The green light of the Codex still blinked beneath Yeon Jin's skin, like fire pulsing just under the surface. He trembled. Not with fear — but tension. Transformation.
Mi Rae walked ahead in silence, the corridors of the Fractured Line's sanctuary stretching around them like a techno-cavern. With every step, Jin could feel the Echo Veil activating — the sounds, the memories, the fragments of past voices hovered around him like familiar ghosts.
They entered a circular chamber lined with black crystals. At its center, a Codex transmission ring glowed softly. Three figures already stood inside — long cloaks, faces masked in etched steel.
One of them spoke.
"He's awakened. But he controls nothing."*
Jin stepped forward.
"Control is survival. And I'm still standing."
The ring lit up. A wave surged through the room.
Codex linked with fractured sample_
Foreign memory detected_
Transmission initiating…_
Jin collapsed to his knees.
Images crashed into him: red plains, a ruined tower, children screaming. At the edge of a cliff stood a man in a golden cloak — Jin's face… but older. Cruel. He raised his hand — and the city ignited.
Jin screamed.
The light vanished.
Mi Rae helped him up.
"What was that…?"
"A fragment of your potential. What you could become… if the Reclaimers capture you.
A sound. Distant.
An alarm lit up the central map. Mi Rae straightened, tense. Jin followed her eyes. A red zone flashed.
"An isolated bearer. One of ours. He's being… absorbed."
Jin frowned.
"By what?"
"By a former Reclaimer. They've broken the pact of forgetting."
A hologram emerged. It showed a massive figure. Black armor. Inverted Codex. And in his eyes — the same glow as Jin, but corrupted.
He whispered:
"You thought the eclipse was rare. It's cyclical."
Mi Rae said nothing. She handed him a weapon: a coded blade, fine, etched with symbols.
"You're going to find him. Not to kill. To learn what he knows."
Jin nodded.
An hour later, he walked alone through the ruins of Yuroh, where reality itself seemed warped.
And Kaleth was waiting — the first Reclaimer of the lost generation.
"You're young."
"But I carry what you abandoned."
The fight was swift, brutal. Jin saw flashes of light, felt Kaleth's thoughts brush against his own — like two Codex systems crashing together.
And then… silence.
Kaleth wasn't slain. He dissolved.
But in vanishing, he left a final phrase seared into the air:
"The Origin One returns. And you… are just a fragment."