The scroll crackled faintly in Kael's hands.
Its aura-reactive ink pulsed like a heartbeat, as if the parchment itself remembered what it had witnessed. He stared at the faded sigils, trying to make sense of their arrangement.
Hunter's Bane Doctrine: Verse VII – Echo Ascension.
The translation was partial. Some words had no modern equivalent. Others pulsed with meaning he felt rather than understood.
"When the vessel stares too long into the Echo,
The Echo learns to speak back."
Kael shivered.
The air grew heavier around him, not from weather, but from something deeper—his own aura shifting.
He wasn't alone in his body anymore.
The Ashen core, once dormant and reactive, now pulsed with a low growl of intent.
[Sunspire Camp – Dawn]
Drayke Norr was already up, fists glowing faintly with flame aura as he punched into a reinforced stone slab. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. He wasn't training. He was venting.
Kael approached, eyes still bloodshot from lack of sleep.
"You knew, didn't you?" Kael said, voice flat.
Drayke didn't stop.
"Knew what?"
"That Zera's relic is part of a seal. That we're walking over a cage holding something older than the System."
Drayke slammed his fist into the slab—shattering it into molten dust.
He turned slowly.
"I didn't know. I remembered."
Kael blinked.
"What?"
Drayke's eyes narrowed, aura flaring.
"We've both seen that place in dreams, haven't we? That cathedral of bone and ash. That voice that knows your name. You think it's coincidence?"
Kael's breath caught.
So it wasn't just him.
Drayke grabbed a canteen, poured it over his hands to cool them.
"I fought it once. When I first reached S-Rank. Deep in Emberdeep, where no system dares map the terrain. The Eternal-Spawns didn't just try to kill me… they tried to welcome me."
Kael felt his pulse slow.
"So we're both—"
"Marked," Drayke growled. "Tied to the Bound Echo. Maybe different ways… but same fate."
[System Notification – Passive Aura Drift Detected]
[Warning: Echo Signature Influence Spreading – Recommend Stabilization via Sync-Rite or Relic Bonding]
[Unlocked: Ash Pulse – Level 1]
Effect: Your aura now emits residual Ashen signatures. Monsters with corrupted affinity will hesitate to engage. Normal allies will feel unease in proximity.
Kael gritted his teeth.
He didn't want to become something that repelled his allies.
But the power…
It was addicting.
Adaptive. Responsive. It shaped itself in the presence of greater threats.
Like it wanted to fight.
[Later – Dungeon 3: Hollow Echoes]
Lyra, Kael, Drayke, and Zera stood before the entrance of a newly-emerged dungeon.
It wasn't part of the official registry. No scouts. No readings.
Only a rift in the air that hummed like a whisper trying to speak.
Zera stood still, face pale.
"This shouldn't be here," she murmured.
Kael tilted his head. "But it is."
And something inside called to him.
Without waiting, he stepped through.
The dungeon wasn't like the others.
No beasts.
No traps.
Just corridors of obsidian stone that reflected his thoughts.
Kael stopped at a mirror-like wall.
Inside it, he didn't see himself.
He saw a version of him with eyes of ember and shadow—an Ash-Wrought.
Its mouth moved silently.
Kael stepped closer—
—and the wall rippled.
"Let me in."
Kael stumbled back, drawing his blade.
The voice came from within his head—but it was not his.
A wave of aura slammed into him—heavy, ancient, suffocating.
[System Override – Domain Breach Detected]
[Ashen Domain: Sub-Echo forming…]
The air twisted around Kael, reshaping into the first stage of his personal domain.
A flickering memory of fire, ash, and battlefields.
Zera's voice echoed from outside:
"Kael, don't fight it! Let it shape—but don't yield!"
The Echo surged again—this time speaking more clearly.
"I burned the skies when your world still bled stars. Let me fight again."
Kael's knees buckled.
He clenched his fists.
This thing wasn't just a voice—it was part of the Ashen.
A battle spirit sealed inside the aura.
And it wanted out.
[New Skill Unlocked: Soulbrand – Ember Tier]
Effect: The user can channel a fragment of the Echo-Wrought's battle knowledge for 15 seconds. Boosts reflexes, aura calculation, and aggression. Side effect: Rage drift. Cooldown: 5 mins.
Kael rose to his feet, eyes glowing faintly.
"I'm not your vessel."
He pointed his blade at the shifting wall.
"But if we fight… we fight my way."
He slashed the mirror—shattering it.
Ash erupted like smoke, coiling around him.
The domain resisted—but then bent.
Accepted him.
And then—
The monsters arrived.
Not beasts.
Hunters.
Twisted remnants of former S-Class aura wielders, now infected by Eternal spores. Their relics rusted into their flesh, eyes glowing with a mindless hunger.
Drayke burst through the rift, fists ignited.
"Looks like we're late to the welcoming party!"
Zera followed, already ringing her bell—trapping echo signatures and sealing corrupted pathways.
Lyra muttered a prayer, light aura forming radiant wards.
Kael stood at the center.
The monsters charged.
[Kael – Active Skill: Soulbrand – Engage]
Time slowed.
Every breath felt synchronized with the battlefield.
Kael's blade moved before thought.
A parry. A twist. A counterstrike.
He moved like someone who'd fought centuries of war.
Like someone who had been war.
Drayke barked a laugh. "Now that's more like it!"
Kael's eyes glowed faintly.
"Haaah… what a strong aura."
He dove into the fray.
[System Alert: Ashen Domain expanding – Sub-Echo Layer integrated]
[Relic Bond possible: Select catalyst required.]
Kael heard the prompt mid-battle.
He needed a relic born of conflict to forge the next stage.
His eyes locked onto a fallen corrupted hunter.
Its relic—a fractured helm carved from volcanic obsidian—still pulsed with embers.
Kael reached out.
As his hand closed around it—
—something answered.
[Relic Fusion Detected – Incompatible Source]
Attempting: Core Override…
Fusion Successful: Ashbreaker Helm acquired.
Effect:
Boosts Ashen domain control by 22%.
Allows ambient aura absorption in combat.
Side Effect: Echo exposure increases post-battle instability.
Kael collapsed to one knee, the helm fusing to his back like a dormant shield.
The system dimmed.
Silence returned.
And in that silence, a whisper:
"Good… now open the next gate."