(Lawless Arc: Part XXI)
The Third Seal split open—
not like a door,
not like a revelation,
but like a wound being forced to relive the moment it was inflicted.
Light didn't emerge.
Darkness didn't emerge.
Memory emerged—
raw, unfiltered, predatory.
The desert dissolved.
The monolith crumbled.
And Kael fell into the past he had erased with his own hands.
---
A Place With No Time
There was no ground beneath him.
No sky above him.
Only drifting shards of forgotten events—
a Sovereign begging for mercy,
a universe collapsing inward,
the void kneeling voluntarily,
and a shadow wearing his silhouette,
but with no face.
Kael hovered among these fragments, weightless.
His voice felt small.
"This… is me?"
A whisper behind him answered:
No. This is what you hid from you.
Kael spun—
and saw The Echo.
But not the sealed Echo.
Not the weakened one.
This version towered above him—
a silhouette made of broken laws and unfinished concepts.
The true Echo.
The one created to contain his forgotten identity.
Kael's throat tightened.
"You—
you're not the same Echo from the Remnant."
The figure nodded slowly.
Of course not.
That one was your safety lock.
I am the guardian of the memory you feared.
Kael backed up instinctively.
"What… did I fear?"
The true Echo raised its hand.
Reality screamed.
And the past replayed itself—
---
The Forgotten Kael
A figure emerged.
Kael's heart clenched so hard it nearly stopped.
Because it was him.
Not Vorath.
Not the Void King.
Not the fractured version.
But the real Kael.
The one he once was.
The one he had buried.
He had no eyes—
only white voids swirling with collapsing stars.
He had no voice—
only silence that devoured sound around it.
He had no shadow—
because he WAS the shadow.
And every step he took unmade the concept of distance.
Kael stared, horrified.
"That's… me?"
The true Echo spoke carefully:
That was the self you could not control.
A force creation could not measure.
The one who committed the First Mistake.
Kael shook his head violently.
"No.
No, that thing—
that's not me."
The memory-Kael raised its hand.
A Sovereign appeared—
kneeling—
crying—
uttering a prayer to a god it hoped would save it.
A hope that Kael remembered giving them.
The old Kael didn't speak.
He didn't threaten.
He simply blinked—
and the Sovereign ceased to exist.
Not killed.
Not erased.
Not annihilated.
Unhappened.
Like it had never been.
The echo of its existence screamed through the fractures of time.
Kael staggered back.
His hands shook uncontrollably.
"Why…
why would I do that?!"
The true Echo's voice darkened:
Because you weren't acting out of rage.
You weren't acting out of hatred.
You were trying to fix something broken.
Kael stared blankly.
"Fix… what?!"
---
The First Mistake Revealed
The memory-world convulsed.
A towering construct appeared—
a star-system shaped like an hourglass,
balancing creation and void.
The Echo continued:
At the dawn of existence, you noticed a flaw.
Creation wasn't stable.
Laws contradicted themselves.
Time bled into unmade spaces.
Chaos was inevitable.
Kael's pulse hammered.
"And I tried to fix it… by destroying Sovereigns?"
No.
You tried to fix the flaw by erasing every being capable of exploiting it.
Including the void itself.
Kael's breath failed.
"I… tried to erase the void?"
The memory-Kael raised both hands.
Light died.
Darkness screamed.
The void folded like fragile skin.
Kael felt bile rise up his throat.
"And the void created Vorath…
to protect itself from me."
The Echo nodded.
Yes.
Vorath was a reaction.
A countermeasure.
A king created to stand between you and the destruction of everything.
Kael collapsed to his knees.
His voice trembled.
"I… was going to end existence?"
Not out of malice.
But because you believed the flaw could only be removed if everything was reset.
Kael shook violently.
"So I made the First Mistake."
The Echo finished:
Yes.
You tried to reboot reality.
And creation broke trying to stop you.
---
Why Kael Lost His Name
Kael whispered:
"Then why did I erase my own memory?"
The Echo glided closer.
Because you saw something even you feared.
Kael blinked.
"…What?"
The Echo pointed at the collapsing void in the memory.
You realized you would succeed.
You realized nothing could stop you.
So you hid your name…
from yourself.
And sealed your power inside the Third Seal—
so the multiverse could live.
Kael's heart felt like ice.
"So the only reason reality exists today…
is because I was afraid of myself."
Yes.
Kael clenched his fists.
His voice hollowed.
"Then why show me this?"
The Echo's answer chilled him to the core:
Because something else remembered you.
Something older than the void.
Something that wants you back.
Kael's breath froze.
"…What wants me back?"
The Echo slowly pointed upward.
Kael looked—
and saw an eye.
Huge.
Dim.
Ancient.
A single pupil swirling with forgotten stars.
And when it blinked—
the entire memory shattered.
Everything went dark.
A whisper crawled along Kael's spine:
We found you.
Come home, First Mistake.