The first swing wasn’t just steel—it was data, memory, and wrath all woven into one flash of white light. Kael barely ducked in time. The blade cut the air where his head had been, splitting a nearby statue clean through.
The echo of his sister moved like a ghost through space, her feet never touching the ground. Her armor shimmered with scripts in ancient code, trailing ethereal flames.
“You are not meant to exist,” she said again, voice modulated through some machine-filtered frequency. “I am the Echo Blade. I sever corrupted timelines.”
Kael stood, bracing his stance. “I don’t care what machine built you. My sister wouldn’t raise a blade against me.”
“She already did. You just forgot.”
Memory Surge: Triggered
Subject: Kael Veyrin
Category: Suppressed Sequence // Year 12 After the Rift
Suddenly Kael was elsewhere—twelve years ago.
The Seal City. Night.
He was younger. Scrawnier. Still carried hope.
In the courtyard, his sister Mira stood surrounded by Red Order knights. The bloodline enforcers.
“You opened the gate,” she said. “You brought them here.”
“I didn’t mean to!” Kael screamed. “It was an accident!”
Behind them, a Rift tore the sky. And from within it, shadow-beasts spilled out, devouring the city’s defenses.
Mira stood firm, casting a binding spell. “You’ll destroy everything. You don’t understand what’s inside you.”
Kael ran to her. “Please—”
And she struck him with her gauntlet.
A final spell.
“Forget.”
Light.
Then nothing.
Back to Present
Kael staggered as the vision passed.
The Echo Blade pressed the attack. Lira stepped in to intercept, deflecting the next blow with a clash that rang across the ruin.
“You’re fighting the wrong enemy!” Lira shouted. “The Mirrorborn is coming back. We need him.”
The Echo hesitated for the smallest moment. “Fate is fragile. If Kael lives, the Core War begins. Billions die.”
Kael’s eyes lit with sudden clarity.
“If I caused this… then I’ll end it.”
He slammed both palms into the runic floor. The Veyrin gauntlet reattached itself. A surge of memory flowed into him, unlocking hidden code buried in his blood.
New Protocol: Adaptive Override.
Status: Unstable
Risk: Cataclysmic
The air around Kael fractured. Symbols floated, forming a second skin.
He rose.
Eyes glowing.
“I am not idle anymore.”
Ten Miles Away
In a fortress forged from meteor-steel, a being made entirely of shifting black smoke stirred in its throne. It sensed the protocol activation.
“The Idle One awakens.”
It smiled—if such a thing could smile.
“Let the extinction begin.”
End of Chapter 4
