The black slip weighed like iron in Kael's pocket.
Sera had already vanished into the smoke of the ruin, leaving him alone with his thoughts and the scent of burned Echo lingering in the air. Around him, the broken walls of Facility 17 stood like the ribs of a dead god—silent, hollow, forgotten.
But Kael's mind was ablaze.
The Echo wearing Renna's face hadn't just mimicked her voice. It had known things—memories only the real Renna could have whispered. That kind of precision was impossible unless…
Unless it had touched him before.
Or something deeper was watching.
Pulling strings.
---
The slip bore no writing.
Just a shifting glyph that revealed its message only under Echo resonance. When Kael channeled a flicker of the Eye of Silence, the black melted into coordinates etched in red light:
> Sector 12-G. Verdant Hollow. Entry Code: Echo-Null 7.
Sector 12-G.
It was outside the city grid, deep in the ancient Verdant Zone, where overgrowth had swallowed tech and concrete alike. Rumors said time didn't work properly there. That the Dream bled through even when untouched.
It was also supposed to be off-limits.
Locked down.
That's where the Pact wanted him.
---
Kael traveled for hours beneath the city.
He moved through crawlspaces, relic rail tunnels, and collapsed tram lines—avoiding patrols and scanners. The closer he got, the more the world felt wrong. Machinery was rusted yet humming. Plants grew through steel with unnatural precision. Lights flickered with no power.
At last, he emerged from a service hatch into open sky.
And stopped.
Verdant Hollow stretched before him like a wound in the earth.
Ancient buildings were half-consumed by bioluminescent vines and glass-like flowers that shimmered in impossible colors. Giant root systems coiled around skyscrapers like serpents. Trees with metal-bark twisted toward the cloud-choked heavens.
And in the middle of it all, standing alone—
A spire of black stone and bone.
Tall. Angular. Breathing.
Kael's Echo mark pulsed, reacting to it.
This was the place.
---
He made his way through the dense growth, echo-stepping through the silence.
The Hollow didn't feel abandoned.
It felt watched.
Every vine that recoiled from his presence, every animal that stayed unnaturally still, confirmed it: the Dream was awake here.
The spire's entrance was a seamless wall—no doors, no windows. But when Kael touched it, the mark on his arm blazed. A circle of glyphs unfurled like petals.
> Access granted. Initiate: Kael Voss.
The wall dissolved.
---
Inside, the temperature dropped.
The chamber was a perfect circle, walls lined with crystalline glyphs pulsing like slow heartbeats. In the center was a platform.
Upon it—a figure waited.
She wasn't masked this time.
Sera.
Her face was sharp, eyes storm-gray, framed by cropped obsidian hair. No older than twenty-five, yet her expression held the weight of someone who had watched centuries pass.
"You came," she said.
Kael stepped forward. "What now?"
Sera turned. "Now we see if you're worth the cause."
The floor shifted beneath him. A spiral of stone lowered Kael into the depths below.
---
The descent took him into a chamber of mirrors, each pane reflecting a version of himself.
In one, he was burning. In another, crowned in light. In the last—his eyes were hollow, and his arms were soaked in blood.
Sera's voice echoed from above.
"This is the Pact's crucible. A place where your Echoes will be tested. Where you will be tested. No enemies. No allies. Only the question…"
> "Will you shatter? Or will you ascend?"
---
As the lights dimmed, Kael felt something stir.
The Eye of Silence was quiet.
The Maw within his blade… dormant.
Even the whisper of the Hollow Reaper in his thoughts had vanished.
He was alone.
Utterly.
And then—pain.
Agonizing, soul-deep pain bloomed from within, dragging something out of him.
A shadow.
His own Echo-Double stepped from the darkness. An exact replica.
But it smiled with none of his sorrow. None of his restraint.
Only hunger.
---
> [Crucible Trial Initiated]
Opponent: Fragment of Self
Designation: Kael-Null / Aspect of Reckoning
---
The double lunged.
Faster than Kael expected. A perfect echo of his fighting style—but crueler. No hesitation. No mercy.
Steel clashed with steel.
Echo against Echo.
Blow for blow.
Each strike carried memories—his memories—used against him. The time he failed to save Renna. The moment his brother fell. The guilt. The rage.
He fought with everything he had.
But his double wasn't just a copy.
It was the version of him he might've become.
If he'd let go of control.
If he'd broken.
---
As the battle reached its peak, Kael dropped to one knee.
The double raised its blade—
Kael closed his eyes.
And for the first time…
He embraced the silence.
Not to escape the pain.
But to accept it.
The Eye flared.
And the double—
Shattered.
---
Kael rose, breath ragged.
Around him, the mirrors cracked.
The lights steadied.
Above, Sera's voice returned.
"You passed."
---
The platform rose again.
Sera waited, arms crossed, studying him with something approaching respect.
"You faced yourself and didn't run. That's the first step."
Kael didn't reply.
He didn't need to.
Because now… something had changed.
Not just within him.
Around him.
The Pact had accepted him.
And whatever game was being played in Dravemire—he wasn't a pawn anymore.
He was a player.
---
End of Chapter 9