The team returned to Yūgen changed.
They didn't talk about it—but Umbra-Veil had left scars. The defeat didn't come from losing. It came from facing a level of Spiral logic that ignored everything they had trained for.
And Miren, Minister of Regret… hadn't even fought seriously.
The Spiral shard she left behind pulsed now, embedded in the center of the map.
Ren tried to analyze it using his Dual-Paradox Weave, but it resisted every layer of recreation. The shard was intelligent, perhaps even alive.
> "It's not an artifact," Yumi finally said. "It's an instruction. Waiting to be read by the right... mind."
But whose?
---
Rei Left First.
She didn't speak, didn't argue. Just left their Spiral camp and walked beyond the perimeter alone.
Kael offered to follow—Ren stopped him.
> "She needs to face it."
Aki sat nearby, sketching symbols only he could see. His power had begun to stir on its own lately—drawings forming in his book without his hand.
> "Something's wrong with her resonance," Aki muttered. "Since Umbra-Veil. She's pulsing two Spiral rhythms out of sync."
Ren nodded. He'd noticed it too.
Rei wasn't just unstable. She was fracturing.
---
Rei's Journey
Rei wandered into the ruins of an old Spiral military tower—abandoned since the Delta Collapse years ago. Her footsteps echoed in halls once used for command, now hollow.
It was there, alone in the war-scarred silence, that it happened.
A voice called to her. Not from the outside—from her weapon.
> "I remember this place, even if you don't."
Rei gripped the hilt of her Fracture Blade.
> "No," she whispered. "You're not alive."
> "You named me. The moment you split your timeline. That gave me... form."
And suddenly—memories surged. Not hers. Not entirely.
She saw herself as a child. Holding hands with someone she couldn't name. Running across a battlefield. Laughing.
Then… separated. Forgotten.
The voice spoke again.
> "You severed a twin. Not by blood. By time."
> "You're incomplete."
Rei fell to her knees, blade pulsing. Not red. Not blue. A flickering spiral of two paths, overlapping violently.
---
Meanwhile – The Spiral Map Breaks Again
Back at the camp, Kael cursed.
> "The second shard's pulsing. There's activity again."
But it wasn't in the material world.
It was in the dream sector.
Yumi gasped. "That's impossible. That dimension collapsed with the first Resonance Surge."
Aki narrowed his eyes. "Then who reopened it?"
Ren didn't wait for discussion.
> "Wake Rei. Bring her back. I'll go in alone."
Yumi grabbed his shoulder. "You enter a Spiral Dream realm alone, you won't come back whole."
Aki stood. "Then we all go. That's what teams are for."
---
The Dream Sector – Entry
The group entered through the Spiral simulation chamber and locked into the neural link.
And instantly—they were separated.
This time, not by accident.
By design.
Each found themselves in a dream crafted from their regrets.
Yumi sat across from an older version of herself—gray-haired, painting flowers with no purpose.
Kael relived the moment he failed to stop his brother's disappearance into a broken Spiral gate.
Ren faced himself… with no pen. Just hands. Ordinary. Forgotten.
And Aki? He wasn't dreaming.
He was inside someone else's dream.
The Prime Echo spoke.
> "Minister Two… is watching."
---
Rei's Confrontation
In her dream, Rei stood on a battlefield made of memories—fragments of every version of herself.
Some were victorious. Others broken.
One was dead.
Each looked at her with accusing eyes.
> "You fractured us. You chose to carry the blade, but not the burden."
One version stepped forward—identical to Rei, but wearing white.
> "I am what you left behind. The Spiral Form you feared."
Rei's real blade appeared in her hand.
And she faced herself.
The battle wasn't flashy—it was raw.
Two versions of the same soul clashing not for dominance, but for integration.
When Rei finally stood over her other self, victorious but breathless, the white-Rei smiled and whispered:
> "Then take the blade whole."
Her form merged into Rei's chest.
And the blade glowed—
> "Fracture Form Evolved: Echo Rift Phase Two Unlocked."
Now, she could split herself temporarily—two synchronized copies for five seconds of battle.
Rei woke up screaming, soaked in sweat.
---
A Message Appears
Back in the real world, each member woke slowly—except Aki.
His eyes were open before they even disconnected.
> "I heard its name," he said. "Minister Two."
> "It doesn't fight in reality. It eats memories. And it just marked us."
Kael noticed it first—black ink dripping from the Spiral shard on the map.
Yumi approached cautiously and saw:
A glyph forming: a door. A sigil of dreams. A lock with no key.
Ren looked around.
> "This wasn't a battle."
> "It was a warning."