[System Alert: Echo Lockdown Engaged.]
[Foreign memory signature has been quarantined.]
Yeo's eyes fluttered open as red symbols hovered across his vision. The ancient temple was silent—unnaturally so. The wind had stopped. The flames no longer flickered. Even time felt… paused.
Leiran stood still, as if frozen mid-motion. Her fingers were just inches from Yeo's shoulder.
"What now?" he muttered.
"System, status?"
[WARNING: Echo of Tyrant-Kael still embedded in memory stream.]
[Initiating Lockdown Protocol.]
[User must confront Echo internally before system access is restored.]
A deep pull gripped Yeo's consciousness—and before he could resist, he was dragged inward.
---
He appeared in a dark corridor lined with mirrors—each reflecting a different version of himself. One bore angelic wings, another held a bloodstained sword, one looked like a scholar surrounded by dying stars.
But one mirror was shattered—and leaking black fire.
From the shards emerged a whisper:
"You're trying to fix a corrupted system... but what if the corruption is you?"
Suddenly, Yeo was face to face with a living Echo—a flickering fragment of the Tyrant King, still trying to embed itself in his soul.
"You saw what I saw. You felt what I felt. The betrayal. The pain. The hunger for justice," the Echo rasped. "You hacked the rules. You're no better than the gods. You just don't wear their robes yet."
Yeo clenched his fists.
"I'm not them. I'm not you."
"You will be... if you keep walking this path alone."
The Echo lunged.
---
Inside the mental realm, Yeo's Chronicle of Ash ignited, forming a blade of code and flame. Every strike clashed with echoes of regret, doubt, and fury. But Yeo didn't fight to kill the Echo.
He fought to rewrite it.
[Override Initiated: Echo Integration – Partial.]
Yeo reached forward and absorbed the Echo—its pain, its memories, its anger.
He didn't destroy it.
He understood it.
And the system responded.
[Lockdown Lifted.]
[New Skill Unlocked: Echo Channeling (Passive).]
[Note: User may now access alternate timeline memories under strict control.]
---
Yeo gasped awake back in the real world, Leiran finally moving again.
"You were... frozen for minutes," she said, eyes wide. "What happened?"
Yeo stood, his eyes glowing faintly with shifting hues—one blue, one red.
"I learned that even broken versions of me… have something to teach."
He turned toward the mountains.
"The system thinks I'm dangerous now. Good. Let it watch me grow."
And as the wind returned, the Chronicle flipped to a blank page.
A new chapter had begun—not just in the story, but in Yeo himself.