The storm hadn't stopped since the Origin Crown fractured.
Kael walked through the downpour, each step weighed down not by exhaustion, but by memory. Lightning cracked overhead, but his mind replayed only one thing—the way the Architect smiled.
"You were forged for collapse."
He didn't tell the others what that meant.
Drayke trudged beside him, wet hair slicked back, aura barely restrained. Behind them, Lyra guided Zera, whose body had grown colder since Zenith's Reach. Her misty aura now clung to her like a shadow that breathed.
They reached a cliffside overlooking the ruins of Halecrest Outpost, once a thriving guild base. Now, it was a crater filled with scorched black bone and shattered relic fragments.
"What the hell happened here?" Drayke muttered.
Zera blinked slowly. "A failed descent. Someone tried to force a God-Gate open."
"And?" Kael asked.
"They succeeded. Briefly."
As if summoned by her words, a wave of aura swept over them—thick, putrid, ancient. The kind of aura that didn't just exist—it infected.
Lyra flinched, nearly dropping her staff. "It's… wrong. This isn't Eternal. It's something else."
"No," Kael said quietly. "It's older."
Suddenly, a voice echoed across the ruins.
"You're early, Ashen One."
They turned.
From the crater emerged a being wrapped in living chains, its face veiled by dozens of broken masks. Its aura was unreadable—like a symphony played in reverse.
Zera stepped back.
"An Echo Lord."
Kael drew his blade.
"I thought they were just myths."
"They were," Zera said. "Until you shattered the crown."
The Echo Lord raised one hand.
And the dead rose.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of broken aura users. Hunters who'd fallen in past raids. Their bodies twisted, faces hollow, but still carrying their relics.
Lyra gasped. "They still have their aura signatures."
Drayke grinned. "Alright. No more holding back."
The battle ignited.
Kael surged forward, his blade cutting clean through the first line of Wraith-Echos. But they didn't fall—they split, reforming like corrupted clones.
He gritted his teeth. "They're mimics!"
Zera tossed her Wraith Bell into the air—it rang once, freezing the nearest Echos in place as their aura echoes began to unravel.
Lyra summoned a radiant dome of light, shielding them as she chanted. "Solar Reprieve!"
Drayke laughed like a demon, his Infernal Gauntlets igniting with beastfire. "Finally, a fight that bites back!"
He charged into the swarm, fists shattering skulls, fire consuming corrupted souls. But they kept coming.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
He closed his aura.
Then reopened it—Ashen Mode pulsing like wildfire.
"Adapt," he whispered.
In an instant, his aura shifted. The next wave of attacks phased through him. He blurred, then reappeared behind the Echo Lord.
"You called me early," Kael said.
He raised his blade.
"But I never show up unarmed."
Ashen Skill: Soul Scorch.
His strike cleaved through the Echo Lord's veils, exposing a core of glass filled with screaming memories. It imploded, collapsing inward with a scream that wasn't sound, but grief.
The remaining Echos dropped.
Silence.
Then rain.
Kael stood in the crater, steam rising from his shoulders.
Zera approached, eyes wide. "You just killed a fragment of time."
Kael didn't turn. "I'm starting to think time wants me dead anyway."
Lyra reached out to him.
"Kael… what's happening to you?"
He looked back, eyes dimming.
"I don't know," he whispered. "But I think I'm forgetting who I was… before all this."
Somewhere beyond Aurenya – The Architect's Domain
The Architect watched the battle through a shifting veil. One of its lesser mouths whispered:
"Still he rises."
Another mouth replied, "Still he chooses."
The third one, smaller, almost childlike, trembled.
"What if he breaks the cycle?"
The central eye blinked once.
"Then we start again."