The Vault was gone, but its memory clung to them.
Long after they emerged, the echo of it followed—pressing behind their eyes, in the pit of their stomachs. The walk away from that fractured tomb was quieter than any before. Not from fatigue. Not entirely. It was something deeper. Like they'd seen too much. Like they'd left part of themselves behind in that mirrored place.
The sky had not changed. Still bruised. Still simmering with unseen static. But the horizon felt heavier now, as though something beyond it was shifting. Each breath carried a weight. Every glance over the shoulder brought no comfort.
Kael said nothing as he reassembled and checked his rifle for the third time. Selis ran diagnostics and swore softly at her cracked datapad. Thorne moved slower than usual, even with his bruised ribs mostly healed. He kept scanning the landscape—not for enemies, but for patterns. Repetition. Signs they might be walking in circles. There was no map for this kind of terrain. Not anymore.
Calyx limped beside Arix.
"You okay?" she asked.
Arix didn't answer at first. His thoughts were pulled somewhere distant, to the moment his shadow self dissolved. He could still feel the blade passing through that final layer of resistance—not just killing a projection, but slaying doubt. Yet something in him recoiled.
"I'm not sure," he admitted.
Calyx didn't press. She just nodded. "Me neither."
They pressed west, toward the extraction beacon Selis had triggered hours earlier. Supposedly, it would draw one of the allied sky crawlers—if any still operated in this part of the wastes.
> [System Sync: Stable | Emotional Anchor – Calyx: Synchronized]
[Fragment State: Dual Polarity – Integration at 34%]
[Warning: Unknown Signature Detected Within Proximity – Threat Level Unknown]
Arix glanced down the ridge. Beyond the slope, a plain of fractured earth stretched for miles. But his eyes fixed on the low black structures far ahead—monoliths.
"They weren't there before," he said.
Calyx followed his gaze. "No. They weren't."
The monoliths weren't ruins. They were clean. Angular. Recent. And even from this distance, they hummed. Something about their symmetry made Arix's teeth ache. The shard in his chest didn't pulse in alarm—it pulsed in recognition.
"We should circle wide," Selis said. "If that's an Obsidian relay—"
"No. That's not Obsidian," Kael cut in. "That's worse."
They didn't argue.
They skirted the plain at a distance, moving with practiced quiet through broken terrain. Every footfall crunched over crystal dust and dead roots. But the hum followed them, constant, vibrating in their gear and bones. Occasionally, a pulse rolled through the ground—like something breathing beneath the surface.
As night began to fall, the hum intensified.
It wasn't sound. It was sensation. A pressure behind the eyes, like something watching through layers of heat and glass.
Kael collapsed first.
He stumbled mid-step and went down hard, gasping. Selis and Thorne reached him instantly, Selis jabbing a stim into his neck.
"He's burning up," she said. "Like his nervous system's shorting."
Arix dropped to one knee beside him. "Get back."
> [System Response: Echo Shield – Deployed]
[Shared Anchor Connection: Stabilizing Nearby Neural Signatures]
Violet light radiated from Arix's fingers, creating a pulse field that pushed back the pressure. Kael's body stopped seizing. The light around them dimmed as the signal interference weakened.
Kael opened his eyes, dazed. "It's… inside the signal. It's trying to read us."
Calyx's face tightened. "It's not Obsidian tech. It's something older. A residual defense grid maybe. Or a lure."
"Or a warning," Thorne muttered.
They kept moving, but slower now.
Arix took point. The shard in his chest hummed louder as they approached the far end of the ridge. The monoliths were closer now, though they'd tried to move away. It wasn't just perspective. The terrain itself seemed to shift beneath them, stretching and contracting like muscle.
"They're shifting," Selis said. "Repositioning. Like they're tracking us."
"It's not passive," Arix agreed. "It's engaging."
They made camp in a shallow crevasse, hidden from above and mostly shielded from signal interference. Thorne volunteered to take first watch. Calyx ran field maintenance on her gear, her hands methodical but stiff. Selis tried to reestablish long-range contact. Kael rested, back braced against the rock, eyes closed but fists clenched.
Arix sat apart, as he often did now.
The shard pulsed—not a warning this time, but a query. It fed him glimpses. Lines of ancient script, fragments of places long destroyed. A throne of bone. A voice in glass. A war that never ended, only hid.
He didn't understand any of it.
But it remembered.
> [Dream State Approaching – Memory Imprint Imminent]
[Sleep Cycle Override Recommended: Yes]
He let his eyes close.
And the void opened.
---
In the dream, he stood in the same clearing where they had camped.
Except now, it wasn't ash and stone.
It was metal. The sky above was a dome. The stars were motionless. The earth beneath him thrummed like a beating heart.
A voice echoed—not words, but concepts. Broken phrases assembled from thoughts not his own.
"Fragment bearer."
Arix turned. Before him stood a figure cloaked in violet light, faceless but not empty. Its shape shifted subtly, always a few degrees off from reality. Behind it, the monoliths towered like sentinels.
"What are you?" Arix asked.
"An echo. A gate. A trial."
"You tried to kill Kael."
"No. It did. You brought the signal. You lit the fire."
Arix's fingers curled. "Is this another test?"
"There are no tests. Only reflections."
Suddenly, the monoliths surged forward, encircling him. The light turned crimson. The figure reached out.
"You will remember soon."
Arix tried to step back. But his feet wouldn't move.
The shard in his chest screamed.
> [Warning: External Memory Override Detected]
[Countermeasure: Pulse Break Engaged]
He snapped awake.
The sky had lightened slightly. No sun—just a pale wash of gray over jagged peaks.
His heart thundered. Calyx was crouched beside him, eyes sharp.
"You were shaking," she said.
"It wasn't just a dream."
She offered a canteen. "I figured."
As he drank, Arix glanced toward the plain again. The monoliths were gone.
But the hum remained.
Stronger than ever.