The Crownless King towered over the broken alleyway, its body cloaked in tattered regal robes that dripped with shadow. Behind it, a halo of floating blades pulsed and spun slowly, humming with unnatural resonance.
Kaiser gritted his teeth.
His instincts screamed to run.His body refused to move.
The pressure was overwhelming-like a mountain pressing down on his lungs. His knees nearly buckled just standing in its presence.
[System Alert:]Entity Class: Echo-Type: MonarchTier: UNKNOWNCombat viability: 0%Recommendation: FLEE IMMEDIATELY
"I noticed," Kaiser muttered.
The King Without a Crown
The creature took one slow step.
Its featureless head tilted toward him.There was no face, only a rough dent where a crown should've rested.
"You… were meant… to be me…"
The words weren't spoken aloud, they echoed inside his skull. Ancient, cracked, like a broken bell tolling across centuries.
Lira pulled Kaiser behind her, both daggers drawn.
"We're not fighting that," she hissed. "You can't fight that."
"Then why is it here?"
Lira shook her head. "Maybe to remind you."
"Of what?"
She stared at the Echo. "That you were once promised a throne."
A sword from the creature's ring detached and shot forward like a spear of lightning.
Lira deflected it with a curse. The impact sent her skidding backward. Kaiser leapt over debris and pulled her to her feet.
They ran.
Through alleys. Over rooftops. Across broken merchant roads slick with rain.
But the Echo didn't chase them.
It simply watched.
[Echo Tracking Engaged.]You are marked. The King remembers.
They didn't stop running until they were deep beneath Kaelthorn, in a forgotten part of the undercity, hidden beneath a collapsed watchtower.
A single flickering lantern lit the room.
Lira collapsed against the stone wall, panting. "That… wasn't supposed to happen."
Kaiser stood silent. Dripping. Cold.
"I've seen a lot of things," he said quietly. "But that wasn't an Echo. That was a monster… wearing my face."
Lira nodded. "No. That was a future you. If you lose."
He turned to her. "What do you mean?"
"You're not the first assassin to be chosen by the System, Kaiser. But you might be the last."
She led him deeper into a vault lined with rusted doors and sealed chests.
"This place was built by the first ones," she whispered. "The ones who resisted the System. Before the city fell."
Kaiser raised an eyebrow. "The city didn't fall."
She gave him a bitter smile. "Didn't it?"
Lira knelt and opened a hidden panel in the wall. Inside was a black crystal cracked and humming.
She placed Kaiser's hand on it.
[Memory Sync Detected.]Playing Echo-Record: "The First Throne."
Kaiser's vision blurred.
He saw Kaelthorn burning.He saw assassins with eyes like void.He saw a man who looked exactly like him, kneeling before a throne of knives, wearing a crown made of chains.
And then he saw that same man stab himself… with Vow breaker.
To end it all.
Kaiser staggered back, chest heaving.
"That was me."
Lira nodded. "One of you. One who failed."
"So this is a cycle."
"More like a curse," she said. "You're walking a path already paved in blood."
[New Trait Unlocked: Inheritor of the Broken Throne]Side Effect: Echoes of past selves may surface in dreams, memories… or flesh.
As the System updated, Kaiser suddenly felt it again, that familiar throb in the base of his skull.
A heartbeat.
But this time, it wasn't his.
It was behind him.
He turned slowly and saw another version of himself.
Smiling.
Holding Vow breaker.