The wind howled like a wounded beast.
Kael stood at the edge of a ravine split by ancient fire, watching the remains of the spire crumble in the distance. Dust clouds spiraled into the blood-red sky, staining the air with the stink of burning metal and Echo decay.
Ilya sat silently beside him, knees hugged to her chest, eyes wide but unfocused. The link between them pulsed faintly in the back of his mind—like a string connecting two drowning souls.
"She's stabilizing," Lira muttered, crouched nearby as she examined her scanner. "But the tether's weak. If she drifts too far from you... the bond might snap. Or worse."
Kael didn't respond. His eyes were fixed on the horizon, jaw clenched.
He had saved a child.
He had chosen mercy.
But the world didn't reward mercy. Not here.
Not in the Echo Lands.
---
> Sigil Fragments: 5/7
Time Until Collapse: 33 Days
Current Zone: Fallen Cradle (Red Tier, Unstable)
New Threat Identified: Echo Eater - Alpha Class
Objective: Reach Fragment 6 before the Eater awakens
---
Lira folded her device, eyes narrowing. "We can't outrun that thing if it fully awakens. We move now."
Kael helped Ilya to her feet. She looked at him with tired resolve. "I'll try not to slow you down."
He nodded. "We're not leaving anyone behind."
They moved through the cracked lands in silence. The path to the sixth fragment led through the Wraith Hollow, a canyon drowned in perpetual dusk. According to what little data Lira had pulled, it had once been a stronghold of the Awakened. Now, it was a grave.
The descent began steeply. Dark, jagged rocks clawed at them like broken teeth. As they moved deeper, Kael felt something shift in the air—an oppressive weight, like guilt pressing down on the soul.
The voices returned.
At first, they were faint: echoes of lost laughter, shouts, screams.
Then they sharpened.
"Kael..."
He froze.
That voice.
It was his sister's.
---
The Wraith Hollow didn't just kill you.
It remembered you.
---
"Keep moving," Lira hissed. "Don't listen to the echoes."
But Kael's hands were trembling.
He saw her—Elira—standing ahead on the path, same age she'd been the night she died. Long black hair, dirt-stained tunic, wide hopeful eyes.
"You left me," she said quietly.
Kael staggered back. "No… I tried to come back."
"You didn't try hard enough."
Her image flickered, turning translucent.
Ilya clutched his sleeve. "It's not real. She's not real."
"I know," Kael said, voice rough. "But it still hurts."
The illusion shattered like glass, and a scream followed—deep and guttural.
From the shadows emerged the real threat.
A creature of obsidian skin and exposed ribs, its mouth a vertical maw of spinning teeth. The Wraithborn Alpha.
It charged.
Kael shoved Ilya behind him and raised the Revenant Edge. Lira fired a volley of piercing rounds, but the creature shrugged them off like sparks. Its roar shattered the very stones around them.
They fought in chaos.
Kael's strikes came faster, more savage—fed by pain, memory, and fear. But the Alpha was old. Intelligent. It anticipated his moves, adapting with every second.
Then Ilya screamed.
"Kael—behind!"
Too late.
A spiked limb tore through his shoulder, sending him flying into the canyon wall. Blood splattered the dust. His vision blurred.
He couldn't move.
He couldn't stand.
He watched the creature lumber toward Ilya, who stood trembling, trying to conjure a barrier from her half-formed Echo abilities.
Kael's thoughts grew quiet.
Was this it?
Was this the price of mercy?
Then something ignited inside him.
The tether.
It snapped back—not breaking, but tightening. Drawing him to her.
Their bond surged with raw energy.
Images flooded his mind—her memories, her screams, her loneliness. The darkness she had lived with in the Bone Cradle.
And her hope.
You saved me. Now let me save you.
Kael roared and rose.
He wasn't alone anymore.
The Revenant Edge pulsed with new color—faint blue, echoing Ilya's soul. He blinked, and the world slowed.
He moved like a phantom.
One strike. Two.
The Alpha staggered.
A third strike, right into its core.
The creature let out a soundless howl—and exploded into ash.
Silence fell.
Kael collapsed to his knees, breath ragged.
Ilya rushed to him, face streaked with tears.
"You weren't supposed to die," she whispered.
"I didn't," Kael said weakly. "You pulled me back."
Lira approached slowly, scanning the remains. "That wasn't just a kill. That was a soul link... a fusion."
Kael looked at the Edge in his hand. It shimmered now, reflecting more than just his rage.
---
> New Skill Unlocked: Echo Resonance – Guardian State (Limited Use)
Effect: Temporarily merges tethered soul into user's Echo Path, granting enhanced strength, awareness, and dream-field protection.
Cooldown: 72 Hours
Warning: Excessive use may damage soul integrity.
---
They had survived.
Barely.
But something had changed.
Kael wasn't just gathering shards anymore.
He was carrying lives.
And with that came weight.
The kind that crushed, or forged.
---
Far above, unseen through the gloom, the sixth fragment began to shift.
And in the Dreamlands, something stirred, watching Kael's path with curiosity and hunger.
---