Jason expected darkness.
He expected the kind of cosmic void that smelled like old regrets and burnt noodles.
Instead—
He fell through warm light.
Not blinding. Not burning.Just… strangely gentle, like sunlight filtered through memory.
Jason blinked multiple times as gravity slowly remembered how to function and lowered him onto solid ground.
"Uh… Longwu? Are we dead?" Jason asked.
Longwu hummed with the emotional tone of someone reading a traffic fine.
["Unfortunately not. I would get at least three centuries of sleep if you died."]
"…Thanks. Love you too."
["Don't."]
THE CORE OF THE FRACTURE
Jason finally steadied himself and looked around.
The place was wrong.
Not frightening—just fundamentally wrong.
The ground beneath him wasn't stone or soil.It was woven memory, shimmering threads of past events forming a soft, almost living surface.
Structures rose around him—temples, towers, family homes, even the main hall of the Star Sword Sect.But all were incomplete, half-real, shifting, fading, and reappearing.
Jason gasped.
"This… this is my sect's front courtyard!"
Longwu was quiet for a long moment.
["…These are echoes of your lineage."]
Jason frowned. "My lineage? As in… Wu Clan?"
Longwu didn't answer immediately.
Instead—A breeze blew through the broken temple structures, carrying faint whispers.
'—faster, Jason, again—''—family protects family—''—you must choose—''—the burden is ours—'
Jason shivered.
"These voices… they sound familiar."
["They should."]Longwu's tone thinned.["They are Wus who existed before you."]
Jason froze.
"…Wait. As in my ancestors?"
["Yes."]
Jason's heart thumped once.Hard.
"So this is where they… fell?"
["…Yes."]
Jason exhaled slowly."Longwu… what exactly happened here?"
Longwu tried to dodge.
["Historical tragedy. Very sad. Much crying. The usual."]
"Longwu."
["…Fine."]A metallic sigh.["They made a choice that destroyed them. And saved you."]
Jason blinked."Saved me?"
But before Longwu could answer, a new voice cut through the shimmering haze—
"You came."
Jason stiffened.
From between the shifting structures, stepping lightly over half-formed ground, emerged the echo-Jason from before.
Only now—He looked more solid.More complete.Less corpse-like, more… haunted.
Jason instinctively raised Longwu.
"Round two already? Can we do a breakfast break first?"
The echo shook his head.
"I am not here to fight."
Jason blinked.
"Really?"
"For now."
"Great. Threat included. Totally reassuring."
THE TRAGEDY OF THE WU
The echo stopped several paces away.
His eyes—Jason's eyes—glowed with a grief Jason didn't understand.
"Do you know why you were born, Jason?"
Jason scoffed."Oh, we're doing the dramatic existential questions now? Should I sit cross-legged?"
The echo didn't smile.
"You were born because the Wu Clan sacrificed themselves."
Jason's throat tightened.
"…What do you mean?"
The echo gestured to the shifting structures.
"Every realm your clan touched… every world they saved… every war they ended… came with consequences."
Jason swallowed.
"Because they were strong?"
"No."A pause."Because they were defiers."
Jason froze.
"…Like me."
"Like all of us."
Jason felt the air thicken.
"Okay, okay—Back up. Defiers defy what exactly?"
The echo's voice darkened.
"Fate."
Jason blinked.
"Wait, the Fate? Like what people blame when they fail exams?"
"Fate is not superstition. It is a system. A law. A design."
Longwu hummed.
["He's not wrong."]
Jason stared at his sword."You KNEW?!"
["You never asked."]
"I ask things constantly!"
["Yes, and most of it is nonsense."]
Jason groaned loudly, then turned back to the echo.
"Fine. Continue your tragic PowerPoint presentation."
The echo gestured to the fractured landscape.
"The Wu Clan rebelled against the design. They refused their assigned roles."
Jason asked softly:
"…What role?"
The echo looked at him with pity.
"Fate wanted us to become Executioners."
Jason blinked.
"I'm sorry—Executioners of WHAT?"
The echo didn't look away.
"…Of anomalies."
Jason's stomach flipped.
"Me?"
"…Yes."
A cold wind passed over Jason's spine.
"So the universe wanted me dead."
"From the moment you drew breath."
Jason forced a weak smile.
"Well… that's flattering."
THE CHOICE THAT BROKE THE CLAN
Jason squared his shoulders.
"So the Wu Clan refused. And that made them… what? Traitors? Rebels?"
"Defiers."
"And then what?"
The echo's aura flickered.
"Then Fate erased them."
Jason felt his heart stop.
"…Erased?"
"Removed. Unmade. Scrubbed from the timeline until only traces of their memories remained."
Jason's hands shook.
"And all of them… all my ancestors… they did that to protect me?"
"To protect the possibility of you."
Jason didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't blink.
His heart ached with a sharp, unfamiliar weight.
"My parents… my grandparents… the clan I never knew—"
"All gone."
Jason bit his lip so hard it almost bled.
"…Why?"
The echo stepped closer—slowly, like approaching a wounded animal.
"Because you, Jason… are a variable that Fate cannot control."
Jason blinked.
"…Meaning?"
"You will either save everything… or destroy everything."
Jason stared, stunned.
Longwu whispered quietly.
["Jason… this is why the Administrator interferes. Why the Hunters chase you. Why the Riftbound watch you."]
Jason felt hollow.
"…I didn't ask for this."
"None of us did."
Jason rubbed his face with both hands.
"Okay—Okay. Lemme get this straight.I'm some kind of cosmic glitch, and my entire family got deleted because they chose not to kill me?!"
Longwu answered first.
["…Yes."]
The echo answered next.
"Yes."
Jason screamed at the sky.
"THAT IS SUCH AN EMOTIONAL TAX BILL!"
THE FIRST MEMORY DOOR
The echo extended a hand toward a half-formed structure.
Slowly—a doorway solidified, swirling with mist.
"If you want to know what truly happened… go through there."
Jason stepped closer.
"What's inside?"
"The First Fall."
Jason swallowed hard.
Longwu vibrated in warning.
["Jason. The memories inside are heavy. Crushing. You may see things you do not want to."]
Jason inhaled.
"Longwu…"
["Yes?"]
"…If they died for me… then the least I can do is learn why."
Longwu exhaled sharply.
["…You sentimental little disaster."]
Jason stepped toward the doorway.
But the echo held up a hand.
"Be warned."
Jason paused. "About what?"
The echo's voice dropped to a whisper colder than death.
"Once you see what happened…You will no longer be able to pretend you are ordinary."
Jason's fingers tightened around Longwu.
"…I haven't been ordinary for a long time."
The echo nodded once.
The doorway pulsed.
The realm trembled.
Jason stepped through.
THE FALL BEGINS
Inside—
Jason found himself standing on a battlefield made of starlight and broken planets.Colossal shadows towered above.Figures of the Wu Clan fought impossible odds—warriors wrapped in cosmic flame,matriarchs wielding galaxies like whips,elders chanting forbidden arts as they burned their lifespans.
Jason whispered, voice trembling:
"…They were monsters…"
Longwu corrected him softly.
["They were your family."]
A massive explosion rippled through the memory.A golden figure—Jason's ancestor—stood defiantly against Fate's enforcers.
Jason whispered:
"…Grandfather…?"
The echo's voice drifted from behind him.
"The Wu Clan never fell because they were weak."
Jason turned.
The echo's aura burned like a cracked star.
"They fell because they chose love over destiny."
Jason's chest tightened painfully.
And then the memory surged—bright and overwhelming—pulling him deeper.