Sector: Miraquell Depths
Threat Level: Unstable Aquatic Spiral / Temporal Drift Detected
Minister Activity: Unknown
Status: Submerged Ruins – Memory Hazards Likely
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The Spiral shard from the Sleepwalker had barely cooled before the next one began pulsing—this time, from deep beneath Sector Miraquell. A region once known for its beauty, it had collapsed into the ocean after the Resonance Shift. Now, it was nothing but submerged ruins echoing with lost thoughts.
Ren, Yumi, Rei, Kael, and Aki stood on the edge of a spiral reef that marked the entrance.
Kael held up a scan crystal. "This place isn't just underwater. It's off-clock. Chrono loops are fractured. Your thoughts will skip."
Rei checked her blade. "Then no one goes alone. We dive in, stay linked. If one of us drifts—"
"I'll draw us back," Yumi finished, tying a memory-thread sketch to her belt.
Ren adjusted the mask-like Spiral filter on his face. "Keep talking. Even nonsense. Anchor ourselves to the present."
And then… they dove.
---
🌊 The Descent
Miraquell's waters were not just deep—they were dimensional.
Each layer they passed through glimmered with remnants of different Spiral events: whole buildings frozen in time, battles looping in fragments, children laughing silently from half-broken memories.
Yumi whispered through the link, "This place remembers everything that drowned."
Aki stopped mid-swim.
Above him: himself. But older. Hollow-eyed. Still alive—but regret carved into every line on his face.
Rei swam up and tugged his arm. "Don't look too long."
They reached the base of the ruins.
There—at the center of what looked like a collapsed palace—was the third Spiral Shard. Floating above it:
> A mirror.
Not a creature. Not a mask. A living, glowing mirror.
And from it echoed a thousand voices, each whispering a different version of themselves.
> "I was stronger than this." "I never said goodbye." "You shouldn't have let me drown."
Kael growled. "That's not a Minister."
Ren narrowed his eyes. "No. That's… our reflections. Twisted into a trap."
Suddenly, a splash.
Yumi was gone.
---
💧 Inside the Mirror
Yumi opened her eyes inside a hallway of sketches.
Thousands of versions of herself lined the walls—each frozen in a moment of failure.
> One let Aki die.
One abandoned the Spiral Nexus.
One never picked up her sketchbook again.
The Mirror Minister drifted beside her—its voice smooth and dripping:
> "You could have had peace. A daughter. A home. Why stay in this endless Spiral?"
Yumi shook, her hand reaching for her pencil—
> And failed.
Her arm wouldn't move.
The guilt was too thick. Too real.
---
🌀 Back Outside
Ren clenched his jaw. "This isn't a normal illusion. It's a regret trap. It shows them their worst echoes."
Kael activated his time instinct—he blinked in and out of several nearby loops.
He found Rei, staring at a battlefield where she didn't fight—and everyone died.
He pulled her out.
Aki resisted better—but the Mirror had grown curious of him.
> "You don't regret. Why?"
Aki didn't reply. He was focused inward. He was listening to the Prime Echo again.
Inside him, a deeper voice stirred.
> "You are not allowed to regret what never belonged to you."
And just like that, Aki's Spiral thread ignited. He reached toward the Mirror—
—and shattered it with a burst of Echo power.
---
💥 Return of Yumi
The moment the Mirror cracked, Yumi was thrown back into the water, gasping.
Her pencil burned in her hand.
A new sketch unraveled in front of her: a future she could still make.
A child's hand in hers.
She didn't cry.
She didn't scream.
She drew that child—one she hadn't met yet—and used it as her anchor.
The water lit up.
The Mirror shattered completely.
In its place, the third Spiral Shard hovered, undamaged.
> Shard Collected: Minister of Regret – Defeated
---
Back on the Surface
Kael shook the water from his hair. "Three down."
Ren checked the Spiral map.
> Shards Collected: 3 / 20
Next Pulse Detected: Unknown Region. Outer Spiral Flow Disrupted.
Rei leaned on her blade. "What's next? Who's next?"
Aki stood silent, staring into the sky.
> "The Spiral Eye is still watching. We haven't escaped its gaze. We've only made it… curious."
Ren closed his sketchbook slowly.