The boy did not cry when the sky fell.
Not because he was brave. Not because he was strong. He simply didn't know what tears were supposed to feel like when reality broke in half.
One moment, the world was stitched in the quiet rhythms of a boring life—dull school mornings, vending machine lunches, and the usual background hum of a city that didn't care whether you existed.
Then came the Pulse.
It cracked through the clouds like thunder bottled inside a scream. Light warped. Sound bent. Buildings didn't fall—they folded, like pages from a burning book. And above it all, a rift yawned open in the sky, swallowing a flock of birds mid-flight and replacing them with... other things. Silhouettes with too many wings. Geometry that screamed.
In the middle of the chaos stood a teenage boy with tired eyes and a cracked phone in his pocket.
His name was Kael Riven.
And unlike everyone else around him, Kael didn't run.
Didn't scream.
Didn't feel anything at all.
Because Kael Riven was already broken before the world fractured.
The silence after the Pulse was heavier than any noise.
Around Kael, the street looked like it had been liquified and reassembled wrong—cars inside buildings, lampposts fused with trees, a traffic sign that blinked "IS YOUR HEART LOUD ENOUGH?" over and over like a warning.
And bodies. A few of them. Twisted. Glitching.
Kael took a step forward, his sneakers crunching something that might have been glass or bone.
His fingers trembled slightly. Not from fear, but from something else.
Recognition.
It wasn't the first time he'd seen the world fracture. It was just the first time everyone else could see it too.
"...It happened again," he muttered, staring up at the hole in the sky.
The edges of the rift shimmered like broken memories. Behind it, other worlds blinked in and out of view—one made of flowing fire, one made of clockwork, one that looked suspiciously like a chessboard.
Kael should've been terrified. He wasn't.
Because inside him, something finally moved.
> [Resonance Detected.]
[Primary Emotion: Numbness — Echo Level: Undefined.]
[You are now syncing with Quantum Threadline: Fracture-Origin #002.]
[Loading Signature...]
A soft hum echoed in his ears. No one else could hear it.
Kael staggered as the air folded around his body, rewriting itself. His skin rippled with invisible threads—like his bones were being played like violin strings. His eyes burned, not from light, but from something deeper.
> [Initializing Resonant Form.]
[Core Emotion: Numbness → Latent Response Identified: Unacknowledged Rage]
[Forging Echo-Form: "Silent Pyre"]
Kael gasped. His breath turned into smoke—not warm, but cold fire—wisps of black flame dancing across his fingertips.
His shadow grew longer. Warped.
And in its shape stood a figure.
Himself. But burning.
Kael collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest. Every heartbeat echoed like a bomb inside his ribs.
"Wh-what is this... what's happening to me?"
> [Resonance Lock Confirmed.]
[Emotion Channel Opened: Ignited Silence]
[Welcome, Echo-Bearer.]
And then came the voice.
Not from the sky. Not from a machine.
From inside his mind.
"You are now part of the Thread war, Kael Riven."
"And your story just got loud enough to matter."
Kael's first thought wasn't about power. Or survival. It was about his brother.
Luca.
The only person who had ever made Kael feel real. Who used to say things like "I don't care if you feel broken, Kael. Even broken glass reflects light."
Luca had disappeared a year ago. Without a trace. Without a sound.
And now... now, the rift in the sky showed a shard of a world where Kael swore he saw Luca's face, wearing strange armor, standing beside a creature made of floating ink.
Something cracked nearby.
Kael spun, instinct sharpening like a knife in his hand.
A figure stepped out from behind a glitched tree—a woman in a coat made of mismatched realities. One sleeve was stone, the other was made of frozen lightning. Her eyes were spirals of shifting color.
"You synced without a Tether. That's... impossible," she said, more amused than alarmed.
Kael stood up slowly, cold fire licking his arms.
"I don't know what any of that means."
She grinned. "Good. That means you're either going to save us or unmake the last hope we have."
"Who are you?"
"The name changes depending on which shard I'm in. But today?" She pulled out a blade that looked like a melted clock. "Call me your recruiter."
> [Incoming Threat Detected: Thread spawn - Class Fable wrath]
[Proximity: 32 Meters]
[Resonant Signature: "Laughing Wound"]
[Recommended Response: Flee or Ignite Deeper Emotion.]
Kael didn't move. His eyes were still fixed on the floating shard of a world where his brother might be alive.
Flee?
No.
He'd spent his whole life running from emotions. From truth. From pain.
Now he had power not from courage, but from everything he'd buried.
He closed his eyes and let the rage rise.
He remembered the night Luca vanished. The silence. The helplessness. The way no one listened when Kael said, "He didn't leave. He was taken."
When Kael opened his eyes, the sky above him caught fire.
Not red.
Not orange.
But a beautiful, terrible blue—the color of grief that's turned to flame.
The Thread spawn screamed.
Kael stepped forward.
And the world—what was left of it—began to listen.