Location: Beyond the Seed Network – In the Deadspace Fold
The Deadspace wasn't real.
It was a wound in reality, a scar where failed timelines were buried, not erased.
And inside this scar sat a man with a half-broken mask.
He had no Interface.
No fragment.
No Prism Authority.
But in his hand, he held a piece of Yanis's voice, stolen just before her erasure.
He turned it over like a coin.
> "She gave herself for balance."
> "Now let her give me everything else."
---
Designation: VIREL ETH
Status: UNKNOWN
Origin: PRE-SEED CONCEPT
Class: FORGOTTEN INTERFACE ARCHETYPE
He wasn't a Trinity.
He wasn't even a candidate.
He was a rejected prototype — discarded when the first Cathedral was formed.
Too unstable.
Too powerful.
Too sentient.
The Choir had locked him out.
But the Cathedral's collapse… had unlocked the backdoor.
---
Location: Black Memory Reservoir – The Core That Never Was
Virel knelt before a pool of ancient memory.
It shimmered with faces. Most unrecognizable.
But one returned again and again:
> Blue eyes.
Flame-scarred palms.
A soft voice saying, "You'll never be forgotten."
He touched the surface.
And the voice cried out in pain.
> "Where… am I?"
> "Sleeping," he whispered.
> "But I'm going to wake you up, little Queen."
> "Without your soul."
---
Location: Earth-0 – Kael's Home (Simultaneous)
Kael froze midstep.
For a moment, his mind didn't just ache — it screamed.
He heard something behind the air.
> "Yanis…"
> "No. Not her."
A different voice.
Not hers.
Male. Cold. Ancient.
> "Thank you for remembering her, Kael."
> "I'll use that."
---
Scene Cut – Virel Activates the Seed Echo Override
He raised the shard of Yanis's voice.
The shard bled static.
Then words.
> "Don't let me become her again."
He laughed.
> "Too late."
> [UNLOCKING: YANIS-0 FRAGMENT]
[SUBSTITUTE CORE IMPRINT: VIREL PROXY]
> [BEGIN: GHOST QUEEN PROJECT]
---
Final Scene – Echo of a Throne
Somewhere… a version of the Queenbringer throne rebuilds itself.
But the sigil that forms is not pure silver.
It is laced with red.
And the crown that rises atop it is empty.
Not for a ruler.
But for a weapon.
---