[Shard of the Forgotten Path — Integrated]
[Paradox Core Stability: 12%]
[Warning: Memory leakage detected]
[Processing recovered sequence…]
Cael didn't pass out.
He shattered.
His vision spun into fragments — pieces of lives he never lived. Or had lived. Or was about to.
He saw himself at twelve, holding a blade too large for him, bleeding in a burning hall.
He saw another version of himself buried beneath a mountain of bones.
And a third — crowned, worshipped, eyes blank.
"These are not memories," a voice whispered in his mind.
"They are echoes of the lives you were never allowed to live."
Cael dropped to one knee. The shard burned beneath his ribs, like a second heart. His skin cracked with glowing threads — Vein sigils not carved, but remembered.
[New Ability Unlocked: Remnant Thread]
[Type: Passive + Active]
Description: You may access forgotten versions of yourself in broken timelines. Temporarily gain skills, knowledge, or instincts from 'you' that no longer exist.
Side Effect: You will feel what they felt. Bleed as they bled.
Warning: Using this too often will destabilize the present you.
Cael rose slowly.
"I'm made of ghosts," he whispered. "Fragments. That's what I am."
The shifting entity across the water tilted its glitching head.
"You are not made. You were undone."
"Now… something is rewriting you."
Before Cael could respond, the monoliths around the ruin pulsed — once.
Twice.
Then screamed.
A new voice boomed across the floating ruins — cold, metallic, echoing like a god trying to patch corrupted code.
"UNREGISTERED ENTITY DETECTED IN CORE-LAYER REALM."
"SYSTEM LOCK INITIATED."
From the sky above, a shape dropped like a comet.
It wasn't a person.
It was a purge unit — jagged silver armor, hollow eyes, and a blade formed from system code itself.
A warden of forgotten layers.
"ANOMALY: CAEL VOX."
"YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF SYSTEM ORDER."
"SURRENDER YOUR CORE FOR DELETION."
Cael stared up at the descending purge construct.
"Not today," he said quietly.
Then something ancient pulled at him from within the shard.
He remembered how to fight.
Not learn.
Not adapt.
Remembered.
[Remnant Thread: Combat Instinct (Echo: Cael_004)]
[Duration: 45 seconds]
"Sometimes, the only way to survive… is to become what you could've been."
---
The purge unit struck down.
Cael caught its blade with his bare hand.
It cut him. Badly.
But his eyes flickered with static. His movements weren't his — they were theirs, fragments of forgotten selves rising from beneath his skin.
He moved like a weapon built in grief.
He dodged like someone who had already died and learned from it.
He struck once — open palm to the core.
Veinlight ruptured from his hand.
The purge unit collapsed in static.
[Entity Erased: System Integrity — Fragmented]
[You are being watched.]
Cael staggered back.
"Then let them watch," he growled.
---
Meanwhile, in the System Core…
Dozens of watchers stared at red screens filled with unknown code.
"He's awakened Remnant Access…"
"That protocol was sealed during the Fracture Era—how the hell did he survive it?"
"It's him. The forgotten thread."
"Cael Vox was supposed to be erased."
The oldest voice in the chamber whispered one word:
"Contain him."
---