> [Sync Spike Detected]
[Corruption: 32.4% – Control Threshold Breached]
[Warning: Memory Override Imminent]
[Entity Tag: ██████ – "Seedbearer Prime" – Access Level Breached]
Kael collapsed to his knees.
Yanis grabbed his shoulder—but her hand passed through him.
His body flickered.
Not physically—chronologically.
Kael was no longer in the present.
---
Memory Realm – 10,000 Cycles Ago
Before the Fracture. Before the First Gate Opened.
Kael stood in polished armor of black glass and golden thread. A flowing red mantle draped behind him, pinned with twelve sigils—each glowing faintly.
His hands… they weren't his hands.
They were larger. Calloused. Covered in blood.
Around him stood hundreds of kneeling Reclaimers, their helmets bowed to the earth.
And ahead of him…
A world-sized Gate, suspended in orbit over a ruined moon, pulsing with life, fear, and something older.
> "We shouldn't open it," a voice beside him warned.
He turned to see Yanis—younger, unscarred, still hopeful.
> "It speaks to you too, doesn't it?" the Seedbearer King said—his voice Kael's, but not.
Yanis whispered, "No. It doesn't speak. It remembers. And it wants us to forget."
---
Kael—the King—stepped forward.
In his hand was Ashwake Origin, the blade that would become Ashwake Fang in the future.
> "Twelve fragments. Twelve promises. Twelve anchors to hold the Gate back."
"But I only need one to tear it open."
A scientist ran to him.
> "Sir, please. The simulation—if you take all twelve into yourself, the backlash—"
> "I will not die. I will unbecome. And through that, I will understand the Gate."
He raised his sword.
The moon cracked.
And twelve fragments—twelve lives, names, sacrifices—shot into his chest.
His scream echoed through time.
---
Back in the present.
Kael collapsed, eyes wide, heart nearly stopped.
Yanis backed away, hand over her mouth. "You… you were him?"
Kael shook, blood leaking from his nose.
> "I was the first to hold all twelve."
> "I shattered the Gate."
> "And then… I erased myself."
His voice wasn't fully his anymore. It echoed—layered, like two minds overlapping.
> "You didn't forget your past," Yanis whispered, horrified. "You sealed it."
Kael looked at her. "The girl… was the twelfth. I made her carry what I couldn't."
The Seed pulsed.
> [Memory Sync Level: 48%]
[You have accessed your Prime Identity]
[Your next fragment will either complete you… or destroy what remains]
---