Location: The Inner Descent — Coreless Sector, Cradle Gorge
Time: [Aetherium Core: Suppressed / Environmental Status: Hostile | Ethereal Contamination Present]
The first step was warm.
The second was cold.
By the fifth, the light stairs behind them had disappeared — swallowed by fog that whispered like it remembered names it shouldn't.
FROST (quiet, uneasy):
"Ren… the walls. They're watching us."
Stone shouldn't move.
Stone shouldn't breathe.
But the walls around them pulsed — like lungs trying to fake silence.
BLAZE (whispering):
"Something's in here."
The deeper they went, the thicker the air became — not hot or damp, but heavy with voices.
Not loud.
Not clear.
But there.
Every few seconds, Ren heard…
"...don't let him..."
"...turn back..."
"...erase the Rift again..."
He kept walking. Even when the others slowed.
Even when their shadows stopped syncing with their movements.
TIME (muttering):
"The echo-delay in here is… off.
Reality's not copying our movement fast enough."
They entered a wide, circular chamber.
Ruined. Faded.
Stone cracked with glyphs that flickered like dying fireflies.
And in the center—
A broken chair.
No throne.
Just a seat.
Empty.
Bleeding light.
REN (staring at it):
"What is this place?"
Then—
CCHHHRRRK.
A whisper behind him.
A figure flickered in the fog — not formed, just shape and motion.
It spoke.
GHOSTLY VOICE:
"You weren't supposed to live."
The crew turned. Weapons out.
Nothing was there.
REN (tense):
"Who's talking?!"
The fog split again.
Another flicker.
This time it looked like Kael — only older. Worn. With half his body glitched out.
REN (stepping back):
"...Kael?"
GLITCHED ECHO (softly):
"No. Just what's left of him in this place.
The part of him they couldn't burn."
The fog swirled.
More shapes formed — soldiers, Riftborn, even a distorted version of Lira dragging her sword behind her.
FROST (eyes wide):
"They're... stuck here.
Ghosts of the Core's broken history."
BLAZE:
"No wonder this place was locked.
These aren't echoes.
They're the pieces someone wanted forgotten."
The broken Kael-like echo stepped forward.
One hand out. The other — missing, bleeding pixels.
GLITCHED ECHO:
"If you keep walking, you'll see it.
The real reason the Riftborn were made.
The reason we broke this planet in half."
REN (firm):
"Then show me."
The echo smiled. Sadly.
Then it crumbled — into dust, into static, into sound.
And the walls opened.
A hallway — blacker than space. Lined with whispering glyphs and shifting memories.
At the far end:
A vault.
Glowing.
Pulsing like it was alive.
And afraid.
AETHERIUM CORE (barely whispering):
> S̸Y̸S̵T̴E̸M̴ ̷C̶R̵O̶S̸S̸C̴H̶E̵C̴K̸ >W̷A̶R̸N̷I̶N̷G̶: ̴T̵H̷I̶S̷ ̷T̸R̷U̶T̶H̶ ̸W̴A̶S̴ ̸N̷E̶V̵E̷R̶ ̷M̸E̸A̵N̴T̷ ̸T̷O̷ ̷S̶U̷R̸V̷I̶V̶E̵
REN (low):
"I don't care."
He stepped forward.
And the air screamed.