Fred stared at the prompt blinking inside his vision. [Remote Core Link: Activate?] Risk: High. Core signal will be traceable. Outcome: 57% chance of exposing your location to hostile surveillance, But Emily may not survive the night. He didn’t hesitate.Activate. System Surge [Echo Sync Initiated…] Distance Override Engaged Route: Emotional Link – Sibling Bond Fred’s entire body jolted. Suddenly, he saw through her eyes, Emily. Bruised. Cornered. Clutching a broken bottle in her hand. Behind her, Koba was barely standing.And then, something rose up. Not Fred. Not Koba. Something… ancient. [Entity Detected: Unknown Sub-Core Signature Nearby] …Tracking ERROR: Unregistered Pattern. Possible family-linked resonance.“She’s glowing,” one of the thugs muttered. They were right, A pulse of light exploded from Emily’s chest, small, white-hot, and erratic. Her pupils dilated, her skin shimmered faintly, and the walls around her cracked under invisible pressure.The men staggered back. “Wh

Status: Fred – Core Lock Engaged Vitality Drain: 12% Emily – Awakening Progress: 12%Fred: Bound in Silence, Fred's body convulsed as Crow’s Echo Trap wrapped him in spectral chains—thick coils of null-energy that froze his flame and muted his mind.His limbs trembled. His interface glitched. [System Functions: Interference Detected] — Combat Skills Disabled — Communication Disabled — Core Access: Suppressed Crow stood over him, calm and clinical.“You have potential. But you’re too raw. Too... unstable.”“The Lab doesn’t want fire, Fred. It wants control.” He raised a silver blade.“Let me carve the fire out of you.”Ivy’s Last Card – Her Connection to Crow. Then Ivy whispered one word, almost too soft to catch. “Rook.” Crow’s hand paused. Fred’s eyes widened. That name... didn’t match the monster above him, Crow froze. His expression, unreadable.“Don’t you ever call me that again.” Ivy rose shakily, cradling her broken arm. Her voice wavered, but it held truth.“He used to be one

Status Update: Fred – Core Overdrive (Sister’s Oath Surge) Vitality Drain: 78% System Stability: Fractured Emily – Awakening Progress: 56% Remote Core Link Active Gutwrencher – Status: Aggro-locked / Rampaging / Devouring1. Fire Against Flesh and MetalFred stood in the center of the collapsing tunnel, shoulders heaving, body glowing like a furnace with no boundaries.Golden fire bled through every pore. But this wasn’t the precise burn of his original system… this was Emily’s surge. Unstable. Raw. And it hurt.[Warning: Flame Source External – Compatibility 52%] Side Effect: Internal Tissue Burn Duration Remaining: 37 SecondsBut Fred didn’t care. Across from him, the Gutwrencher hunched low, its face splitting open like a cracked pressure valve. A tongue of iron flicked out, glowing with stolen Core fragments. “Come on,” Fred whispered. “Let’s burn.” The creature roared.2. A Dance with a MonsterThe Gutwrencher charged-arms like hydraulic cannons, claws carving gashes through the

Smoke curled through the shattered remnants of the tunnel. The Gutwrencher was gone, disintegrated into ash and flickers of failed core light. The metal walls still hissed where Fred’s Soulflare Pulse had scorched them, glowing with residual energy. The ground bore the shape of a scorched sigil-ancient, circular, flickering like breath.At the center of it all, Fred lay crumpled. His body didn’t move. His chest barely rose. And yet-he burned. Not with fire. But with remembrance.Emily knelt beside him, trembling. Her fingers hovered over Fred’s skin, the heat too intense to touch, yet her own awakening was now shielding her from the worst of it. “Please,” she whispered. “Not like this.”A soft wind rolled through the collapsed tunnel, a breeze born not of nature, but of energy shift.Then came the system pulse: [Link Reversal Activated] – Primary Core: Heartflame – Target: Fred Smith Transfer: 13% stabilization Status: Sibling Override – AcceptedEmily closed her eyes. “Take it. Take

Status: Quest Active – Reach the Ash Vault (Time Limit: 5 Days Remaining) Fred – Soulburn Core Sync: 21% Emily – Heartflame Stability: 68% Threat Detected – Echo Clone Activating Vault Proximity: 12.6kmThe ruins deepened. Beneath Sector 9’s lowest level, Ivy led them through a maze of collapsed steel tunnels and dead service elevators. A constant echo followed them, metal groaning, air too still.Fred gripped a flickering map projection in his hand, an old one recovered from Ivy’s core archive. [Route Engaged: Ash Vault Periphery – East Entrance] Warning: Environmental Pressure Unstable Warning: Unknown Energy Field DetectedEmily kept close. Her fingers occasionally sparked, heat rolling from her palms. She was still adjusting to her growing Core, but even in silence, her presence radiated strength. “Almost there,” Ivy muttered. “Two more junctions, then we’re inside the Vault’s shadow line.”Fred glanced back. “You said this place was sealed during the first Core War?”“Sealed… an