Part 1: Pulse of the Forgotten
1. Resonance of a Vanished Prime
Zeiran couldn't sleep.
Not after Lyra collapsed in his arms muttering things no one had spoken in centuries. Not after seeing a fragment of the First Prime's final words buried beneath Academy archives.
X-0 hovered silently beside him.
"You knew him."
"Knew who?"
"The one I was meant to serve… Prime X. You are not him. But your resonance mirrors his."
Zeiran stood, walked out into the moon-soaked garden behind the dorms. Moonlight touched the runes on his skin—runes that weren't there a month ago.
"Why us?"
"Because the chain must break where it began."
He turned to find Lyra standing barefoot, eyes glowing faint gold.
"I saw you," she said.
"In the tower?" Zeiran asked quietly.
She nodded.
"And you weren't my sister."
"I wasn't even… me."
They stood in silence as Aeris hung low in the sky—blood-tinted and watching.
2. The Prank That Broke Protocol
Elsewhere, Kalen was very proud of himself.
He had rigged up a miniature resonance pulse trap intended to overload Zeiran's shampoo bottle as payback for getting punched mid-sparring session.
It was meant to be harmless.
Meant to be.
What he actually did was splice into a forgotten power conduit beneath the academy's east dorm wing. When he triggered it—
A hidden wall collapsed.
Inside: a sealed chamber with a Kaidessian-era tech-core, humming with cold green light.
"…Oh."
He poked it.
It screamed.
"OH."
Alarms blared. A holographic projection activated in front of him—a figure in black Sentiencer armor with void-touched circuits.
"Protocol breach. Blackline asset located."
Kalen stared.
"Uhh… Zeiran?"
"What is it?"
"I broke school history. Also maybe the apocalypse. Possibly both."
3. Seris Unmasked
Meanwhile, Seris sat alone in the rooftop observatory, rewatching the battle footage from Caervin Grove.
Again. And again.
Not to study it.
To watch Zeiran.
She hated the way her eyes lingered too long on him. Hated how she felt when he got hurt.
She was supposed to be focused. Disciplined.
But he made her feel… uncertain.
And uncertainty was a weakness.
"You have to keep your distance," she whispered.
But even she didn't believe it anymore.
4. Echo Pulse Trial
The Academy, still recovering from Kalen's "incident," decided to hold an Echo Pulse Trial to gauge resonance stability in the advanced initiates.
Zeiran, Lyra, Seris, Cael, and three others were selected.
One by one, they were inserted into a simulated battlefield, their Sentiencers dialed to test sync stress.
Zeiran's turn came last.
He walked into the sim chamber—and felt it shift around him before the tech even activated.
Because the sim world recognized him.
It adjusted.
To the First Prime's last battle.
The instructors panicked. "This isn't part of the sim coding!"
But Zeiran was already inside it. Standing amidst ruined towers. Holding a pulse blade made of fractured moonlight.
A voice echoed from within:
"The traitor comes with red eyes. He will bear my name. Stop him."
Then Zeiran saw his reflection—
—older, war-scarred, with burning silver eyes and a shattered Prime crest on his chest.
"Who the hell are you?"
"You. If you fail."
5. Cael Virex's Wall Cracks
After the trial, Zeiran exited the sim chamber, shaking.
Cael was waiting.
They didn't speak at first.
Then Cael said quietly, "Your resonance pulse… it's eating your memory space."
Zeiran glanced over. "What?"
Cael avoided his gaze. "When a Sentiencer and host over-synchronize, it starts filling gaps. Rewriting. You're remembering things not meant for you."
Zeiran was silent.
Cael continued, "My brother died from it. Thought he was someone else by the end. Tried to kill our family."
This time, Zeiran didn't fire back.
He just nodded.
"Thanks."
Cael walked away, armor clinking softly.
6. The Call of the First Prime
That night, Zeiran lay awake in bed. The ceiling fan spun silently above.
Then the world shifted again.
He stood in the ruins from his vision—but this time, it wasn't a sim. It was real.
And the First Prime stood before him.
Tall. Silent. Wrapped in shadows.
"You're not dead," Zeiran whispered.
The First Prime stepped forward, lifted his hand.
"No. But they buried me in time."
Zeiran's chest burned.
"Why us?"
"Because you're the only ones left who remember the truth."
He handed Zeiran a memory shard.
"When the second moon falls… awaken the legacy."
Then he vanished.
Part 2: Legacy Unsealed
1. The Shard Unlocked
Zeiran sat across from Lyra in the Academy's hidden meditation chamber. Between them, hovering mid-air, was the memory shard left by the First Prime.
X-0 pulsed quietly behind Zeiran. Lyra's own Sentiencer, the silver-white Elystrix, stood behind her like a radiant phantom.
"Ready?" Zeiran asked.
Lyra nodded. "As I'll ever be."
They reached out together.
The moment both hands touched the shard—
—light erupted. Symbols from an unknown code etched across their arms. The room melted away.
They weren't in the Academy anymore.
They stood in a starlit void. Above them floated nine massive glyphs. Eight glowed faintly.
The ninth—marked with an X—flared alive.
Legacy Protocol Initialized.
Sync Level: Prime Fragment—10%
Zeiran gasped as information flooded his mind.
Protocol schematics from before the Rift War
Combat sequences designed for dual-bonded resonance pairs
A single phrase burned into his vision:
"Only when two walk as one shall the Tenth rise."
They awoke. Back in the chamber.
Breathing heavily. Changed.
2. Kalen's Chaos Engine
Meanwhile, in the forge basement, Kalen was extremely proud of himself. Again.
"You did what?" Seris asked, arms crossed.
"I enhanced a resonance stabilizer and converted it into an amplifier. Just a tiny, harmless boost."
Zeiran blinked. "You ran it through Lyra's Sentiencer, didn't you?"
"Hypothetically? Yes."
At that moment, the sky above the Academy cracked.
A massive Elvan glyph flared over the training dome.
Storm winds howled from inside the building.
Lyra stood at the center—eyes glowing, hair levitating, her body surrounded by a perfect glyph wheel floating mid-air.
"Oops," Kalen muttered. "Might've unlocked her Echo Mode early."
Instructors sprinted toward the dome. Sirens wailed.
Kalen turned to Zeiran. "Okay but… it looked really cool."
Zeiran: "You're an idiot."
Kalen: "An inspired idiot."
3. The Infiltration Begins
Far above Earth, a stealth ship slid out of Riftspace.
Inside: four cloaked agents of the Blackline Order.
Their leader, General Rhess Kai, stared at the glowing image of the Academy grounds.
"The Legacy has begun."
"Confirmed. Dual-bonded protocol activation detected," another agent said. "Target: Zeiran Aethros."
Rhess narrowed his eyes.
"Begin ground insertion. Take the tech-core Kalen Dray uncovered. And if the boy resists… erase him."
A low chime echoed through the ship.
"Moonfall alignment begins in seven days."
4. Seris's Secret
Later that night, Seris sat alone, glancing at an encrypted message flashing across her private tablet.
From her father.
General Erion Vaire, Supreme Strategist of the Earth-Kaidess Alliance.
"Observe the Aethros boy. Protect him if you must. But if he becomes unstable—contain him."
She didn't reply.
Didn't need to.
Her hand brushed against her side—where her military-issue pulse dagger was always hidden, even in uniform.
"He's not unstable," she whispered. "He's just… more."
A flicker of something unreadable passed through her eyes.
5. Dawn of Prime X
Zeiran stood at the Academy's highest balcony.
Lyra joined him.
"Feels different, doesn't it?" she asked.
He nodded. "Everything changed after that shard."
Lyra hesitated. "I… felt your mind. Your pain. From that memory. The weight."
"It wasn't just pain," Zeiran said softly. "It was choice. He chose to disappear… to stop the cycle."
Lyra looked over the edge, wind in her silver hair.
"Then maybe you'll be the one who breaks it."
Below, the Academy lights pulsed in sequence.
But above them, in the sky, something began to shimmer faintly—an outline.
A second moon.
Faint. Almost not there.
But growing brighter each night.