The descent into Zone 17-R was unlike any Kael had experienced.
He entered through an old freight elevator hidden behind a collapsed metro tunnel, its rusted frame groaning under his weight. Ancient warning glyphs flickered uselessly on the walls—most of them overwritten by Echo-scars that pulsed with malignant light.
As the elevator sank into darkness, he activated the Veil of Null.
The mask sealed over his face with a soft hiss.
Inside the helmet's resonance field, his senses sharpened: heat signatures, Echo-disturbances, and structural integrity data streamed across his vision. The deeper he went, the more distorted everything became.
Echo-pressure spiked.
The Dream was thick here.
Too thick.
---
> Zone 17-R: Dead Depths
Status: Contaminated
Warning: Fragmentation threshold exceeded.
Cognitive dissonance imminent beyond 300 meters.
---
At 450 meters down, the elevator stopped with a jolt.
Kael stepped off, blade strapped to his back, and moved into the dark.
The Dead Depths were not tunnels anymore.
They were catacombs.
Twisted bones of the mining city, with shattered stone and metallic tendrils that had grown like veins through the walls. Piles of abandoned gear littered the corners—helmets, drills, exosuits.
No blood.
No bodies.
Just absence.
And the air…
It didn't breathe.
It watched.
---
As Kael advanced, his Echo-sense flared—once, twice, like sonar returning fragmented data.
Something was down here.
Alive.
But wrong.
He pressed deeper, following the faint trace of the missing Warden's Echo-signature.
Each step carried him closer to a series of collapsed chambers now warped into labyrinthine flesh-metal corridors. The environment had changed—literally. Walls throbbed. Vents hissed with breaths. Lights bent away from him, shadows dragging longer than they should.
Time felt... inconsistent.
His internal clock ticked seconds that didn't match reality.
---
> [Echo Signature Located: Warden Syll Varn]
Status: Static. Contained. Weak Pulse Detected.
---
Kael found the source in a collapsed observation deck.
The shattered dome above leaked strands of corrupted Echo-light into the chamber below. And there, suspended by root-like threads, hung a body—still breathing, barely.
Warden Syll Varn.
An older man, armored in faded Pact gear. His mask was cracked. His right arm gone. Echo-scarring covered half his chest.
Kael sliced the threads with surgical precision and caught the man as he fell.
Syll's eyes opened—wild, glazed.
"You shouldn't… be here…" he rasped.
Kael lowered him gently. "You were marked MIA. I came to pull you out."
The man gripped Kael's arm with surprising strength.
"No. It's awake. You don't understand. It learns now. It mimics. We're past the containment point."
Kael stiffened. "What is?"
A new voice answered.
His own.
---
"I am."
---
Kael turned.
Standing in the corridor's mouth was a perfect copy of himself.
Same height. Same weapon. Same gear.
But the eyes…
They were ancient. Hollow. Bottomless.
And then the copy smiled.
Not with lips.
With everything.
---
> [Entity Detected: Echo-Harvester: Class V Mimic]
Origin: Unknown.
Host Signature: Kael Voss (Simulated).
Resonance Level: ???
---
It moved.
No warning. No charge.
Just motion—instant and perfect, like the world skipped a frame.
Kael barely brought his blade up in time.
Steel met steel—but it wasn't just force. The mimic copied not just his attacks… but his instincts.
His doubts.
His regret.
Kael gritted his teeth. "You're not me."
The creature laughed in his voice.
"No. I'm who you could become… once the silence finishes hollowing you out."
Kael's eyes narrowed beneath the mask.
"You want to be me?"
He activated the Eye.
"Then come take it."
---
The chamber exploded in motion.
The two Kaels clashed—mirror images, blades ringing in Echo-lit sparks.
Kael fought differently now. More focused. Cold. He used feints, traps, precision Echo-bursts—not just raw power.
But the mimic was learning. Adapting.
And growing stronger.
Each clash, each deflection—it absorbed his movements.
It evolved.
It wanted him to fight.
To reveal more.
---
Kael realized too late.
> It wasn't trying to kill him.
> It was copying him.
---
With a roar, Kael disengaged and blasted backward with a compressed Echo-surge, buying himself a second. His breathing was heavy. The mimic stood untouched.
Then it whispered:
"I remember her, you know."
Kael froze.
The mimic tilted its head.
"Renna. The way her voice trembled. The sound she made when you failed her. It's in you, buried like glass. And now…"
It smiled wider.
"…now it's in me."
---
Kael's scream shattered the silence.
But he didn't charge.
He stopped.
Lowered his blade.
And stared.
The mimic hesitated.
Just for a heartbeat.
And Kael whispered:
"You copied me too well."
Then he opened the Eye of Silence—not as a weapon—but as a void.
A collapsing field of Echo-negation.
Everything inside the crucible trial had taught him control.
But this was sacrifice.
The mimic lunged—
And met the void.
---
It screamed.
Its Echo dissolved, thread by thread, stripped down to its mimicry.
Kael held on, blood seeping from his nose, his skin fracturing with resonance burn.
And then—
Silence.
True silence.
The mimic shattered into smoke and vanished.
---
Kael fell to one knee.
Behind him, Warden Syll groaned.
"You… you stopped it?"
Kael didn't answer right away.
He looked into the smoke and whispered:
"For now."
---
> Echo-Harvester: Destroyed.
Data Fragment Captured.
Trait Unlocked: Dreammimic (Tier: ???)
Caution: Mutation Risk.
---
As Kael helped the injured Warden to his feet, the corridors trembled.
The Dream wasn't done.
But neither was he.
And this time…
He was starting to understand how deep the fracture went.
---
End of Chapter 11