Even if silence fades, echoes remain."
---
Everything was over...
Or maybe, it had just begun.
I — Aren Kael — stood alone atop the shattered glass floor of the Spiral Core.
Cindros had dissolved.
And yet… the Spiral Rod in my hand still pulsed — as if it wasn't done speaking.
Tomo hovered slowly beside me — glitch-free now, but faintly trembling.
Tomo (soft, cautious):
"Bro… Spiral frequency has dropped. But... there's an unknown pulse incoming."
---
I turned.
And there, carved onto a cracked Spiral wall, was something I hadn't expected to see:
"echo_17.t"
The same name...
The same file that had played right before everything broke.
A voice that sounded like mine —
But wasn't.
---
FLASHBACK
> "I am you… but not the you that exists anymore."
A silhouette — black, hollow-eyed — speaking from outside the Spiral.
That's where Volume 3 had ended.
And where Volume 4 begins.
---
Tomo (tense):
"Bro… Spiral signal's gone unstable. 'echo_17.t' isn't just a file — it's a living signal."
"And it's not calling you…"
"…It's entering you."
---
Suddenly — the Spiral Rod turned pitch black.
A glitch wave surged through it, warping its shape.
The flame cracked — and then a voice emerged.
Cold. Familiar.
> "You defeated Cindros… but Spiral won't let you win it."
---
Scene shift.
Reality itself fractured.
A spiral crack opened beneath my feet —
And I fell…
Into the Mirror Fracture Zone.
> WELCOME TO NULL FRACTURE
"Where identity burns."
---
I opened my eyes.
The sky above me was made of spinning black spiral rings.
The ground — a reflective glass littered with broken memories.
But the strangest part?
My reflection…
was walking behind me.
---
Tomo (distorted):
"Bro… you've entered a place Spiral fears to remember."
"Everything looks real here — but nothing is real."
---
I turned again —
And within a flickering Spiral flame… I saw Aika.
But her eyes held no light.
A voice echoed behind her:
> "Perfect Aika… a version who accepted Spiral."
"In this timeline, you never even met her."
---
BOOM!
A massive distortion cracked the zone.
My vision shifted —
I was thrown into another timeline.
> "echo_17.t Zone activated."
And standing before me —
A dark Spiral figure emerged.
---
ECHO_17.T (low, cold):
> "I won everything."
"I held all the Spiral pieces."
"And yet… I became hollow."
> "Aren… you're becoming me."
"I didn't come to fight you. I came to warn you."
---
Me (shouting):
"Then show yourself!"
"Who the hell are you?!"
---
The dark Spiral Rod in his hand pulsed with voidfire.
Half his face finally revealed —
It was me.
But with an inverted Spiral mark burned across his cheek.
> "The day you befriend Spiral…"
"…is the day you become me."
---
Final Scene:
The Spiral Rod cracked in my hands.
Echo_17.t disappeared into glitching fragments.
Tomo (panicked):
"BROOO—! Reverse signal incoming!"
"A spatial Spiral breach is opening!!"
---
And then, behind me… a voice.
> "When Spiral couldn't understand you…
…did you ever ask what it truly wanted?"
---
She stepped through the breach.
YUI.
Wearing black-and-white Spiral threads — calm, deadly, beautiful.
> "I won't let Aika's memories burn."
"If you can't carry them… I'll teach you how to remember."
---
TO BE CONTINUED…