A bone-rattling silence spread across the void chamber as Eron's words echoed.
"The Omega Genesis Protocol has begun."
Kael's breath caught in his throat. The room around him dimmed as blue runes crawled over the curved walls like vines blooming in moonlight. The floating sigils of the chamber rotated in perfect synchronization, forming a complex lattice around Kael's body.
He wasn't alone.
Across from him, suspended mid-air in a shimmering cocoon of stasis energy, floated another figure. The being was humanoid but ethereal—almost spectral—its outline flickering between male and female forms, its eyes shut, its body still.
"Who… is that?" Kael whispered.
Eron stepped forward, his eyes no longer glowing but deep, abyssal pools of layered history.
"That," he said, voice reverent, "is the first Ascended—Alaria, the Origin Bearer. And you, Kael, have been chosen to awaken her."
Kael's heart thundered. He'd faced Abominations, shattered cults, even challenged the corrupted core of the Lucent Tower… but this?
Awakening a myth?
Eron raised a hand, and a long, translucent strand of light bridged Kael's chest to the stasis cocoon. As soon as it connected, an ocean of thoughts surged through his mind—not words, not memories, but emotion. Pain, longing, betrayal, euphoria—all tangled like thorns in a rosebush.
Kael stumbled backward, his knees buckling.
"You're connecting to a being whose soul spanned eons," Eron warned. "Don't resist the stream. Let it guide you."
Kael gritted his teeth, pushed himself upright, and surrendered to the current.
Inside the Memory-Stream
He wasn't in the chamber anymore. He stood in a vast crystalline desert under a sky of shifting constellations. Ahead, an army of radiant warriors—ten thousand strong—knelt before a woman in glowing armor, her presence larger than life.
Alaria.
She turned—and locked eyes with him.
"You shouldn't be here, child of flame," she said.
Kael blinked. "I didn't come by choice."
She studied him. "Then by design."
The ground rumbled. A fissure opened, and from its depths came a shadowy titan, its body a writhing mass of hunger and void.
"Witness," Alaria said coldly, "what happens when balance dies."
She raised her hand, and a golden spear formed mid-air—no hilt, no point, just pure condensed essence. She hurled it at the titan. Light met shadow. The world exploded.
When Kael opened his eyes again, he was floating beside her, over a broken battlefield of corpses and stars.
"Why show me this?" he asked.
"Because the Omega Genesis is not just an awakening," she said softly. "It is a reminder."
"Of what?"
"That your path is not yours alone. My failure became your burden. But my strength… can become your foundation."
She extended her hand toward his chest. A glyph flared on her palm.
"Do you accept the First Protocol?"
Kael nodded.
"Yes."
Her glyph branded his chest, searing with blinding light. His vision blurred.
Back in the Chamber
Kael collapsed to his knees, panting. Steam rose from his skin. His core trembled—no, transformed. The Protocol had embedded itself within his soul like a second heartbeat.
[Omega Genesis Protocol Activated.]
[Title Unlocked: Heir of the First Flame.]
[Passive Effect: +80% Ascension Efficiency. Access to Ancient Class: Primordial Echo.]
Kael's mind reeled. The numbers were meaningless—what mattered was feeling. And he felt alive. More than alive. Limitless.
Eron's voice was low but resolute. "You are now bound to the Line of Origin. There's no turning back."
Kael stood slowly, his shadow casting long behind him—twinned by another.
Alaria.
She hovered beside him, eyes now open. Her form translucent but stable, an echo projected from the Protocol. Not flesh, but not illusion.
"A projection?" Kael asked.
She nodded. "A companion. A guide. A reminder."
He exhaled shakily. "Then let's move. We're not done."
But Eron held up a hand.
"There's one more thing."
He gestured, and the chamber floor opened like a blooming lotus. From its heart rose a monolithic construct—an obsidian terminal etched with circular runes and glowing pulse lines.
Kael stepped closer.
[Unlocking Protocol Core Interface…]
[WARNING: Unstable Soul Pattern Detected.]
[Secondary Heir Imprint Located.]
[Designation: Rael Sythar.]
Kael froze.
"No…" he whispered. "Rael's dead. I saw—"
"You saw what the Protocol allowed you to see," Eron said. "Rael didn't die. He Ascended—on a different path."
Alaria's voice became sharper. "He chose the Abyssal Route. The twin to Genesis."
Kael turned to her. "What does that mean?"
"It means he's not your enemy yet… but he's no longer who you remember."
Elsewhere — The Abyssal Spire
Rael stood before a twisted mirror of the Genesis Chamber, black veins pulsing under his skin. His eyes—once full of curiosity—now burned with voidfire. Behind him, legions of shadowbound constructs knelt, silent and awaiting command.
A voice slithered in his mind.
"The Genesis awakens."
Rael smiled.
"Then the End follows."