The first Echoed struck like a shadow reborn.
Syra barely had time to react. Its form shifted mid-lunge, blurring between static and flesh. She rolled back, firing twin arc-pistols in unison. The blasts scattered like light through glass—ineffective.
"They're not solid!" she shouted.
Kael moved beside her, the glyph on his chest glowing. He didn't speak. He simply extended his hand. A ripple of silver fire surged outward, not burning—but rewriting.
The Echoed screamed. Not in pain. In deletion.
"Your new magic does that?" Bren gasped, ducking as another creature swept overhead.
Kael didn't answer. His eyes were distant—focused inward, listening to something none of them could hear.
Jax stood in front of him, shielding him with a stolen Reaper shield. "Guys, more incoming!"
Syra turned. Dozens of Echoed poured from the ruined spires now. Not just humanoid shapes. Beasts. Machines. Flickering illusions of people they once knew.
Her mother. Her old mentor. Kael's face—twisted and smiling.
She froze.
Then a hand pulled her down just as a blade swept past where her neck had been.
"Focus," Kael said. "They're projections. They feed on memory. Don't give them a shape to copy."
Syra bit her lip and forced her heart still.
Breathe. Aim. Fire.
She shifted to arc-rounds coded to disrupt illusions. With each strike, the creatures flickered, cracked, and vanished into digital ash.
The battle was chaos. But they held.
When the last Echoed dissolved, the Mirrorgate sealed shut behind them.
No going back.
---
They camped in the ruins that night. Syra sat alone, staring at the edge of the Mirrorgate, now inert.
Kael approached, his movements slower than usual.
"You alright?" he asked.
"You saw it, too," she whispered. "Your face. My past. They're not just illusions."
"They're echoes of choice," Kael replied. "Fragments of what could have been. The Mirrorgate tests you by showing you what you're most afraid to lose. Or become."
She nodded. "What did you see?"
"Myself. Ruling. Killing. Becoming what I swore I'd fight."
She didn't speak. Just placed a hand on his shoulder.
He flinched.
"Your skin… it's colder."
"I'm changing," Kael admitted. "Faster now. I don't think I can stop it."
"We won't let you face it alone."
He looked at her. For a heartbeat, Syra thought he might say something else—but then a warning ping echoed from Jax's sensor.
"Incoming. Five lifeforms. Fast."
They turned.
From the shattered skyline, five figures descended like judgment.
Clad in deep onyx armor, masked and silent. Each bore a sigil of the Eye across their chest, pulsing red.
Fatebinders.
"Oh, this is bad," Bren muttered.
The central figure stepped forward. Her mask was smooth, and her voice came through layered distortion.
"Kael Voss. The Wire has marked you."
Kael stood tall. "Then they should have sent more."
"We are enough."
The Fatebinders moved.
Fast.
Syra didn't have time to blink. The first Binders struck with lethal coordination. One launched a chain-scythe at Jax, pinning him. Another blinked through reality to slam into Bren.
Kael raised his hand, and the glyph burst to life—
Only to flicker.
Fail.
"They're dampening it!" Kael hissed.
Syra engaged two herself. Her pistols glowed with overcharge. She danced between the strikes, but these weren't Echoed. These were trained hunters.
She barely dodged a spear that seemed to phase through stone.
They were losing.
Until Kael dropped to one knee—and the sigil on his chest split open.
Power roared out.
A pulse wave erupted. Time slowed.
For just a moment, everything halted. Raindrops froze. Breath hung in the air.
Kael stood. His voice was not entirely his.
"Your chains will break."
He moved, impossible to track, and in three heartbeats, disarmed two Binders and shattered their weapons.
The lead Fatebinder stepped forward. Her mask cracked.
Syra saw her face.
She looked like Kael.
"Sister?" he whispered.
The Fatebinder hesitated.
Then vanished in a burst of light.
The others followed.
Gone.
Silence returned.
Syra stared at Kael. "You have a sister?"
"I didn't."
He stared at his hands.
"But maybe I did. Before the Eye took her."
---