[Core Stability: 9%]
[Warning: Echo Overlap Imminent]
[Memory Flood Detected]
"Caution: You are not yet ready to become who you were."
The aftermath was silent.
The purge unit's remains dissolved into static ash. The floating glyphs of the ruin dimmed. The sky, still cracked, now bled faint trails of data-stream light — like a dying screen too stubborn to go dark.
Cael leaned against a broken monolith, breathing heavily.
He felt exhausted.
Not in muscle. In existence.
His thoughts were overlapping — a dozen fragmented instincts, memories, and emotions whispering behind his eyes. Some wanted vengeance. Some were afraid.
And one… kept calling a name he didn't recognize.
"Nira..."
He didn't know who that was.
He didn't know who that was.
[Echo Drift Occurring]
[Anchor to present self: weakening]
"Stabilize. Choose."
He clenched his fists. Focused on the cut in his palm, the warmth of his own blood — the only real thing grounding him.
Slowly, the hum in his chest dimmed. The Remnant Thread faded.
He was himself again.
Or close enough.
Then he heard it.
Footsteps.
Not hostile.
But not surprised, either.
Cael turned, ready to defend—until he saw her.
The girl from the forest.
The one with the spear.
But something was different now.
Her hair was unbound, streaked with silver. Her armor was scorched. And in her hand, instead of a weapon, she held a Vein Sigil Plate — a tracker designed to follow lost echoes.
"I knew I'd find you here," she said. "This is where you went last time, too."
Cael froze. "…What?"
She stepped closer.
"You don't remember me, do you?" Her voice broke slightly. "I keep forgetting that… every version of you forgets me."
Cael's blood ran cold.
[Echo Connection: Detected]
[Subject: ??? — Fragmented Timeline Overlap]
[Memory Match: 31%]
"Possible identity: Companion Unit: NIRA"
Nira.
The name whispered from the shard.
The name he didn't recognize… until now.
"I—" Cael started. "I don't remember who I was. I only know who I'm becoming."
She nodded slowly… then stiffened.
Her eyes glazed over. A sudden jolt of Echo energy surged through her, and she staggered — grabbing the monolith for balance as the Veinlight pulsed.
[Memory Thread Unlocked — Fragmented Link]
[Subject: NIRA — Recall Spike Detected]
"Accessing forbidden memory…"
A rush of scenes, sounds, and pain.
And then— him.
She gasped as the memories hit her — him standing over fallen comrades, eyes cold, Core pulsing like a black sun.
The world burning.
And her — screaming his name before the timeline collapsed.
Her face twisted. Not with grief.
With rage.
"I remember now…" she whispered. "You weren't erased because you were weak.
You were erased because you broke everything."
She pulled out a cracked Core Seal, marked with his name. And beneath it, a warning engraved in System glyphs:
"Do not restore. Do not remember. Do not let him awaken."
Her hand hovered over her spear.
And her voice was colder now.
> "I don't know what version of you this is…
But if you're anything like the one I remember—
I'll kill you before you become him again."
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