📌 Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, events, and locations are purely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
1. Veil Protocol: Detain & Observe
[Location: Isolation Veil Facility – 200 km beneath K2 Sub-Crater Range]
[Status: Tier IV Security – Anti-Psi Core Stabilized]
[Host: Raunak Virk | Echo-Contaminant Detected]
[Trial Begins in: 03:59:42]
The cold wasn't physical here — it was metaphysical.
Raunak stood inside a gravity-sealed prism of black-glass alloy, suspended mid-air, limbs restrained not by chains, but by time lag. Each second stretched, bent unnaturally. The room's structure absorbed his thoughts before they could even echo.
[WARNING: You are inside a Psi-Suppressed Zone]
[System Access: Minimal]
[Skill Usage: Disabled]
[Class Verification: Echo-Bound – Compromised]
In a room across the veil, Seo Jin-Tae sat calmly, unharmed but stripped of his weapons.
Between them, twelve holographic figures formed a circle — veiled faces, coded masks. The Continental Authority Tribunal. Rankers didn't speak their names aloud. Most didn't survive meeting them.
At the center of the table, a hologram of Raunak's mirror-touch replayed again and again — the moment he bonded with Entity-X's fragment.
One of the masked judges leaned forward.
"Raunak Virk. You've touched the Mirror. You've walked through a Rift. And now… you carry a piece of something not born of this world. Why shouldn't we end you here?"
2. The First Memory
Raunak didn't flinch. "Because I didn't collapse. I adapted."
Silence. Then laughter — cold and sharp.
Another voice: "Adaptation to a corruption is not evolution. It's infection."
But then, something unusual happened.
The Tribunal chamber flickered. For a split second, everything paused — the lights dimmed, the holo feeds snapped into static.
[Temporal Spike Detected]
[New Memory Unlocked]
[Echo Memory: Subject-7: Timeline: Unstable – Viewing Permission: Temporary]
Raunak gasped as he was suddenly thrust into a vision — his body still restrained, his mind pulled into a memory not his own.
He stood in a void, before a younger boy — thin, pale, wearing ragged uniform fragments with the logo: CyberNest Initiative.
The boy looked at him.
"You're him. The one I saw in the mirror. The one who survives."
Raunak reached out. "Subject-7?"
"I was supposed to become the world's first Psionic Singularity. But I broke the shell. Now I'm pieces — some still human, some... not."
[Memory Transfer: Partial Core Fragment Downloaded]
[Skill Imprint Received: "Shardwalker" – Ability to move between unstable memories of others]
[WARNING: Passive Contamination Increased]
Back in reality, Raunak collapsed. Blood trickled from his nose. The Tribunal shouted to restrain him.
Jin-Tae's eyes narrowed.
"You're not ready to judge him. Not yet."
3. Trial by Mirror – Verdict of the Veil
The Tribunal finally paused their debate.
An elder voice echoed.
"Raunak Virk, the Echo-Bound. You are hereby subjected to Trial of the Mirror, an ancient rite not conducted since the collapse of the Central Rift Core in Seoul."
Raunak's restraints faded.
[Status Update: Psionic System – Temporarily Restored for Trial]
[Trial Environment: Internal Illusion Plane – AI Construct "Judicator" Engaged]
He was pulled into a simulation — a battlefield built from his own fears.
In this realm, the sky boiled with black fire. A shattered version of Delhi's skyline floated in pieces.
Out of the flame stepped a twisted version of Raunak — eyes blackened, blade dripping with corrupted psi-energy.
[Opponent: Echo-Raunak]
[Subclass: Corrupted Mirrorlink – Tier III Projection]
[Win Condition: Dominate or Dispel the Reflection]
Raunak breathed deep.
[Phantom Arc Blade: Materialized]
[Skill Unlocked: Temporal Feedback Loop – One Use Available]
[Shardwalker Imprint: Active – Accessing Weak Memories in Projection]
The battle was brutal — Echo-Raunak fought with foresight, reacting to Raunak's movements before he made them.
But Raunak wasn't just himself anymore.
He tapped into Shardwalker.
He struck into a memory of his darker self — seeing the moment Echo-Raunak made a deal with Entity-X. The weakness wasn't in the body — it was in the moment of desperation.
And that's when he reversed the scene.
His blade slid through the memory — not the body.
The echo shattered.
4. The New Path
[Trial Passed]
[Result: 92% Compatibility with Class Path: Echo-Bound – Validated]
[Subclass Solidified: Tier II – Echo-Bound Ranker]
[Skill Upgrades:]
Phantom Arc Blade → Echofang Arc Blade
Shardwalker Lv. 1 → Lv. 2
Temporal Feedback Loop: Cooldown reduced to 8 hours
[Passive Acquired: Memory Drain – Upon defeating Echo-based entities, you can absorb and store one skill for temporary use (24-hour duration).]
Raunak collapsed in the Trial Chamber.
The Tribunal said nothing for a long time.
Finally, the lead judge spoke:
"We do not trust you. But the System has chosen. You are now ranked under Conditional Observation Protocol. Any breach — and Jin-Tae dies too."
Raunak glanced at his ally.
Seo Jin-Tae only shrugged. "I already live on borrowed time."
5. Outside the Isolation Veil
When they were finally released, the outside world had changed again.
Entity-X's signatures were showing up in New York, Tokyo, and Chennai — all in the same 10-minute window.
Raunak stared at the data stream from the Veil.
Then his System pinged.
[New Mission Alert – Code: MULTI-RIFT SURGE]
[Select Region to Deploy:]
Tokyo, Japan – Signal Type: Hive Echo
Chennai, India – Signal Type: Static Bloom
Manhattan, USA – Signal Type: Core Split]
Jin-Tae glanced at him.
"You only get to pick one. And the others? They'll collapse."
Raunak stared at the screen.
"We're not fast enough…"
And then his System whispered.
[Skill Evolution Path Detected: Echo Network — Coordinate Multi-Rift Defense with Three Phantom Shards]
[Requires: Three Recruited Bonded Echo-Bound Allies]
[Status: 0/3]
Raunak turned.
"We need a team. Three more like me. Not Rankers. Echo survivors."
Jin-Tae raised an eyebrow. "That means finding those who've died… but still exist."
End of Chapter 11