As the mist settled and the glow from the salamander faded behind him, the world fell into a dense silence. But the quiet didn't last. The screen in front of him flickered, then shook.
Unauthorized Signal...
Instinct Protocols Interfering with Core Alignment...
Attempting Stabilization...
The text glitched, letters missing or rearranged. The system's voice stuttered and fractured, like someone whispering through broken glass.
> "...essence conflic... recalibrating..."
He paused.
Was the system... sick?
Or was something else inside it now?
His form vibrated involuntarily, like the very fog that composed him was uncertain of its own structure.
Something had changed after that message from the salamander. It wasn't just evolution—it was intrusion.
---
The land around the crystal trap seemed still, but faint pulses emanated from a scattered ring of broken stones. A circular arrangement—deliberate.
He activated his Micro-Motion Threads.
A feedback loop responded.
> "Echo pattern detected. Rotational discharge funneling into subsurface node."
Then, a rumble.
The ground cracked open inwardly like a yawning mouth, revealing a narrow shaft veiled in mist.
Zone Type: Ancient Energy Conduit
Status: Dormant
Manual Entry Required
He descended.
---
The walls were not stone. They were semi-metallic, but coated in hardened organic residue, fossilized in layered veins.
Heat still coursed within—buried motion, latent intent.
He felt it. Not through sight, but through inner awareness: a breathless question floating in the charged air.
> "Who... let you in?"
No one was there. Yet the cave... was awake.
---
He stepped into a vast chamber. In its center: a large, dust-covered crystal fused into the floor.
The moment his form neared it, the system panicked:
WARNING: Ancient Source Memory Imprint Detected
Replaying Echoes...
Light. Not blinding, but ancient.
Spectral figures appeared around the crystal—humanoid, but blurred. They chanted in a forgotten language, moving their arms in symmetrical cycles.
The chamber filled with radiant pulse waves.
A whisper, detached from the figures:
> "The Source should have been buried."
The scene faded… but its echo stayed behind.
---
Without warning, the crystal cracked from within.
Mist poured out, but not like his—this was dark, fractured, unstable.
The system fell silent. Then blank.
From the crack emerged a figure—not fully formed, as if it were a thought refusing to settle.
> "The energy... is not yours. You are a parasitic flicker."
The being surged. He instinctively pushed out energy—15 QP in a reflexive blast.
Ineffective.
The entity paused, almost smirking, before dissipating into sparks.
His body dimmed. His confidence cracked.
---
Slowly… the system returned. But its tone was altered. It wasn't just code—it carried weight.
System Online
Echo Entity: Partial Integration Logged
Memory Unlocked: "Veil of the First Collapse"
A cold breath echoed inside him. Was it the system... or the thing that touched it?
He whispered:
> "Am I alive... or am I being used?"
The crystal in the chamber pulsed once. Far away, beneath deeper stone… something stirred.
---
> "The energy beneath doesn't flow… it remembers. And sometimes… it stares back."
---