The storm hadn't ended. It had only shifted.
Zeeler stood at the heart of the Hollow Vale, mist swirling at his feet like it remembered him. Kael stood beside him, one blade drawn, his eyes watching the shadows—not out of fear, but instinct.
Neither spoke.
Because something was watching them back.
Then the mist parted.
And he stepped forward.
Not a demon. Not a soldier.
Zeeler.
Another Zeeler.
Not fractured or broken, but cold. Hair swept back like wind never touched it, eyes colorless and dead. No glow. No warmth. Just a perfect mirror without a soul.
Kael took half a step forward. "What the hell…"
The Echo Zeeler didn't speak. Just raised a hand.
The trees bent.
Time shivered.
Kael staggered as the air snapped around them. The real Zeeler gasped—because he felt it. That pressure. Not just memory... intent.
The Echo wasn't a copy.
It was what Zeeler could've been.
What he almost became.
Every doubt. Every moment he thought of burning the world instead of saving it. The pain. The rage. The silence that lingered after screams.
"Kael," Zeeler said quietly. "I know him."
"I guessed." Kael's grip tightened. "Any idea how to kill your own regrets?"
Zeeler exhaled. "No. But I think I have to let them speak."
The Echo stepped closer. No footsteps. No breath. He moved like a ripple of thought.
Then he spoke.
"You left me here."
His voice wasn't angry. Just… empty.
"You walked away from what made us strong. You buried it. You called it wrong. You let them tame you."
Zeeler stepped forward. "I changed."
"No," the Echo said. "You ran."
The ground cracked between them. Not from force—but from resonance.
Kael felt it. Not with his ears. With his bones. Like the world was listening to a conversation it feared.
"You still carry me," the Echo whispered. "Even now. I see it. When you sleep. When you almost kill. When you hesitate. I was the part of you that never did."
Zeeler shook his head. "You were born in pain. I was a child. I didn't know what else to do."
"You did. That's why I exist."
Then the world twisted.
The Echo struck.
He fractured forward—space tearing behind him. Zeeler barely blocked, the clash of palms snapping the trees backward. Kael dodged aside as a wave of memory-echoes exploded outward, voices crying out from all directions.
They weren't in the Vale anymore.
They were inside Zeeler's past.
Each step Echo Zeeler took changed the world. The Hollow. The orphanage. The killing field. Kael saw it all flash around them—every place Zeeler had buried and forgotten. Places he'd never spoken of.
"Kael—stay back!" Zeeler shouted.
"No," Kael growled. "Not this time."
He dashed in, blade coated in Veyari harmony. He slashed through the veil of memory—but the Echo bled light and shadow both, and caught the blade mid-swing.
Kael's sword shattered.
Then the Echo touched Kael's chest.
And everything went still.
---
Kael's memory ruptured.
He saw himself—alone in a burned city, body charred, hands shaking. Screaming for someone—anyone.
He saw Zeeler's body.
Lifeless.
And he saw the Spiral.
Huge. Endless. Turning across the sky like a wheel with no edge.
He dropped to one knee, gasping, heart thundering.
Back in the real world—he coughed, sweat dripping. Zeeler caught him just before he collapsed.
"You okay?" Zeeler asked, eyes locked on the Echo.
Kael wiped blood from his nose. "That Spiral… that wasn't just a vision."
"No. It's real." Zeeler stood, eyes burning now. "And it's waking up. Feeding off fractured souls."
The Echo smiled.
"Yes," it said. "It's begun. You broke the Hollow. You broke yourself. And now the Spiral knows."
Behind the Echo, the sky cracked.
Just a sliver. But it shimmered—like a shard of the Spiral had peeled down into their world.
Zeeler felt something inside his chest twist. The mark. The Stilllight. But it flickered—not in power, but in fear.
Because it remembered.
"You thought I was the worst of you," the Echo whispered. "But I'm just the gate."
Zeeler clenched his fists.
"I'm not afraid of you anymore."
"You should be. Because if I fall…" the Echo's smile widened.
"They'll come next."
And then Zeeler saw them.
Shadows at the edge of the Spiral shard.
Figures. Like him. Like the Echo.
Other Fractureborn.
Born in silence. In war. In rage. Or in the Spiral's shadow.
Not one.
Not two.
But nine.
Each stepping from the fracture in the sky. Each carrying a mark that hummed in response to Zeeler's. Some like children. Some like ancient kings. All bearing the power of broken resonance.
Kael rose beside him. "They're… like you?"
Zeeler didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
One of them—a girl with mirror eyes—spoke.
"Zeeler. We've been looking for you."
The Echo Zeeler stepped back, bowing slightly to her.
"We're not your enemies," she said. "But we're not your friends either."
"What are you?" Zeeler asked.
"We are what you left behind," another voice answered—a tall man, skin glowing with starlight veins. "What the world made when it tried to contain what can't be contained."
Kael raised a broken sword. "Why now?"
"Because the Spiral has turned," the girl said. "And your bloom… called us."
Zeeler's breath caught.
He looked to the Echo.
Who nodded.
Then vanished.
Not defeated.
Just… returned.
Back into him.
The mist returned. The air settled. But the sky shard didn't close.
The nine Fractureborn stood silent.
And Zeeler knew.
The Spiral wasn't just awakening.
It was choosing.