The stars above the Hollow Nexus had begun to pulse again—faint flickers, like blinking eyes in a darkened hall. They weren't constellations. Not anymore. They were coordinates. Remnants of echoes. Timelines that had once existed… and refused to stay dead.
Minwoo sat in stillness, Nexusblade resting across his lap.
He wasn't meditating.
He was listening.
The Forge spoke.
Not with words.
But with tremors.
And with them came a presence.
The temperature dropped—not from cold, but absence. A hollowing of space itself. Kael and Selene arrived moments later, their expressions tight, weapons unsheathed.
"You feel that?" Kael asked, already sweating.
"Something's trying to surface," Selene whispered, glyphs flaring on her arms. "Something old."
The ground cracked.
The mythsteel veins pulsed erratically—twisting inward.
And from the rift stepped—
Xereth.
But not the god.
Not the tyrant.
This version... was broken.
Half-formed. Glitched. Fading at the edges. A silhouette stitched together from denial and discarded futures.
A memory of the Architect that refused to be forgotten.
Designation:
Xereth-Echo//Fragment_99bResidual Echo from Cycle CollapseFunction: UnknownIntent: Undefined
"I destroyed you," Minwoo said, rising.
The Nexusblade snapped into his hand, brighter than before.
The echo smiled—or tried to. "No," it rasped. "You rewrote me. That is not the same as ending."
It took a step forward. The Forge shuddered.
Selene aimed a blast of light—but her spell stopped, frozen in mid-air. Caught in a sentence that hadn't been finished.
"You forged unity," Xereth-Echo said. "But did you ever ask... what came before the cycles?"
Minwoo's eyes narrowed. "You're not here to fight."
"No," the echo said. "I'm here to warn you."
Memory Unlocked: Core Echo – Pre-Cycle Zero
Before time was written, before flame took shape…There was something else.A force that never wanted to be remembered.
The cycles were a containment.The Forge was a seal.The Phoenix was never a savior.It was a jailer.
Kael muttered, "That's not possible. The Forge made the world."
"No," Xereth-Echo hissed. "It rebuilt it. After the First Drowners tried to unmake everything."
Minwoo felt the weight of the Nexusblade shift in his hand. He could feel it now—deep below the Forge.
Something was waking up.
Something older than time.
Older than fire.
Warning: Anomaly Detection – Tier Omega
Entity Detected Beneath the Forge CoreDesignation: [REDACTED] – "The Hollow Crown"Stability Threat: AbsoluteRecommendation: Reconstruct containment protocols or evacuate timeline
Minwoo's jaw clenched.
"Why tell me this?"
Xereth-Echo flickered, his edges disintegrating into code. "Because you were strong enough to kill me. So maybe… you're strong enough to stop it."
Then he vanished—like a breath that was never taken.
Silence.
Then the Nexusblade flared—brighter than it ever had.
And across its surface, new symbols began to write themselves.
A challenge. A prophecy. A key.
New Objective Unlocked:
Descend into the Forgotten CoreConfront the Hollow CrownDiscover the truth of Pre-Cycle Zero
Nexusblade Trait Evolved:
Worldkey Protocol – Phase One
Allows passage into sealed layers beneath timeline strataCan carve paths into forgotten creation spaces
Minwoo turned to his team.
"This isn't a war we won."
Selene nodded grimly. "It's one we just inherited."
Kael checked his blade. "Then let's see what's left of the world before the world."