[Core Synchronization: 100%]
[Imprint Anchor Unstable]
[System Identity: CONFUSED]
My knees hit the floor.
The pain was everywhere. Not the kind you scream from—but the kind that rewrites you quietly, brutally, like a scalpel pressed against the inside of your skull.
Aiko's voice sounded far off.
Like I was underwater.
"Riven—look at me. Stay with me. You're still you."
Was I?
I couldn't remember my father's voice.
Couldn't remember the last thing Daigo said to me.
Couldn't remember if I liked the rain or hated it.
[Core Sync Complete. Whisper Core Integration Achieved.]
[New System Function Unlocked: ???]
[WARNING: INTRUSIVE MEMORY STREAM DETECTED]
"Get back!" Aiko snapped, flaring with crimson light. "Echo incoming—REAL one this time!"
I looked up.
And saw me.
Not the boy from before.
Not a child.
This one was older.
My age. My build. My face.
Except… colder.
Darker.
Dressed in black tatters with eyes that gleamed like voidfire, flickering with system glyphs.
He cracked his neck and smiled. "Tch. I told you. You gave up his voice. But I kept the scream."
[Echo of the Whisper: RIVEN-000]
[System Class: Shadow Archive]
[Rank: ?]
[Initiating Forced Assimilation.]
I didn't get time to process that before he moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
My body barely reacted as the Echo blurred past Aiko, slamming a knee into my ribs. I rolled, coughing blood.
[System Alert: Your presence has been challenged.]
[To survive, overwrite the impostor.]
"What the hell does that mean?!" I yelled.
Aiko raised her spear. "Kill him or become him!"
I stumbled to my feet.
The Echo was just standing there now—arms relaxed, eyes bored. Like this wasn't a fight.
Like it was a reclamation.
"Name one thing," he said.
I blinked. "What?"
"One thing that makes you you. One truth you haven't given up. One piece of Riven Kael left."
I didn't answer.
Couldn't.
He grinned. "Exactly. You gave up the voice. You gave up your place. You gave up the meaning. And now?"
He tapped his temple.
"I'm what's left."
[System Conflict Detected.]
[Identity Imprint Inversion: 60%]
Aiko screamed my name.
And the world fell apart again.
---
White tiles shattered into stars.
The floating names burned and rained down like embers.
And I was no longer in the dome.
I was standing in a sea of black mirrors.
Each showing a version of me.
Broken. Twisted. Lost.
All whispering the same thing—
"You forgot who you were."
"You gave too much."
"You're not Riven anymore."
I clutched my head.
"No."
The mirrors cracked.
"No."
They screamed.
"NO!"
I slammed my hand into the nearest mirror—shattering it.
And from the shards, I saw one thing.
Just one.
A boy standing in front of a grave.
No words.
No tears.
Just silence.
But in that silence—
A scream he never let out.
That memory didn't need a voice.
It was real.
It was mine.
---
[Anchor Reestablished.]
[Imprint Secured.]
[Whisper Core: Stabilized]
[Skill Unlocked — "Black Box: Echo Lock"]
The mirrors exploded into darkness.
And when the light returned—
I was standing.
My Echo was on the ground.
Face twisted.
Fading.
"You still don't know what you are," he muttered. "But fine. Keep the name. For now."
He vanished.
Like smoke swallowed by a void.
---
I collapsed.
Aiko rushed to my side.
"You did it," she breathed. "You locked it. You kept your name."
I laughed weakly. "I forgot everything… but I still remembered pain."
A pause.
Then Aiko smiled, quietly. Sadly.
"Welcome to Level Zero."
Somewhere in the shattered remnants of the dome, silence returned.
Except it wasn't silence.
Not real silence.
It was that tense, sharp kind—the kind that hums right before the world breaks again.
Aiko helped me to my feet. "That… wasn't just a memory trial," she muttered. "Something hijacked it. It tried to overwrite you completely."
I didn't answer.
I couldn't.
My head still pulsed with echoes, system glyphs still dancing across my vision like they were burned into my retina.
[WARNING: Identity Rift Residue Detected]
[Suppression Protocol Recommended]
[Would you like to activate: "Black Box: Echo Lock"?]
[Y/N]
My fingers twitched.
"…Y."
[Initiating Lockdown.]
[Conscious Mind: Stabilizing]
[Fragments Sealed: 19%… 38%… 63%… COMPLETE.]
I exhaled. My thoughts became my own again.
But I could still feel him.
The Echo.
Watching from inside that void the system just locked down.
Waiting.
Aiko studied me carefully. "He looked just like you. Moved like you. But he wasn't you."
I nodded. "He was everything I gave up. Every second I wished I was someone else. Every scream I buried." I looked at my hands. "If I lost to him… I wouldn't have died. I just would've stopped being me."
Aiko looked shaken for the first time since I met her.
Not by what she saw—
But by how close I came to disappearing.
"Guess the system doesn't want just anyone syncing with the Whisper Core," she muttered.
"Guess not."
Then the world pulsed again.
[Labyrinth Response: SUCCESS]
[Challenge Completed: Identity Trial]
[Reward Sequence Initiated]
Stone spires erupted from the black. Glyphs curled around us like rings of fire, and a golden triangle flickered into existence beneath our feet.
[Your Core Has Been Branded]
[Name: RIVEN KAEL]
[Designation: Whisper Core — Initiate]
[Sub-Type: Echo Diver]
[Brand Level: 1 — "Shadowmarked"]
[New Skill Obtained: Veil Step]
[Class Evolution Unlocked — Awaiting Trigger Condition]
"Shadowmarked?" I echoed.
Aiko's eyes narrowed. "You got branded already? On your first core sync?"
"...Is that not normal?"
"No. Riven, even C-Ranks don't get branded that fast unless they're on something divine or cursed. And Whisper Core was never supposed to be either."
I frowned. "Then what is it?"
Aiko didn't answer.
Because the Labyrinth did.
With a sound like a heart beating behind walls.
THOOM.
THOOM.
The glyphs dimmed.
The world shifted.
And a new prompt appeared.
[Labyrinth Depth Unlocked — Level 2]
[Participants: Aiko Kisaragi / Riven Kael]
[Next Trial Begins: 60 Seconds]
Aiko tensed. "What? Already?! This wasn't supposed to be a full dive! You weren't— we weren't—!"
I looked up.
The sky cracked.
Something was falling.
Massive.
Burning.
Alive.
[Abyssal Trial Incoming: CODE—NIL_7]
Aiko gritted her teeth. "We're out of time."
I stared at the sky, fists clenched.
"No," I said. "This time… I'm ready."
The Labyrinth didn't wait.
It collapsed.
Like a stage folding in on itself—metal panels shredding into code, black tendrils crawling across the ceiling, dragging down entire fragments of the simulated world like puppet strings snapping all at once.
I barely had time to react before the second trial swallowed us whole.
[TRIAL 2: CODE NIL_7 — "STAND BEFORE THAT WHICH SEES"]
[Objective: Survive 3 Minutes of Direct Gaze]
[Warning: Identity Degradation Imminent]
[Participants with Non-Harmonized Cores Risk Dissolution]
My vision twisted.
The world became… wrong.
No walls. No floor. Just an endless void with flickers of shattered time—like a dream skinned and rewound, playing in reverse beneath our feet.
Aiko cursed. "It picked a recursion-level trial? That's a god-tier flag—Riven, we need to abort!"
"I can't," I said, voice hoarse. "System locked me in."
And then we saw it.
Hanging above the void like an executioner draped in twilight—
A single, massive eye.
Ancient. Cracked. And yet… blinking.
Its pupil spun in rings, like an orbital engine gone rogue. Its stare pierced through the void, through our clothes, our skin—our thoughts.
It wasn't just watching.
It was reading.
"Don't look at it directly," Aiko growled. "It'll strip your identity layer by layer."
Too late.
It already saw me.
[Subject: Riven Kael — Core: Whisper / Echo Diver]
[Anomaly Detected: Dual-Sync Pattern / Locked Potential]
[Compatibility: 34%]
[Verdict: INTERESTING]
It spoke.
Not in words.
Not even in sound.
But in a pressure—like a black hole whispering a name you forgot you ever had.
"Riven, snap out of it—!"
The eye's gaze intensified.
My systems screamed.
[WARNING: Dissolution Threshold 19%]
[Veil Step: Available]
[Advice: MOVE]
I activated it.
The world fractured.
One step and I wasn't there anymore—I existed between the moment before and after. Shadows bent around me like memory, displacing me from the gaze for a split second.
I reappeared behind Aiko, panting.
Veil Step.
It didn't teleport me.
It unwrote me from a timeline fragment.
The gaze searched again.
"I can't tank that," Aiko said through clenched teeth, her sword trembling in her hand. "If this thing marks me, it's game over."
"How long?" I asked, forcing myself to stay upright.
"Two more minutes," she spat.
The eye blinked again.
The next pulse was worse.
[Subject: Aiko Kisaragi — Core: Astral Reaver]
[Memory Barrier Detected / Origin Path: Corrupted]
[Verdict: DANGEROUS]
The eye shifted.
Aiko grunted—blood bursting from her nose as her legs gave out. "It's… it's rewriting my timeline—! My class data's glitching—!"
It was targeting both of us now.
Because we weren't normal.
Because we were anomalies.
[Trial Status: 83 Seconds Remaining]
[Danger: CATASTROPHIC]
I couldn't breathe.
Not from fear.
But from the truth crawling out of the void—
This wasn't a test.
It was a call.
A scream from the system's forgotten backend.
Code NIL_7 wasn't just a trial.
It was a beacon.
And something—someone—was answering.