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Chapter 5 – Echoes of the Past
The storm had passed, but the air still pulsed with tension. The Arbiter's final words echoed in Kael's mind like a cracked recording:
"The Glitch King is awakening."
Kael and Selis moved in silence through the southern corridor of the ruined temple, emerging into a narrow canyon lined with obsidian-like rock and faint traces of corrupted code seeping from fissures in the ground.
Selis finally broke the silence.
"There's a sanctuary up ahead. If it still stands."
Kael glanced at her. "You've been here before."
She hesitated, then nodded. "Once. A long time ago."
---
Ten Minutes Later
Nestled into the canyon wall was a half-collapsed structure built of metal and stone—part shrine, part bunker. Ancient tech panels lined the outer walls, though most flickered with dead power.
Selis led them inside, navigating collapsed beams and ruined consoles with ease. They entered a chamber filled with cracked data-crystals and broken stasis pods.
"This was a resistance outpost," she said softly. "During the Dungeon Collapse Wars, rogue system users came here to escape the Enforcers."
Kael studied the ruins. "And now it's just another ruin. Another forgotten failure."
"No," Selis said. "Not forgotten."
She knelt beside a console and placed her hand over a symbol burned into the panel—a silver circle wrapped in a spiral.
The terminal flickered to life.
> [Encrypted Memory Shard Detected]
[Accessing: Echo Entry 137 – Subject: Selis Ryne]
Kael's head jerked toward her. "That's you."
Selis didn't move. "Don't watch."
But Kael couldn't help it.
A holographic image formed—grainy, flickering with static.
In it, a younger Selis stood in the same room, her eyes filled with desperation. Another figure was with her—a boy, maybe sixteen, with short dark hair and a branded system tattoo on his neck.
> "He's not dangerous," younger Selis said. "He's just scared. The corruption didn't twist his mind—it woke something up."
"We can help him."
Another voice responded, cold and mechanical.
> [Request denied. Subject deemed non-compliant. Termination approved.]
The boy looked up at Selis, eyes full of betrayal.
> "You promised..."
Then the shard cut off.
Kael turned to her, stunned. "That was your brother."
She nodded, her voice barely audible. "The System branded him Glitched. I tried to stop it. I failed."
Kael sat beside her in silence.
"That's why you're here," he said. "To finish what you couldn't do before."
"I came to find him," Selis said. "Or what's left of him. If he's still alive, the System will send someone like that Arbiter after him. After you."
Kael looked down at his hand, where faint static still flickered beneath his skin. "Then I guess we've both got unfinished business."
---
Later That Night
While Selis slept, Kael paced the sanctuary's data chamber, running simulations through his corrupted interface.
His Corruption Sync was now at 14%. The more he used his abilities, the more the system rejected his presence—and yet, the stronger he became.
He couldn't ignore the truth any longer.
This power was changing him.
But maybe that wasn't a curse.
Maybe it was freedom.
Then, something pinged in his interface.
> [Corruption Memory Thread Unlocked: "Arbiter Protocol – Class Omega"]
[Do you wish to view?]
Kael hesitated.
Then: Yes.
The world blurred.
He saw flashes—an assembly of masked Arbiters kneeling before a digital throne, surrounded by a storm of collapsing data.
At the center sat a being wreathed in glitch-fire, a crown of broken system code above his head. His voice echoed across time.
> "When the System falls, those bound by chains will rise. I am the first. The final bug. The true king."
> "Let them come."
The Glitch King.
Kael staggered back as the vision ended, breath ragged.
So it was real.
He wasn't just some broken reject. He was part of something bigger—a war that had never truly ended.
And maybe…
Maybe he'd been chosen.
---
End of Chapter 5