The wind was harsh on the rooftop above Rift Block 7. Kael sat beside his younger brother, both of them catching their breath after the brutal escape. The facility below had gone dark—charred metal and warped runes crackled with dying energy. Whatever Lysandra had been planning, it wasn't finished. Not yet.
Terryl stood nearby, arms crossed, scanning the skyline. His Trace Binder system flickered faintly at his temples, but his eyes were sharp—focused on every shadow that moved across the ruined city.
"Whatever she injected into that place," he muttered, "it's not dead. Just sleeping."
Kael looked down at Niko, who leaned against him, exhausted and pale. His wrists were still raw from the cuffs. There was a faint shimmer around his chest now—something Kael hadn't seen before.
An echo
"You feel it too?" Kael asked quietly.
Niko nodded. "It's inside me. I don't know what they did, but… it's like something woke up."
Terryl glanced over. "They fed him Rift energy. Not the stable kind. The raw, twisted stuff left behind after the Great Rift."
Kael's expression hardened. "Tell me everything. No more half-truths."
Terryl didn't argue. He dropped into a crouch and pulled a small flask from his coat. One swig, then he pointed out over the ruins.
"You ever wonder why Arcadia's broken into zones? Rift District, Core Tower, Shattered East—all that separation? It wasn't always like this. Ten years ago, Arcadia was one city.
Unified. Functional. Corrupt as hell, but stable."
Niko leaned in. Kael didn't interrupt.
"Then the Great Rift happened. A system implosion during a high-tier Ascendant experiment—some say it was an SSS-rank trying to rewrite the system laws.
Others say it was the System itself rejecting a host." Terryl's voice dropped. "Whatever it was… it tore open the sky."
He paused. "Reality cracked. The Rift didn't just tear through buildings—it ripped through logic, space, and soul.
People got… changed. Some died. Some mutated. Some vanished."
Kael clenched his fists. "The Rift District…"
"Is ground zero," Terryl confirmed. "They sealed it off fast. Shoved the poor and the systemless into the wreckage and let the chaos eat itself.
Core Tower thrived while the rest of us bled. That's when the System started breaking down. New protocols, corrupted echoes, forbidden classes like yours."
"And yours?" Kael asked.
Terryl smirked. "Trace Binder isn't illegal. Just rare. But yeah, I wasn't supposed to get it.
Got my scan during the fallout. Something in the Rift touched it."
Kael looked back at Niko. "So what did they want from him?"
Terryl stood again, face grim. "Your Echo Protocol isn't just a glitch. It's a remnant of the pre-Rift system code—something the current System can't overwrite. That makes you dangerous."
He pointed at Niko.
"And your brother? He's pure. He didn't awaken in the system at all. He's like untouched code. Perfect for rewriting."
Kael looked stunned. "You're saying… they're trying to rebuild the old system through him?"
"Or destroy the current one using his body as a core," Terryl said. "Either way, we're out of time."
Silence fell as that truth settled.
Niko broke it. "Why me, though? I'm nobody."
Kael shook his head. "Not to them. You're my brother. That alone makes you a threat in their eyes."
Terryl pocketed the flask. "We need to move. Eclipsed Thorn doesn't give up. And you can bet your ass Lysandra left a mark on you both."
"Where do we go?" Kael asked.
Terryl hesitated. "There's someone I know. Used to work inside the Ascendant Bureau before going rogue. Calls herself Vega. She's got Rift tech—real, unfiltered stuff. If anyone can scan that echo inside Niko, it's her."
Kael helped Niko to his feet. "Then take us there."
Two Hours Later – Edge of the Shattered District
They traveled underground, through maintenance tunnels and forgotten transport rails until the cracked spires of the Shattered District rose in the distance like broken teeth.
The air shimmered with unstable mana, and the ground crackled beneath their boots.
"Stay close," Terryl warned. "The further we go, the less the System works like it's supposed to."
Kael kept his hoodie up, eyes alert.
Niko clung to him, still weak but walking on his own now.
"Here," Terryl said, stopping in front of a heavy vault door buried beneath rubble. He slammed his palm against the lockplate, and his system flared.
"Trace Binder: Echo Imprint."
The door let out a groaning hiss and slowly opened.
They stepped into a dim-lit chamber of humming consoles and flickering lights.
Dozens of holograms floated mid-air, showing Rift patterns, core signatures, and corrupted system logs.
At the far end, a tall woman in a black coat stood with her back to them, eyes fixed on a console. Her hair was white, cut short, and her arms shimmered faintly—cybernetic enhancements fused with Rift energy.
"You brought a Reaper into my lab," she said without turning. "You better have a damn good reason."
Terryl stepped forward. "Vega, meet Kael Riven. The Echo Protocol user."
Vega turned, her expression unreadable. Her eyes flickered with the same glitch-light that pulsed in Kael's chest. For a moment, they just stared at each other.
Then she smiled slightly. "Finally. The System's mistake walks into my den."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "I didn't ask to be made this way."
"No one does," she replied. "But you exist. That means the System's afraid of something."
She walked toward Niko and crouched.
"And you… you're not awakened. But you're glowing like Rift-born ore."
Niko flinched. "What's happening to me?"
Vega's hand hovered over his chest. "Something ancient and unstable has imprinted onto you. It's not an echo.
It's a pre-echo. A primer. They were trying to turn you into a seed."
"A seed?" Kael asked.
"To grow a new system—one that runs on Rift logic. No rules. No scans. Just raw survival of power."
She stood, pacing.
"I've seen this once before. During the last days of the Rift War, before Arcadia's cover-up. There was a prototype like this. It failed. Exploded. Took out half a tower. They've been trying to refine it ever since."
Kael's voice dropped. "And now they've got Niko."
"No," Vega said. "Now you have him. And that means they're going to come harder. Faster. With bigger guns."
Terryl leaned on the console. "So what's our move?"
Vega's fingers danced across a console. She pulled up a projection of the city—Arcadia's three districts lit up, and deep beneath them, a fourth zone pulsed.
"Welcome to the Sub-Rift," she said. "A hidden pocket beneath the city. Formed during the collapse. It's where all echoes—real or broken—drain into."
Kael stared at it. "That's where she was taking him?"
Vega nodded. "Probably. That's where they'll try again. You want to end this? You go there. Find their core. Destroy the ritual."
Niko looked between them. "And what if I lose control again?"
Kael gripped his shoulder. "You won't. Not as long as I'm with you."
Terryl smirked. "Damn. You're starting to sound like a protagonist."
Kael let out a quiet breath, then turned back to Vega.
"Prep what you need. We go tomorrow."
Vega raised an eyebrow. "You're serious?"
Kael's eyes burned with purpose.
"They came for my brother. Now I'm coming for their throne."
The Next Morning – Vega's Underground Lab
The air in Vega's lab was thick with Rift particles—so dense that Kael could feel them crawling along his skin.
He'd slept little, watching over Niko all night. The boy had finally stopped twitching in his sleep, but a faint pulse of violet light still flickered from his chest every few minutes, like a heartbeat that didn't belong to him.
Vega worked through the night. She hadn't said a word after Kael declared their intent to strike the Sub-Rift. She simply nodded, turned her back, and started loading coordinates into a terminal that hummed with forbidden tech.
Now, she stood before them, dressed in an armored suit laced with Rift-forged plating. Her white hair was tied back, and a visor covered her eyes.
"You sure you're ready for this?" she asked.
Kael nodded. "The System wants to rewrite reality with my brother as a foundation. I'm not letting that happen."
Terryl leaned against a crate, cracking his knuckles. "Besides, I haven't punched anything in a week that didn't bleed shadows."
Vega smirked. "Good. Because the Sub-Rift's not like anything you've seen. Down there, the laws bend. Time glitches. Even your system might break. You'll be walking into a graveyard of failed ascendants."
She pulled a worn tablet from her belt and tossed it to Kael.
"That's the Echo Compass. It'll track distortions and show you where reality's weakest. You'll know when you're close to the core."
Kael caught it. The screen flickered with ghostly coordinates that seemed to shift when he blinked.
"And what about Niko?" he asked.
Vega looked at the boy. "He can't come."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "He's not staying behind."
"He has to," Vega said sharply. "His presence near the core will accelerate the corruption. They'll use him to stabilize the ritual. You bring him into the Rift, you're delivering them the final piece."
Kael's jaw tightened. He looked down at Niko—pale, exhausted, but watching everything with calm eyes.
"I'll be fine," Niko said quietly. "You have to stop them, Kael. If they want to rewrite the system with me… then break it before they can."
Kael closed his eyes. That boy had more strength than he deserved to have at that age.
"Alright," he said. "But you stay with Vega. She's the only one I trust to keep you alive."
Vega raised an eyebrow. "That makes one of us."
Terryl grinned. "Warmest endorsement I've ever heard from her."
Kael looked at them both. "Let's go."Descent into the Sub-Rift
They reached the entrance beneath the ruins of the old Ascendant Testing Grounds—an abandoned site sealed after the Great Rift. The air was warped here, and the ground hummed with unstable mana. Symbols long since banned were scorched into the walls, flickering like dying stars.
Terryl activated his Trace Binder. Runes formed a tunnel of light as the ground cracked open. A staircase spiraled downward into a void of shifting color.
"Welcome to the Sub-Rift," he muttered.
They descended into madness.
Time twisted the further they went. Kael's system flickered on and off. His status screen showed fractured numbers—his health dropping, then rising, then disappearing altogether.
"Keep moving," Terryl said. "Don't trust the system readouts down here."
Kael gritted his teeth. The Echo Compass pulsed faintly, dragging them deeper through echo-filled corridors. Shadows shifted behind the walls. Sometimes, he could hear whispers in his head.
"Reaper… Reaper… you are the memory of death…"
He shook it off. Kept moving.
At one point, they passed a hallway filled with frozen statues. Not carved—frozen Ascendants, trapped mid-scream. Kael touched one, and a surge of cold passed through him. An echo tried to claw into his chest.
He flared his Echo Field instinctively. The world slowed. The shadows retreated. Soul patterns lit the hallway like veins of lightning. Kael saw them—the remnants of failed systems, still reaching for new hosts.
"No," he muttered. "Not me."
He shut the Field off, and the hallway fell silent once more.The Rift Core Chamber
Finally, the compass flared red.
They emerged into a vast chamber where the sky itself seemed to pulse—an artificial space warped by Rift logic. Floating platforms hovered over a chasm of spiraling data streams. At the center, a throne of crystal and bone rose from the void.
Lysandra stood before it, arms raised, her eyes glowing with crimson light. Runes swirled around her as Rift energy flowed from a massive conduit above her head.
"Too late," she said without turning. "The ritual is nearly complete."
Kael stepped forward. "Let my brother go."
She laughed. "He's not here, Reaper. But his essence is. When I touched him, I marked him. That mark anchors the new system."
She turned. Her body was… no longer human. Rift energy had warped her skin into crystalline armor. Her system tags were gone—only raw echo signatures surrounded her.
"Welcome to the final step," she said. "The System was a cage. I'm building a world without chains."
Terryl stepped up beside Kael. "And how many bodies did it take to build your new world?"
"As many as it takes," she said coldly.
Kael raised his hand. Echo Protocol flared.
"Then it ends with you."Boss Fight – Lysandra, the Rift Architect
The chamber exploded into motion.
Lysandra summoned shards of unstable time—projectiles that bent space as they flew. Terryl blinked across platforms, laying down suppressive runes. Kael flared Echo Field, reading her soul pattern.
He moved fast—too fast for her corrupted system to track. His sword clashed with her crystallized limbs, every strike echoing with absorbed power. He triggered Code Injection, hijacking her stolen teleport skill and blinking behind her.
"Echo Chain!"
Ghostly arms erupted from the void and slammed her into a platform.
But she smiled. "You think I don't know how your system works?"
She erupted in a burst of Rift fire, sending Kael flying.
"I was part of its creation."
Kael hit a pillar hard, his vision flickering.
"Get up, Reaper," Terryl shouted. "She's pulling energy from the entire Sub-Rift!"
Kael reached deep. The Protocol pulsed. One echo stirred at the bottom of his archive.
Ilyra Venth—Void Harbinger. Presumed dead. But her soul had left a mark.
Kael activated Phantom Archive.
Dark wings burst from his back, and the sky darkened. Rift patterns twisted into violet-black spirals.
"Black Requiem," Kael whispered.
The world howled.
He launched forward, unleashing the stored echoes in a cascade of destructive waves. Crystallized structures shattered. Lysandra screamed, her system fracturing as she tried to contain the onslaught.
Terryl cast a final trap rune beneath her feet—binding her to the Rift floor.
Kael struck.
One final blow.
Her body cracked—light pouring out from within. She collapsed to her knees.
"You… don't understand… the System is dying… I was trying to replace it…"
Kael looked down at her.
"Then let it die."
She crumbled into shards of raw data and was consumed by the Rift below.Aftermath
They stood in silence.
The chamber was collapsing, reality folding in. Terryl grabbed Kael's shoulder.
"Time to go."
They sprinted back the way they came as the Sub-Rift imploded behind them. Runes cracked. Echoes screamed. But they emerged back into the ruins—gasping, alive.Back at the Lab
Vega was waiting.
Niko ran to Kael the moment he saw him. The glow in his chest was fading.
"She's gone," Kael said. "The ritual's over."
Vega looked thoughtful. "You didn't kill her system. You killed her version of it. But echoes like that don't disappear. Not fully."
Kael nodded. "Then I'll keep fighting. Until no one can twist this world again."
Terryl chuckled. "Careful. You're starting to sound like a hero."
Kael smiled faintly. "Nah. I'm just a ghost in the code."