The ceasefire held—for now.
Kael, Yanis, and Rek stood in a narrow control corridor overlooking the outskirts of Hollow Echo. Warning lights still blinked across Gravepath monitors, but the Authority's retreat confirmed it:
The battle was over. The war was beginning.
> [Corruption: 7.1% – Contained]
[System Sync: 14.2%]
[Ashwake Seraph Status: Dormant]
[Seed Echo Residue Detected – Source: "Fragmented Girl"]
Yanis moved across the room, silent, withdrawn. She hadn't spoken since Kael triggered that memory about "the girl's bones."
Rek stood by the door, hand still on his weapon.
Kael stared out across the wasteland, where the ash dunes shimmered faintly under the starlight. A hum pulsed in his chest.
And then the HUD blinked.
> [ALERT: Dimensional Pulse Detected – Unregistered Gate]
[Location: Deep Sector Ruins – Zone ██-██-Δ]
[Gate Class: CLASS NULL – Forbidden-Type Signature]
[ACCESS: Locked to Seedbearer – Reclaimer Protocol Cannot Interact]
Yanis looked up as her system pinged.
> "That signal—what is it?"
Kael stepped forward. "It's calling me."
---
Deep Sector Ruins
Kael and Yanis stood at the edge of a ruined city block. Everything here was fused together—buildings twisted into towers of glass and bone, like something had torn reality and stitched it back wrong.
Rek had refused to come.
Yanis had insisted on joining, though she clearly didn't trust what they were walking into.
At the center of the block… a Gate hovered mid-air.
But it didn't shimmer or pulse like others.
It was still. Silent. Waiting.
And it wasn't made of light.
It was made of obsidian feathers, swirling in a slow spiral, each etched with dying runes.
Kael stepped forward. The Gate reacted instantly.
> [DNA Confirmed – Kael Riven]
[Seed Match: Fragment Class III]
[Gate Status: One-Way Entry]
[Warning: Time Distortion Detected – Passage Will Sever Anchor Link]
[Do you wish to enter alone?]
Yanis's voice trembled.
> "You shouldn't go in. Even I can't sense what's beyond it."
> "That's the point," Kael said. "It's hidden for a reason."
> "You might not come back."
Kael looked back at her—just once.
> "That was true the moment I took the Seed."
He stepped into the Gate.
---
Inside the Forbidden Gate
The world blinked.
Kael landed in a space that felt wrong.
There was no sky. No ground. Just fragments of memories frozen in mid-air—ghost images of Reclaimers, monsters, flames, crying children, and one thing that made his heart stop:
A girl in red, kneeling in the dark, her eyes glowing with Seed-light.
Her voice echoed, distant, broken.
> "I didn't want to carry it. I begged them. I screamed when they buried it in me."
Kael reached out—but the image shattered like glass.
The HUD crackled.
> [Seed Memory Core Triggered – Fragment Signature: ████-12 – ACTIVE]
[Your presence is waking her.]
Then, ahead, he saw it:
A second Gate.
Smaller.
Floating inside a cocoon of bone and flame.
And wrapped around it—was a draconic skeleton, identical to the one he'd fought before.
> "This is where they kept her…"
His hands trembled.
> [Warning: You must choose. Open this Gate… and awaken her. Or turn back—and leave the truth buried.]
---