Kael emerged from the depths dragging Warden Syll across his shoulders. Blood and fractured Echo clung to his armor like oil, and the Veil of Null flickered as it tried to re-stabilize his echo-signature.
The elevator ride back up was agonizingly slow. Every groan of the rusted machinery felt like a countdown toward collapse. But Kael didn't fear the collapse anymore.
He feared what had survived it.
The Echo-Harvester.
Its voice still echoed in the back of his mind, slithering through the fractures the fight had left in his psyche.
> "Renna."
A memory he had buried beneath walls of silence.
A memory now in the hands of something that should not exist.
---
The Hollow greeted him with its usual ruin and gloom. Sera waited near the edge of the platform, eyes narrowed beneath her hood.
"You brought him back," she said without expression.
Kael nodded and dropped to one knee, gently lowering Syll onto a stretcher summoned by a waiting construct.
"He's alive," Kael said. "Barely. And you were right. Something's waking down there."
Sera turned her eyes to Syll. "He'll be debriefed. Scrubbed. Re-aligned if needed."
Kael stood, body aching. "He said the Harvester learned. It mimicked me. My voice, my thoughts... even memories."
Sera turned sharply at that. "Memories?"
Kael hesitated. "Yes."
She stared for a long time, as if weighing something invisible between them. Then she spoke carefully.
"That changes things."
---
Back inside the Pact's sanctum, Kael stood before the monolith once again. His mask hung loosely at his belt. He hadn't slept since the fight. Couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw himself—smiling with the wrong eyes.
Sera approached with a data shard and inserted it into a console embedded in the wall.
The monolith shifted.
A new screen projected above it—fractured data streams, unstable signatures, and at the center… a pulsating glyph.
The same glyph that had flickered across the mimic's chest.
Kael leaned forward. "What is that?"
Sera's tone was grim.
"It's called the Mourning Sigil. We've only seen it once before."
She waved her hand, and an image blinked into existence—a hazy, distorted memory feed. A young Warden, barely older than Kael, facing off against a blur of black and violet Echo-fire.
Then… nothing.
The recording cut out as the feed dissolved.
"That was four years ago," Sera said quietly. "The first Harvester encounter."
Kael clenched his fists. "And you didn't stop it?"
"We thought we did. It went dormant. Until now."
---
> New Quest Received: Echo Remnants
Objective: Trace the origin of the Mourning Sigil.
Location: Fragmented Archive, Sector 12-B.
Warning: Cognitive hazard detected.
Recommended: Full Veil Integrity.
---
Sera handed him a reinforced data drive.
"You'll need this to interface with the archive. It holds a localized anchor—lets you keep your mind from bleeding into the archive's memories."
Kael raised a brow. "You're sending me into memory echoes now?"
"The Pact archives are not just records," Sera said. "They're alive. Layered with time-folds and sensory traps. You're not just reading history—you're walking it."
Kael took the drive and slid it into his gear. "And what exactly am I looking for?"
Sera's gaze hardened. "A name."
Kael froze.
"A name?"
Sera nodded slowly. "The Harvester didn't create the sigil. Someone did. Someone real. Someone... awakened. We think one of the Pact's early founders made a pact of their own."
Kael stared at her. "With what?"
She didn't answer.
---
Later that night, Kael stood alone in his cell.
The Veil of Null rested on the table before him, beside a single photograph he hadn't looked at in years.
Renna.
Dark hair. Bright eyes. The last light in his world before the night everything burned.
He picked up the mask and stared at it.
> "I remember her."
His own voice, twisted, repeated like a curse.
---
He closed his eyes and whispered:
"I will find you."
Not to the Harvester.
To her.
Somewhere deep inside the fracture of the Dream… she was waiting.
Alive or dead.
Hope or lie.
Kael would walk through silence itself to know the truth.
---
> Status Updated: Emotional Anchor—Stabilized.
Trait Strengthened: Echo Memory Lock (Lv. 2).
Cognitive Resistance Increased.
---
As he stepped out toward the portal that would take him to Sector 12-B, the Veil fused once more to his face. The mask felt heavier this time.
Not with weight.
With resolve.
---
End of Chapter 12