Chapter 14: The First Fracture
The undercity's stale air clung to Victor's skin as he descended deeper beneath the sprawling metropolis. Concrete walls, scarred by decades of neglect, closed in around him, carrying the scent of rust and damp earth. The faint hum of distant machinery echoed through forgotten tunnels, the city's veins hidden from daylight.
Ahead lay the first of the three coordinates that the system had pulsed to him — a relic site labeled Delta-Four. The same symbol from the sealed transit gate was etched faintly on the cracked metal door before him, a spiral crossed by a single slash. It seemed less a sign and more a warning.
Victor's fingers brushed the cool surface, activating his Mental Protocol Level 2. The world sharpened: the faintest traces of psionic energy bloomed in the air like ghostly embers, pulsing slowly along the edges of the old conduit lines.
> [Mental Protocol Level 2: Sensory Amplification – active]
[Residual Psionic Imprint Intensity: 5.3%]
He stepped through the door's jagged opening. The room beyond was a cramped storage chamber, thick with dust and scattered debris. But hidden beneath the wreckage, a faint glow throbbed — a fractured crystal, its edges chipped but alive with an eerie inner light.
Victor knelt, careful not to disturb its delicate resonance.
> [Relic Detected: Confirmed Echo Nexus Fragment]
[System Unlock: Accessing fragment's memory cache…]
As data flooded his mind, he felt a strange pull — not entirely welcome. A flicker of something foreign, like a faint shadow brushing his thoughts.
---
It began subtly: a whisper of sensation at the edges of his awareness, memories that weren't his, emotions like shadows without a source.
He clenched his jaw and summoned the system console in his mind, trying to filter the noise.
> [Warning: Intrusive Echoes detected – possible Cognitive Layer overlap.]
[Recommended: Initiate Cognitive Dissonance Protocol.]
Victor hesitated. The Cognitive Dissonance Protocol was designed to isolate such interference but often caused temporary disorientation. Still, ignoring it risked losing control.
He activated the protocol, feeling a brief dizziness as the system filtered through layered identities. Images flashed: a battlefield aflame, a voice screaming in a language long dead, the cold eyes of a man who looked like him but wasn't.
The phrase from earlier echoed in his mind:
"Second thought is first wound."
It crystallized into meaning: every time he probed deeper, fragmented versions of himself resurfaced — echoes from failed timelines, from iterations of Doom that the system had absorbed and discarded. The system wasn't a singular entity. It was a patchwork. A hive of discarded memories and ambitions.
---
Victor's hand tightened around the crystal shard. The relic seemed to pulse faster, syncing with his heartbeat.
> "So it begins," he muttered. The power he sought carried a price — the system's fractured nature meant he carried not only his own consciousness but shards of many others.
A chill ran down his spine as a fleeting reflection caught his eye on the cracked surface of a nearby monitor. It was him — but the eyes were cold, calculating, ruthless beyond his own careful control.
He blinked. The image vanished.
---
He fought to suppress the rising panic. To maintain control, he forced his thoughts inward.
The system was a tool. A weapon. But it was also a cage. And in that cage were ghosts.
Victor rose, pocketing the shard.
He had to follow the trail — the other relics, the woman's path, the echoes of his own fractured mind. But for the first time, he understood the stakes weren't just external threats but internal ones.
Every use of the system risked bleeding those voices through the cracks.
---
Outside the relic site, the city's noise seeped back in — the distant honk of traffic, murmurs of early commuters. The surface was unaware, uncaring of the battle beneath.
But Victor knew: the fractures were growing. And soon, they would demand a choice.
---
Would he become whole again? Or be shattered forever into the many fragments of the past?