⚡ Ashenwell – Sublevel 5: Disavowed Wing
The air reeked of scorched Lume and old memories.
Tarin stood like he'd been expecting them. No panic. No fear.
"Override in process," Sparks whispered. "Disrupting his signal net. Keep him talking."
Grim stepped into the room like it belonged to him.
"You followed me across every move. Watched me bleed. Watched me burn. Why?"
Tarin's smile was calm, but behind his eyes—clinical hunger.
"You were always meant to wake. You just got ahead of schedule."
A subtle flick of his hand—
The lights dimmed.
The walls pulsed.
Lockdown engaged.
🔥 The Fight Begins
Grim moved first—flame in his fist, warping the air.
Tarin caught it. Redirected it. Absorbed it.
"Oh crap," Sparks hissed. "He's not just a handler. He's a conduit."
Tarin lashed out—a flurry of strikes aimed at Grim's joints. He fought with surgical precision, like someone who memorized Grim's weaknesses years ago.
Grim countered—raw, instinctive, precise. Every blow meant to end the fight in seconds.
But Tarin kept matching him.
Worse: he was learning.
❄️ Crash – Lys Arrives
The far wall exploded.
A spiral of frozen shards sliced through the room—followed by Lys, eyes glowing pale blue, breath misting.
"You should've stayed gone, freak."
She didn't wait.
No questions. No warnings. Just ice daggers flung full force.
Tarin turned to defend—and that was his mistake.
Grim grabbed his arm, slammed him into the console. Sparks surged:
"Override NOW—"
A shockwave of electricity and memory-laced code exploded outward. Tarin staggered back—face glitching for the first time.
"Nice," Sparks said. "We cracked his pretty mask."
Then the air changed.
The temperature dropped.
The Lume field spiked.
And Tarin's body convulsed.
🧠 Subroutine Activation – Echo Merge
"You really thought I came alone?" Tarin said, voice distorted.
His skin shimmered.
His veins pulsed with gold and red.
And then—
He split.
Metal tore through flesh.
Memory shards embedded in bone.
His spine twisted—and from within him, the Echo emerged, half-fused, like a parasite given a body.
It had Tarin's face—but mirrored, hollow-eyed, and constantly shifting.
"Phase Two begins now."
⚔️ Three vs One
Lys hurled a spear of frost directly into the Echo's chest. It paused—then absorbed it.
Grim flared with Lume-fire, space folding around his arms.
"Sparks?"
"No time for cute plans. I'm syncing your willpower to flame and warp. Let's hit him with everything."
They moved:
Grim struck first—flame whip, space-folded impact, breaking ribs.
Lys locked down the Echo's legs with frost chains.
Sparks injected a memory spike into its data stream, corrupting the core.
The Echo screamed—not in pain, but in recoil, like memory itself was rejecting it.
"It's breaking!" Sparks shouted.
💥 Finisher
Grim jumped mid-air, flame spiraling around his fist, and Sparks synced perfectly.
"Give it a name," Sparks said.
Grim whispered:
"Ashbreaker."
He slammed his fist into the Echo's chest.
A shockwave of fire, memory, and suppressed pain exploded—
Silencing everything.
☠️ Aftermath
The Echo lay in fragments. Tarin was gone—whether dead or retreated, no one could tell.
Lys leaned against the wall, panting.
"What... the hell... was that?"
Grim didn't answer. He looked at the memory shards still glowing on the ground.
Sparks buzzed, low and serious.
"He didn't just merge with an Echo. That subroutine—it was written for you. A failsafe. If you went rogue…"
"They'd send him to replace me," Grim said coldly.
Back at the tower, Kaia dropped a file on the table. It bore a familiar mark:
Project Solace
"That Echo? It wasn't Tarin's. It was yours."
Grim froze.
Kaia didn't look away.
"He wasn't just tracking you. He was built from your missing memories."