Chapter: The Nameless Visitor The moment they opened the door, the midday breeze swept in—and with it, an unfamiliar tension.The man standing there wasn’t anyone Clara or Brown recognized. He wore a gray coat too clean for a wanderer, and a pair of gloves despite the warmth of the day. His face was calm, unnaturally so, like a still lake masking deep currents.“Brown Reinholt?” he asked, his voice low and smooth.Brown stepped forward cautiously. “Who’s asking?”The man didn’t answer right away. Instead, he pulled a sleek black ID chip from his coat and extended it. Clara scanned it instantly.“No digital signature,” she said. “This chip isn’t from any known agency.”The man smiled. “That’s because I don’t work for any known agency.”Brown’s eyes narrowed. “Then what do you want with us?”“I came to warn you,” the man said, his voice suddenly grave. “About your daughter.”Clara’s stance tightened. “What about her?”“There’s a protocol buried deep in the Echo Core’s remnants,” he continued. “One that activates whe
Last Updated: 2025-04-29
Chapter: OverrideThe next morning, in the Hielux suburbs.The scent of sizzling garlic filled the house as sunlight filtered through the kitchen window. Brown stood barefoot on the cool tiles, wearing a cartoon apron that said “Dad of the Galaxy”, and flipping pancakes with expert precision.He hummed an old Earth melody, one Xena had once brought home from her music class.On the kitchen island, lunchboxes were open and half-packed—Xena’s had tiny compartments filled with neatly cut fruits, veggie sticks, and her favorite egg rolls (not burnt this time, much to his pride). Clara’s had a salad, rice balls, and a sneaky piece of chocolate hidden in the bottom corner. Brown always added one. She never mentioned it, but she never left it behind either.“Papa, you’re making the eggs too flat!” Xena said dramatically from the table, legs swinging, her hair still tangled from sleep.“They’re not flat,” Brown replied, poking one of the omelets. “They’re aerodyna
Last Updated: 2025-04-25
Chapter: After WarTwo years after the Battle of Hielux.Hielux had changed. There were still scars on some of the buildings—remnants of a past that could never be completely erased. But the city was alive again. Streetlights glowed peacefully at night, no longer signaling emergency routes, but standing guard as children walked home from the playground.In a quiet corner of the Aether district, a small house stood with wild lavender growing in the front yard. On the porch, Brown sat casually in a plain T-shirt, gently swinging the small legs of the child sitting on his lap.“Daddy, I got all the stars at school today,” said the little girl proudly, holding up a piece of paper decorated with colorful stickers.Brown smiled and kissed her dark curly hair. “Xena, I bet you made all the teachers fall in love with you.”“Not all of them,” Xena replied matter-of-factly. “Just Miss Lyra and the lunch ladies.”They both laughed.Inside the house, the front door creaked open. Clara was home. Her hair was tied ne
Last Updated: 2025-04-24
Chapter: Sector 9In the underground control room of the Free Zone, red sirens flashed. Operators scrambled to navigate the surge of incoming data, each trying to trace the unknown energy source that had simultaneously appeared at three different points across Hielux.“This isn’t just one activation,” Leven said, his face pale. “He’s awakening the remnants of the old protocol. This isn’t just about Epsilon anymore.”Brown stood behind him, eyes locked on the frequency graph. “He’s rebuilding the network. Echo 0—the primitive structure before we perfected the program. This isn’t a resurrection... it’s a reconstruction.”Clara, who had just entered with the Reverberants behind her, stared at the screen. “If he activates that underground network, we could lose control over thousands of dormant chips planted during the war.”“Even those who don’t know they were ever part of the program,” added Arin, one of the Reverberants.They all exchanged glances. No words were needed. Their time was running out.Epsil
Last Updated: 2025-04-18
Chapter: Seven Months LaterHielux had changed. Not just in its buildings, which now reflected the morning sunlight with newly installed glass panels, but in its people—who were slowly learning to live without fear. Inside the Echo Remembrance Center, Clara was speaking with a ten-year-old boy who had just completed a memory recovery session. The boy smiled faintly as an image of his mother—before the Echo program—was projected onto the small screen. “She liked to sing?” Clara asked gently. The boy nodded, his eyes glistening. “Mama’s voice was like light.” Clara held her breath. Upstairs, Brown was seated with the Free Zone team and several doctors from the border regions. They were discussing a new case—a neural breakthrough that wasn’t included in Anderson’s archives. “There’s a new signal coming from the ruins of the old facility in Sector 9,” said Dr. Leven, pointing at the blinking digital map. “Someone is trying to activate one of th
Last Updated: 2025-04-17
Chapter: The Trials The Anderson Trials were held in the central tribunal of Hielux, a massive domed structure once used for ceremonial military honors. Now, it was flooded with media, Free Zone representatives, victims of the Project Echo program, and families who had lost everything to the system the Andersons helped build.The former governor, Renald Anderson, sat chained in a transparent detainment chamber, flanked by his two sons and wife. His once-proud suit was wrinkled, his hair greyed beyond his years. Across from him stood Brown and Clara—no longer victims, but living proof of the Program’s failure."We open the tribunal for charges of high treason, human experimentation, unauthorized trade of classified military intelligence, and conspiracy to obstruct memory restoration protocols.”The voice of the Free Zone-appointed judge rang loud and clear.Dozens of recordings played over the tribunal’s massive holoscreen. One by one, they showed:Clara’s se
Last Updated: 2025-04-16
Chapter: FeelThe rift surged around them like a living storm—colors that had no name bled into the skyless void, while time fractured and reversed in brief spasms. Sound turned into light. Light became weight. Nothing made sense, and yet they moved forward, guided only by instinct—and the unyielding will to survive.Nayla, bleeding from a shallow cut above her eyebrow, pressed forward beside Hazeed. Every step they took felt like walking through someone else's memory. Echoes of lives they never lived brushed against their minds—victories, regrets, endings.“You feel that?” Mazda gritted out. “It’s not just showing us what we’ve lost. It’s trying to replace us. Replace our sense of self.”The entity hovered ahead—no longer formless. It now wore a shape that mimicked their own reflections, distorted through a kaleidoscope of other possibilities. A version of Goro stepped forward—cold-eyed, armored in obsidian. Another of Nayla, her expression emotionless, her body merged with machine. The echoes of
Last Updated: 2025-04-29
Chapter: IntroductionA few days later.The official reports referred to the incident as Singularity Type-R: Reality-Back Manifestation. But not everyone believed it. Some dismissed it as a hoax. Some called it a mini-apocalypse. However, those who felt it—who lost time, who saw the memories of others in mirrors, who heard the screams of their own souls in dreams—they knew.In a secret facility, Nayla sat alone in the observatory. Above her, the sky displayed a new pattern: Stars that had never been there before. Or perhaps… stars that had just been born.Hazeed stood behind her.“Do you believe we’re done?” Nayla asked without turning.“No,” Hazeed replied. “The Herald wasn’t the beginning. It was just… an introduction.”“Introduction to what?”Hazeed stared at the stars.“…A question we can no longer avoid.”Elsewhere—within the shadows between worlds—a small rift remained open. Within it, there was no Herald. No sound.Only a silent echo.And something… slowly opened its eyes.A group of survivors, mark
Last Updated: 2025-04-18
Chapter: StilledAs the echoes of Hazeed’s command tore through the surreal air, Team Vortex sprang into motion.Mazda unslung his dual-phase disruptors, the barrels glowing with inverted energy. “Eat entropy, nightmares,” he muttered, opening fire. The first echo-beast exploded into a shower of fractured timelines, its body unraveling like a corrupted memory.Goro flanked left, his bracers pulsing as he projected overlapping shields—not to block damage, but to slow perception. “I’ve got suppression fields holding for twelve seconds!” he shouted. “Use them!”Nayla’s fingers blurred over her wrist console, injecting viral code directly into the null-field’s pulse. The air shimmered, causing some of the Herald’s constructs to glitch—flickering between now and never. “I’m trying to overload their temporal anchors, but it’s not enough!”One of the larger echoes charged, shrieking in a voice that sounded like laughter reversed. It slammed into Hazeed—but he didn’t yield. The Gate Lance flared, a core of pu
Last Updated: 2025-04-17
Chapter: HeraldIn a place without name, far beyond the limits of reality, voices echoed without echo. Hundreds of voices merged into one—a summons. And that summons... was answered.A shape began to emerge from a vortex of gray light, floating amid the wreckage of burning realities. The figure loomed tall—slender, but not fragile. Humanoid in form, but not entirely human.Its skin resembled fractured glass forming the night sky. Veins pulsed with blood-red light laced with the purple glow of dead stars. From its back unfurled formless wings, flowing like black fabric underwater.It stood—and the world around it bowed.“Herald…” the Hollow voices whispered in unison.“Carry our message. Bring ruin. Bring a mirror to those who believe they have already won.”The Herald’s eyes opened—not glowing, but devouring every shred of surrounding light.It spoke without sound. But its meaning pierced every boundary of language.> “They screamed into the dark.Let the dark scream back.”The portal opened without
Last Updated: 2025-04-15
Chapter: Next GoroFor Hazeed, it wasn’t blood or death that haunted him—it was the weight of failure. He stood in a vision of a world he couldn't save. Cities in ruin, people he once protected now reduced to ash. He saw himself standing alone, powerless, his sigil dimmed.But then, a faint voice echoed—familiar, steady. Nayla.“Hazeed. Focus.”Her voice cut through the illusion like a blade. Hazeed gritted his teeth, clutching the sigil on his hand.“This is not real,” he muttered. “You don't get to define me, Architect.”The sigil flared with golden light, radiating outward. The illusion cracked, shattering like glass. Around him, Mazda and Goro emerged from their own visions, their expressions shaken but clear. Nayla stood tall, her hand on her heart, her scanner flickering with regained clarity.“We’re back,” Mazda exhaled.“No,” Hazeed said, his voice calm. “We’ve broken through the Architect’s final defense. He knows we’re here to end it.”The room around them shifted once again—no longer a trap,
Last Updated: 2025-04-08
Chapter: Beyond the GateThe golden light of the gate dimmed as Hazeed and his team crossed into a new dimension. The temperature shifted drastically—from the cold, mechanical air of the bunker to a heat that stung like a blazing desert. They stood on crimson soil, dry and cracked, while above them the sky churned with hues of violet and blue, pulsing slowly like the breath of a hidden giant. Mazda squinted. “Where are we?” Hazeed took a cautious step forward. “Not our world. But this… feels real.” Goro crouched down and scooped a handful of the earth. He examined its texture, then nodded. “Too dense to be an illusion. We’re really here.” In the distance, a towering black obelisk rose against the surreal sky, surrounded by unstable whirlwinds of energy. Purple lightning cracked around it, like a natural barrier of volatile power. “That’s the center,” Hazeed murmured. “This gate isn’t just a door—it’s a map. And that’s the nexus.” Nayla activated the scanner hanging from her belt. “No signal. But I
Last Updated: 2025-04-05
