I ran.
Up broken stairwells, through choking tunnels, past rusted signs written in languages that hadn't been spoken in decades.
The thing didn't make a sound.
No footsteps. No breath. No growl.
Just the feeling—like silence had a weight, and it was crawling up my spine with every second.
[Whisper Core Warning: S-Rank Entity in Pursuit.]
[Escape Probability: 3.7%]
[Initiating Survival Protocol: Riven Kael – Solo Operative Mode.]
"3.7%?"
I spat blood onto the concrete and kept running.
The tunnel collapsed behind me.
I didn't turn back.
Because I knew—if I saw its face again, I wouldn't run.
I'd freeze. Like the Priest had warned.
A god's breath. A dead heartbeat.
And something ancient that didn't want it waking up.
---
I burst out of the alley and onto the shattered street.
Purple lightning cracked through the clouds overhead. The Osaka Turf pulsed, its dungeon zones bleeding into the world like open wounds.
I hit a knee—chest heaving, head spinning.
[System Alert: Bio-stress threshold breached.]
[Whisper Core Suggestion: Hide.]
"No kidding."
My eyes scanned the buildings.
Wrecked apartment complex to the left.
Abandoned rail station to the right.
And just beyond it—something that looked like a shrine, half-sunk in rubble, glowing faintly red.
The Core pulsed.
Hard.
Like it wanted that.
I bolted.
---
Inside the shrine, the air changed.
No wind. No sound.
Just heat.
Not warm.
Hot. Smothering. Like stepping into a furnace made of memories.
And then—
Thunk.
The door slammed shut behind me.
I spun, blade drawn.
But nothing followed.
Just a whisper.
Not in my ears.
In my head.
"You shouldn't have come alone."
I turned again.
Not because I heard a sound—
—but because I felt eyes.
And standing in front of the shrine's altar—
—was her.
A girl maybe a year older than me.
Short black hair. Eyes glowing like molten glass.
And a gunblade bigger than her frame, resting lazily against her shoulder.
Her jacket had the Union symbol, slashed in half.
Rogue.
Awakened.
She raised an eyebrow. "You're the Kael kid, right? The dead god's delivery boy?"
I tightened my grip. "Depends who's asking."
She grinned. "Your new babysitter."
Then tossed me a badge.
[System Alert: New Party Member Registered – Aiko Ren.]
[Rank: B+]
[Class: Riftreaver]
"What is this?"
"Backup. Or bait. Depends on your luck."
A crash echoed outside.
The silence was catching up.
Aiko loaded a bullet the size of my thumb into her gunblade.
"You ready to die a little?"
I smirked.
"No."
I tightened my jacket.
"I'm ready to kill something."
Aiko didn't wait.
She snapped her fingers once—and the shrine lit up.
Red wards flared along the walls, etched in symbols that twisted if you stared too long. The temperature dropped. Fast.
"You warded this place?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes. "No. The gods did. I just hijacked their firewall."
The Whisper Core in my chest throbbed.
It recognized this place.
Not like a memory. Like a grave.
Aiko glanced at me. "That thing in your chest's reacting. Good. Means we've got maybe ten minutes before it rips this place open like wet paper."
I stepped closer. "That thing outside. What the hell is it?"
She paused.
Then tilted her head, as if listening to something I couldn't hear.
"A Shepherd," she whispered. "One of the Silence-born. You're not supposed to see them this early."
I clenched my jaw. "But it saw me."
"Yeah." A pause. "Which means you're either cursed…"
She looked at me.
"…or chosen."
The ward lights flickered.
[System Alert: External Pressure Reaching Threshold.]
[Barrier Integrity: 12%]
Then—
BOOM.
The door shuddered. Dust rained from the ceiling.
The shrine groaned like it was in pain.
"Ten minutes became one," Aiko muttered. "Figures."
She pulled a second mag from her coat—inscribed bullets glowing blue.
Mana rounds.
"You know how to suppress your Core signature?" she asked.
"Just learned I had one."
She muttered something rude and grabbed my wrist.
"Then hold your breath. And don't scream."
The ward behind the altar cracked.
A secret stairway spiraled down.
Below the shrine.
Into the bones of Osaka.
We ran.
---
The passage was tight. Claustrophobic.
Aiko led. I followed.
The Core pulsed in my chest—slower now. Dimmer. Like it knew this wasn't the time.
Behind us?
Footsteps.
No, not footsteps.
The absence of them.
A pressure. A pull.
Like gravity had turned sideways and was trying to peel me backward.
"Keep moving," Aiko hissed.
We hit a chamber.
Circular. Huge. Lined with obsidian mirrors.
The air down here was wrong—liquid, oily, filled with whispers that didn't match my heartbeat.
[System Alert: Resonant Field Detected.]
[Initializing Memory Sync…]
"What is this place?" I asked.
Aiko didn't answer.
Because we both saw it at the same time.
In the center of the room:
A coffin.
Floating.
Wrapped in red chains.
And inside it—
A boy.
Maybe my age.
Eyes closed. Skin pale. A broken Core embedded in his chest.
Not shattered like the Hollow Priest's.
Just... drained.
Aiko exhaled. "Welcome to the Endling Vault."
I stepped closer. "Who is he?"
She looked at me.
Expression unreadable.
"You, if we screw this up."
The air inside the vault had weight.
Not just pressure.
Memory.
Every breath tasted like old prayers and dying stars. The mirrors lining the chamber flickered—not with reflections, but with echoes. Glimpses of people who were never me… doing things I'd never done… with faces that looked almost like mine.
The boy in the coffin didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
But the Whisper Core in my chest was howling.
Not in pain.
In recognition.
[Aetheric Sync: 47%… 59%…]
[Entity Compatibility Detected.]
[Processing Bloodline Resonance…]
"What is this?" I asked, voice low. "Who is he?"
Aiko circled the coffin, her boots silent on the obsidian.
She was studying me now, not the corpse.
"You said your Core screamed when the Shepherd showed up," she said quietly. "But not when we came here."
"Yeah?"
She nodded. "That's because this isn't where you die."
I blinked. "That's not reassuring."
"Wasn't meant to be."
Then she raised her hand—and the mirrors shattered.
A wave of pressure rippled through the vault. The reflections turned into swirling smoke, rushing toward the coffin.
Aiko stepped back. "The past needs a vessel," she said.
The Core in my chest detonated—a pulse of heat and light—and then…
I saw it.
A vision not from the System.
From him.
---
A city in flames.
Skyscrapers bending like melted candles. A thousand monsters screaming through a blood-colored sky.
And at the center—him.
The boy from the coffin.
Alive. Radiant.
Not human.
He floated above the ruins, eyes glowing gold, arms outstretched.
But he wasn't saving anyone.
He was burning everything.
A god without a leash.
And then—he turned.
Looked right at me.
Spoke one word—
"Return."
---
I staggered back. The vision ended.
[Whisper Core Stability: 19%]
[Warning: Core Overload Imminent]
[Blood Sync Threshold Approaching: 87%]
"What the hell was that?" I gasped.
Aiko was already moving. She slashed a glowing talisman across the chains. One by one, the links broke and faded into dust.
She looked back at me. Her expression was unreadable.
"That boy? That god? That weapon?"
She tapped my chest.
"He was you… in another cycle."
I froze.
"You mean… time travel?"
She shook her head. "Not quite. More like… recursion. Layered lives. You're the next iteration of a failed answer."
"And this place?"
"A grave. Of one of your past versions."
The chains vanished.
The coffin began to dissolve into mist—drawn into me.
[Whisper Core Absorbing Fragmented Data…]
[Skill Unlocked: Echoform – (Passive)]
[When facing death, manifest an Echo of a prior life.]
Suddenly—
A deep groan from above.
The ceiling cracked.
Then:
BOOM.
The Shepherd dropped into the vault.
It didn't crawl.
It didn't walk.
It descended, like gravity bent sideways for it.
No face.
No sound.
Just a mask of pure absence.
Aiko raised her hand.
"Run?"
I nodded.
We ran.