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Chapter 13: Wound of the Forgotten
Time froze the moment Kaelen stepped forward.
The Eclipse Shard glowed white-hot in his chest. The air warped. The Hollow Vault vanished.
And Kaelen stood in memory.
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Memory War: The Forgotten Edge
The battlefield was endless.
Swords hung in the sky like constellations. Ash fell upward.
And across from Kaelen stood Vexon, no longer a corpse, but a titan cloaked in flowing remnants of war—his left side consumed by nothingness, his right hand holding a blade that sliced the idea of death itself.
> "You seek to claim what was lost?"
"Then bleed your name into mine."
Kaelen said nothing.
Instead, he raised his Eclipse Edge—
—and launched forward.
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What followed was not a physical battle.
Kaelen was fighting as a concept, as a name, as a purpose.
For every strike he landed, a truth was demanded:
> What do you fear most?
Why do you climb the ladder?
Whose name will you carve into the future—and why not your own?
Kaelen bled.
But not blood—he bled versions of himself.
The coward. The tyrant. The shadow. The broken.
And still, he stood.
Until only one image remained:
> Kaelen. Eclipseborne. The One Who Chose to Rise.
Vexon stopped.
And bowed.
> "Then you may try… to bear my blade."
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Weapon Bonding – The Hollow Fang
Back in the vault, Kaelen's body lifted from the ground. The Eclipse Edge in his hand dissolved into motes.
And from the center of the arena, Vexon's blade—the Hollow Fang—descended.
It was jagged. Crooked. Made of lost moments and molten absence.
>
Requirement Override: Eclipseborne Core Detected
Bond Status: CONDITIONAL ]
Kaelen reached for it.
His fingers wrapped around the hilt.
Agony. Memory. Power. Identity.
The world shattered—
—and rebuilt.
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>
Trait: Binds to the Void-Burdened. May awaken further forms as names are claimed. ]
Passive: Echo Strike – Hits wound not flesh, but history. ]
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Kaelen collapsed.
Breathing.
Alive.
But far from safe.
Because as he opened his eyes, he saw a line of ink crawling across the wall.
> "Subject has bonded with echo. Marking escalated. Dispatching Inkborn Hunter."
—The Pale Archive
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