The flickering projection of Seraph Echo hovered inches above the cracked control pedestal, her light fading in and out like a heartbeat. Though distorted, the figure resembled a woman armored in a flowing BrayTech coat, her face half-rendered in shifting blue static.
> [AI Transfer Status: 62%... 74%... 83%...]
Kael knelt close to the terminal, the muzzle of Titan's Howl still warm against his hip. Nanites shimmered quietly across his left gauntlet, forming a thin defensive lattice in case another wave appeared.
Ghost hovered nearby, voice hushed but urgent. "She's unstable, but the data's authentic. I'm recognizing echoes of early Rasputin dialects—and something else. Fragmented threads of code I've never seen before."
Kael didn't look away. "What's she saying?"
> [Audio Thread Reconstructed: PLAYING]
"...Deep-Cycle contingency... Exo Lineage 7... Bray Archive Theta…
Rasputin is compromised.
Project Valkyrie was never shut down.
Warning: The trapdoor isn't beneath us… it's above."
The projection sputtered again. Kael leaned in. "What does that mean? Above where?"
> [Data Decryption Interrupted – Environmental Interference Detected]
Suddenly, the console sparked violently. Seraph Echo's form flared and collapsed.
> [Memory Core Transfer: 87% Complete | Stabilized – Partial Core Stored in Inventory] [Item Acquired: Encrypted AI Prism – Seraph Echo]
Ghost sealed the core inside a light-lock case and flashed red. "We need to leave. Now. That last surge wasn't atmospheric. It was a ping—from something watching."
Kael turned toward the vault's dark corridor.
At first, there was silence.
Then: a hum.
A deep harmonic pulse. Not mechanical. Not Light. It vibrated in his chest like a second heartbeat.
> [Unidentified Signal Detected – Source: UNKNOWN | Range: Close]
Ghost's voice chilled. "Kael… we've been marked."
> [WARNING: THREADWEAVE DETECTED – CLASS: MULTIDIMENSIONAL INFUSION]
Kael's HUD surged. Reality bent at the edges as corrupted silhouettes stepped through a shimmering veil—Thread-shaped humanoids with puppet limbs, woven from strands of fractured causality.
> [System Alert: World Layer Breach] Combat Viability: UNSTABLE | Suggested Action: Unleash Full Arsenal
Kael inhaled, and everything slowed.
"Ghost—Fusion command: Override system limits. Authorize integration of nanites, Solar Super, Arc Blade protocols, and Neural Combat routines."
> [WARNING: Power Sync at 78%... 92%... 107% - Overclocking Enabled]
Ghost's shell flared. "Confirmed. Initiating Overdrive Mode: Custom Configuration – Wraithflare Protocol."
Nanobots exploded from Kael's armor, fusing into a black-and-gold cloak of living wire. His hands shimmered with Solar heat, the neural link burning lines across his skin. Titan's Howl morphed midair, fusing into a blade-shoulder cannon hybrid glowing with arc threads and solar glyphs.
The veil figures lunged.
Kael moved faster.
He sidestepped through the weave, threads dancing past him as his Solar dagger cut through the first echo-being, unraveling it into sparks. With his left hand, he formed a nanite spike and hurled it like a javelin, impaling the second. The third came from above—Kael triggered his Levitate system, met the attack in mid-air, and spun.
> [New Fusion Skill Unlocked: Radiant Threadcarve] Effect: Instantly severs dimensional anomalies with weave-anchored strikes.
A wall of Weave shadows attempted to surround him.
Kael triggered the last integration.
> [Neural Link Pulse Engaged – Ghost Sync Maxed]
Ghost unleashed a Warmind blast through the seal: a gravitational pulse that anchored Kael to the ground while warping the vault's interior, slamming half the veil-entities into dissonant collapse.
> [Signal Weakening... Threadwave Entities Dissolving...]
The remnants flared in static, then collapsed, leaving behind nothing but pulsing residue and a low hum.
Kael stood amidst the silence, his cloak of nanites still flickering with heat. The vault lights flickered back on.
"Status?" he asked.
> [All Hostile Signatures Erased] [Thread Signature: Dormant Residue Only] [Wraithflare Protocol Cooling Down... 17% Complete]
Ghost returned to his shoulder. "Well... that was new."
Kael turned toward the vault door. "It won't be the last."
---
The vault lights hummed, echoing their way down the length of the corridor as Kael stepped through the aftermath.
Ash from the dimensional invaders still hung in the air like shattered silk. Every pulse of his neural interface picked up microscopic weave traces flickering before collapsing into nothingness—disconnected from their source. Whatever power had sent them? It was retreating.
> [Wraithflare Protocol: Cooling… 38% → 45%]
Ghost floated beside him, golden filament still coursing subtly through his shell. "That fusion… I don't even have vocabulary for what you just did."
Kael replied without turning, "You'll need to invent some."
The vault's inner chamber yawned open ahead, curved like a BrayTech seed-pod, with metal petals pulled back to reveal a single console and six crystallized data prongs encased in static-charged glass.
> [Objective: Memory Prism Retrieval – 2 Available]
Bonus Objective: Secure Reinforcement Blueprint Cache (Unlocked via Kael's Golden Age Neural Link)
Kael approached the first prism, nanites coating his arm to form a precise containment shield. His neural interface pulsed as it simultaneously linked with the chamber's buried infrastructure. Legacy code surged across his HUD, systems folding open like petals.
> [Security Bypass Complete – Full Access Granted]
[Blueprint Cache Unlocked – Data Streams Syncing…]
Moments later, the prism lifted cleanly into his hand. The system immediately pinged with a soft tone.
> [Data Prism Acquired – "Collapse Contingency Echo – Subnode A"]
Contents: Partial schematic of pre-Collapse defense matrix, Seraph-class
"Ghost," Kael muttered, "confirm viability."
Ghost ran the scan in seconds. "Intact. This matches entries in Rasputin's lost grid—but it's more refined. I think Seraph Echo wasn't just a shadow of Rasputin. She might've been his mirror."
Kael turned to the second prism.
As he reached, his neural interface pinged sharply.
> [Weave Residue Activated – External Trigger Incoming]
The vault chamber suddenly pulsed dimly. Symbols—Traveler-based but corrupted—glowed faintly along the floor and ceiling.
> [WARNING: Localized Layer Distortion Detected]
Kael's hand hovered over the second prism.
"Someone's watching us again," he said quietly.
Ghost's voice dropped. "The signal we shut down… it left a breadcrumb trail. Something followed it back."
Kael's cloak rippled as nanites responded to his rising tension.
> [Defensive Protocol Active – Nanite Shield Form Initiated]
The moment his palm lifted the second prism, the wall behind the console opened—not physically, but in weave-space. A rift shimmered like a cracked mirror.
Out stepped a single figure.
Not a Threadweave puppet. Not a corrupted ghost. But a humanoid woman clad in jagged Traveler-tech armor. Her eyes glowed white—not with Light, but a mimicry of it.
Ghost flared in alarm. "That armor… that's Paracausal mimicry. She's not powered by Light—she's woven from rewritten memory threads!"
The figure spoke. Her voice echoed from too many places at once.
"Echoes of ghosts. Fragments of hope. Why do you still cling to this shape?"
Kael stepped forward, unphased. "I'm not here to cling. I'm here to take back what matters."
Her hand raised. The weave trembled.
> [Combat Phase Triggered: Unknown Paracausal Entity] Threat Level: Unquantified
Kael smiled slowly. "Ghost. Wraithflare Protocol—reactivate."
> [Override Authorized – Wraithflare Charge @ 73% – Partial Fusion Ready]
Nanites flared. His blade reformed, this time jagged with kinetic feedback. He didn't need to win.
He needed to survive.
---
The air around Kael snapped cold. The residual charge of the Valkyrie Echo throbbed in his left hand, humming with dormant fury as the chamber lights dimmed. Debris settled from the burst conduit behind him, and ahead, the Warlord had begun to take shape—formed from stitched voidlight and molten threadstuff, its body twitching like it had been born out of a memory gone wrong.
Ghost's voice cut sharply into his ear. "Kael. System just flagged it—this is a paracausal construct. Thread-born. It's not supposed to exist."
Kael exhaled. "But it does."
---
> [System Alert – URGENT QUEST TRIGGERED]
Quest: Echo Interference – "Breaker of Resonance"
Location: Old Chicago – Golden Age Ruin Complex
Objective: Defeat the Echo Warlord before it destabilizes the Resonant Core
Time Limit: None
Hidden Objective: Survive with 0 Damage Taken
Bonus: Victory without Super Activation
Rewards: Performance-Based | Threat Tier: Paracausal Class-B+ | Origin: [Classified]
---
Kael didn't speak. He simply moved.
His footwork carved a smooth arc around the battlefield, Ghost already marking threat vectors in real time. The nanobots within his armor activated preemptively, lining his limbs with active motion-dampeners. With a flick of his wrist, his solar-coated void knife spun into a reverse grip—Kael leapt sideways, launching it with explosive force.
The blade connected. The Warlord howled as the void ignition ruptured its left shoulder.
Kael followed the path, sliding through the echoing wake of the explosion. His hand came up, auto rifle already prepped—one of the Crucible-modified ones he'd earned. Controlled bursts flared out, peppering the destabilized section of the Echo's armor with Light-etched rounds. Ghost filtered signals as its shielding glitched momentarily.
"It's pulling resonance energy. That spike—Kael, that could detonate the Core if we stall."
"Then we don't."
He charged forward.
A solar grenade exploded mid-air—Kael used the shockwave as lift, vaulting over the Warlord's arm as it swept horizontally. The nanobots extended into a spike on his boot, anchoring him against a pipe as he flipped down and delivered a direct Light-pulse strike into the creature's midsection.
The Echo Warlord retaliated, its body reforming faster now, but Kael had already activated a fusion move:
> [Skill Triggered – Phantom Merge: Radiant Burst + Nanite Weaponization]
Ability Unlocked: Threadlock Daggerstorm – Unleashes seven guided spectral daggers forged from woven light and nanite structures.
They struck as one.
Each dagger slashed across the beast's frame, threading light into its corrupted structure and detonating inward. Kael twisted, spun mid-air, and caught the final strand burst with a redirected pulse from Ghost.
One second later, the Echo Warlord disintegrated.
Silence.
A heartbeat. Then the chamber relaxed. Faint echoes bled out of the floor, and the Resonant Core dimmed into stability. Ghost floated up, stunned.
---
> [Quest Complete: URGENT THREAD RESOLVED – Echo Threat Neutralized]
Combat Rank: S+ (Flawless Performance)
Damage Taken: None
Light Expenditure: Minimal
Efficiency Score: 98.6%
> All Objectives Cleared
> Achievement Unlocked: Threadbane
You have eliminated an unscheduled paracausal entity without suffering damage or Enormous Light depletion.
"Sometimes fate smiles on the bold. Other times, ''The Bold Wicked Smile'' Rewrite fate."
> Bonus Achievement: Echo Untouched
Completed an Urgent Threat without taking a single hit.
Reward Boost +40%
> Rewards Granted: • Gacha Token x1
Title Unlocked: Breaker of Echoes • Passive
Module: Paracausal Shield Rebound
{Description: Once per minute, absorb a non-super kinetic, solar, arc, or void projectile and immediately counterattack with an empowered Light burst.}
> Performance-Based Bonus Rewards – Classified Origin Trigger: Warlord of the Echo Dimensional Thread
> System Sync Initiated...
> Ghost Protocol Upgrade: Projection Tech
{Your Ghost now projects a semi-physical armor set made of hardlight and smart materials directly onto you in real time (Mostly for cosmetics purposes or hidden deception look).}
> Armor Acquired: Matching Syncweave Plating (Auto-Adaptive Armor)
{Armors reshapes and adapts to Kael's needs, syncing shape, structure, and resistance types on the fly (Cosmetics smoothness and Build modification depending on situation ex: Bulky, compact, discreet and other models for every situation needed).}
> Weapon Acquired: Exotic SMG – Riskrunner
{Arc Submachine Gun. Taking Arc damage supercharges the weapon: chain-lightning between targets, reduced Arc damage, infinite ammo during supercharge.}
> Weapon Acquired: Exotic Sword – Worldline Zero
{Arc Sword. Sprint-swing for AoE, air-swing to teleport. Passive mobility boost while drawn.}
---
Ghost pulsed excitedly in Kael's peripheral view. "That... was insane."
Kael flexed his hand as the new sword and SMG shimmered into his inventory feed. At the same time, a ghostly layer of armor manifested over his limbs and torso—a projection of hardened light and advanced materials that responded like his own skin.
"Feels like the system's showing off," he muttered.
Ghost made a smug beep. "Or maybe you are."
Kael chuckled. Then he turned toward the deeper corridor of the ruin, Valkyrie Echo pulsing faintly in his left hand, the Resonant Core still whispering in subharmonic codes.
"Let's see what secrets the next thread holds."
---
To Be Continued – Chapter 23 - Paracausal Breadcrumb
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