class archive update: Origin Echo Found – Calder Prime Signature Confirmed.
[System] New Path options unlocked: Prime Fragment / Heir of the First Burn
Ren turned to Kesh. "How long have they been worshipping this... thing?"
Kesh looked at the mural with disdain.
"Since the burn. Since you."
And for the first time, Ren realized—he wasn't just a survivor.
He was the echo of something dangerous.
Something remembered by cities and feared by shadows.
And the world wasn't finished with him yet.