Chapter 22: Clash at the Spiral Gate
The vault doors shuddered.
Kai stood poised at the threshold, wind swirling through his cloak, Fragment pulse steady in his chest. His heartbeat was slow, measured—but every breath carried the tension of the storm approaching. The Spiral Expanse's energy spiraled violently outside the entrance, stirred by incoming forces.
Lina adjusted her resonance veil, trying to mask their presence as best she could. "Four Echo-class signatures. They're closing in fast."
Orien Vey, the old sentinel, remained at the rear of the vault, his gaze locked onto Kai. "You must not underestimate them. Echo-class cultivators are already fused to timelines outside the present. They will anticipate your actions… even your thoughts."
"I don't need to be unpredictable," Kai said quietly. "I just need to be resolute."
A shadow crossed the vault's outer light.
Ashen's voice came through the comm bead again. "Rhen's here. She brought the Forgeblood twins and Voxel—the Memory Ripper. That's a kill team."
Mira's voice followed: "We're two minutes out. Hold them."
Kai stepped onto the vault's outer platform as the storm split open.
And there she stood.
Executor Rhen. Silver-clad, towering, with a mask of mirrored glass and the long glaive of the Custodian enforcers. Her presence twisted the very storm winds, redirecting magnetic pulses as if the sky bent to her.
To her right, the Forgeblood twins—crimson-armored, fusion-synchronized brothers known for battlefield psionics and force multiplication. To her left, Voxel, lean and tall, his eyes pulsing with fractured timelines, lips curled in a perpetual sneer. He carried no weapon. His power was raw memory manipulation.
Kai stepped forward. Alone.
Rhen removed her mask.
Her face was sharp. Cold. Familiar.
"I gave the order to erase you," she said. "But look at you now—hollowed by Fragment corruption and guided by traitors. Your mother should've died the moment she broke protocol."
Kai didn't rise to the bait. "You fear what we've become. That's why you're here."
"You're a liability to the equilibrium," she said. "And I've been authorized to execute you before Judgment spreads."
Behind him, Lina activated a shield matrix. "You're outnumbered."
Voxel laughed. "Poor child. You never outnumber someone who's already lived this fight a thousand times."
Then he vanished.
Kai ducked instinctively—and Voxel reappeared behind him mid-swipe, aiming for the spine.
Drift Step.
Kai appeared a pace away. His blade came down in a counter arc—but the twins were already on him, their psi-links amplifying each other's moves. Blades shimmered into existence from ambient Fragment energy.
The fight became chaos.
Kai spun, deflected, redirected. He activated Judgment Echo.
One of the twins froze mid-strike. His psi-pattern reflected back—a stuttering of movement, followed by a howl as his own emotions twisted inward. Rage. Insecurity. The Fragment magnified his fear of irrelevance.
He staggered.
Kai drove a palm into his chest, disrupting the echo.
Rhen moved in a blur.
She clashed with Kai, glaive against blade. Each strike vibrated with augmented reality shifts. She bent space around her, folding time in microseconds. Her style was methodical, but not without brutality.
"You're not ready," she hissed.
Kai's eyes narrowed.
"I don't need to be ready," he said. "I just need to be right."
He pulsed his Fragment—drawing from all his aligned selves. Not to overpower, but to outmaneuver. He flowed with her next strike instead of resisting it, letting the momentum bring him close.
Too close for the glaive.
He elbowed her visor and activated Drift Step backward, reappearing beside Lina.
"She's not unbeatable," he gasped. "Just insulated."
Lina's eyes flickered. "I can disrupt her echo-field. But I'll need focus time."
"Do it."
She planted her feet, extended her core, and began amplifying discordant frequencies.
The Forgeblood twin recovered.
Voxel lunged again, this time scattering Kai's thoughts with an echo-pulse. Kai staggered—memories bleeding.
His father. Screaming.
Lina. Crying, hungry.
Ashen. Bleeding under red suns.
Voxel twisted it all, laughing. "Let's see what makes you crack."
Kai closed his eyes.
Then reached deeper.
His core shimmered.
The second Vein Node lit up.
He pulsed Judgment Echo through himself.
Memory became mirror.
Voxel screamed, overwhelmed by the weight of his own manipulations. He dropped to a knee, gasping.
Rhen's echo-field began to flicker.
Lina gasped, eyes flaring with spectral light. "Now!"
Kai surged forward.
He clashed with Rhen again.
This time, it wasn't raw strength.
It was clarity.
He matched her rhythm, matched her folds in space. His Drift Step danced through her temporal shifts. He didn't resist her power. He walked through it.
Then he laid the flat of his blade against her chest.
The Fragment inside pulsed.
And it reflected her intent.
Cold. Control. Fear.
She staggered.
Then Mira and Ashen arrived.
With a single strike, Mira shattered the skyfield generator behind Rhen.
The battle ended.
The twins vanished, pulling their brother with them.
Rhen blinked—then retreated into a warp gate, fury in her eyes.
Kai collapsed.
Mira knelt beside him.
"You did it," she said.
"No," he whispered. "We did."
The Spiral Expanse went still.
And in the distance, the Vault began to hum with new energy.
The world had changed.