Ayra ran for hours without stopping
Through the alleys of the Null Zone, past the flickering streetlights and shattered statues of long-dead ancestors, past people who pretended not to see her—because in this city, survival meant pretending. She didn't feel the cold or the ache in her bones. Only the burning in her blood. The memory of fire. The scream of a forgotten queen.
Sky-Burner… Vareth… who were you really?
And more importantly: what had Ayra become?
The Null Code pulsed in her chest, just under her skin like a living heartbeat. It whispered when she paused. It pushed her forward when she hesitated. It gave no comfort—only purpose.
> [Next Obelisk: 12.3km]
[Signal: Intermittent — Decaying]
[System Note: This Vault is partially damaged. Synchronization may cause unstable echoes.]
She didn't care.
Whatever was waiting, she had to see it. Not just to survive—but to understand. To know why this power chose her. Why she, a girl born without a past, now carried the deadliest legacies of history inside her.
At the edge of the city, the lights thinned out.
She reached the Shadowspire Wastegrounds, a region declared uninhabitable after the Collapse War seventy years ago. Nothing but metal ruins, abandoned fusion engines, broken ancestor towers, and radiation ghosts remained.
And somewhere inside it—Vault Two.
Ayra wrapped her scarf tighter over her mouth and ducked through the shattered barrier fence. The Null Code flickered in her mind, guiding her like a second soul. Every step she took echoed against dead metal.
> [700m… 300m… 100m…]
Her feet stopped.
She stood before a jagged pit of obsidian-colored stone, its center glowing faintly. Debris surrounded it like ribs around a heart. Her vision shimmered—and the Vault appeared.
Not another obelisk.
This time, it was a door.
Embedded into the pit wall, smooth, black, and pulsing with violet veins. Symbols she didn't recognize—circles within circles, a spear crossed by a broken chain. As she stepped forward, the ground trembled.
> [Vault Two Detected: Echo Signature — Active.]
[Do you wish to unlock?]
[Warning: This Vault has not been opened in 418 years.]
Ayra pressed her palm to the surface.
The cold metal turned warm. Then hot.
And then—pain.
> [Lineage Unlocked: Kael Zareth, The Chainbreaker]
Trait Inherited: "Memory Override"
Genetic Echo Sync: 4% (Damaged)
Warning: Mental feedback risk — HIGH
She cried out as images flooded her.
Not fire this time—but steel.
Chains breaking. Slaves rising. A man screaming in defiance as his body shattered under enemy weapons, yet his mind kept fighting.
A soul too stubborn to die.
Ayra fell to her knees, tears blurring her vision.
And then—
"You shouldn't have come alone."
A voice.
Not inside her.
Real.
She spun, blood rushing to her ears.
A figure stood at the edge of the pit. Male. Rough clothes. White hair streaked with red, like a reverse lightning bolt. He didn't look older than eighteen, but his eyes… they were ancient. Heavy with echoes.
Ayra stepped back, fists clenched. "Who are you?"
He tilted his head. "Like you. One of the Null-Born."
Her heart thudded.
"You have… the code?"
He raised his sleeve.
There, burned into the skin of his forearm, was the same cracked-eye symbol. It glowed faintly with the same red light.
"But I'm a few Vaults ahead," he said. "This is your second. My fourth."
Ayra stared. "How many of us are there?"
He paused. Then gave a hollow smile. "Seven, maybe. Maybe more. The system doesn't tell us everything. It doesn't want to."
"I thought this system wanted me to awaken them all," she said.
He laughed—dry and bitter. "No. It doesn't want you to awaken them. It wants itself to be whole again. You and I? We're just vessels."
Ayra's throat tightened. "But the powers—the memories—they feel real."
"They are." His gaze sharpened. "But don't mistake real for yours. I've seen one of us lose their mind when the echoes overtook them. It's not just syncing. It's becoming."
The silence stretched between them.
He stepped forward, more cautious now.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Zayen," he said. "Born in the Depths. First to awaken the Bladefather's Vault. You?"
"Ayra," she whispered. "Born with nothing."
He studied her. "And yet… here you are."
Ayra turned back toward the Vault. Her knees still trembled. Her mind still felt raw. But she wasn't the same girl she'd been three days ago. Or even three hours ago.
"Zayen," she said slowly, "did they come after you too? The Hunters?"
His face darkened. "They come for all of us. Some want us dead. Others want to extract the Vaults and implant them into 'loyal bodies.' They see us as errors."
"They said we're unstable," Ayra said bitterly.
Zayen looked at her, dead serious. "We are."
Her spine stiffened.
"But that doesn't mean we're wrong."
Suddenly, the Null Code blinked.
> [New Echo Signature Detected Nearby]
Category: Vault-Carrier
Code-Match: 84.9%
Shared Vaults: 2
Zayen's eyes widened. "There's another one near."
Ayra felt it too. A tremor in her chest. A pull—not painful, but insistent. Like something lost trying to be found.
> [Mission Update: Unknown Carrier Approaching]
Estimated Time: 6 minutes
Status: Injured / Unstable Sync / Power Spike Detected
"We should hide," Zayen muttered.
"No," Ayra said.
He blinked. "What?"
"They found me once. They'll find me again. If one of us is coming… I want to see who."
Zayen stared for a moment, then nodded slowly. "You're braver than you look."
"I'm just tired of being hunted."
Five minutes later, the wind shifted.
A girl stumbled into view—barefoot, bleeding from the arms, wild-eyed. Her hair was bright blue, her skin dark, marked by glowing tattoos. She wore a necklace made of broken system chips. And on her shoulder, the burned mark of the cracked eye.
She collapsed near the pit.
Ayra rushed to her.
The girl groaned, then whispered, "Help… help me… they took the others…"
Zayen swore. "She's been force-synced."
"What does that mean?" Ayra asked, heart pounding.
"She wasn't ready for her Vault. They made her open it. Too fast."
> [Echo Feedback Detected]
Vault: Saryen, The Dreamshaper
Trait: Mind Infiltration (Unstable)
Status: Host Overload — 93%
"She's going to burn out," Zayen said, pulling a black injector from his belt.
Ayra hesitated. "What is that?"
"Something stolen from the Guild labs. It slows the echo surge. Might save her."
"Might?"
"No promises."
Ayra nodded. "Do it."
Zayen injected her.
The girl screamed—a soul-deep scream—and then passed out, breathing shallow but steady.
Ayra looked down at her. This girl… this stranger… was like her. Alone. Chosen. Hunted.
And maybe broken.
"We can't keep running," Ayra said softly.
Zayen looked up.
She stood. "We need to find the rest. The others. Before the Hunters do. Before the system eats us alive."
"And if the system doesn't let us?" Zayen asked.
Ayra's eyes flared. "Then we make it remember who it's dealing with."
> [Mission Override: Activated by Carrier Sync Union]
Null Code Response: "Second Protocol Initiated."
Warning: Vault Awareness Increasing…
The Vault behind them pulsed again—no longer asleep.
Something was changing.
Something… awakening.
Ayra didn't know what kind of war they were stepping into.
But she wasn't going to walk away
The injured girl slept beneath the collapsed edge of the Vault, her breath shallow but stable. Ayra and Zayen took turns watching over her. Every few minutes, her fingers twitched. Sometimes her mouth moved, whispering words from dreams too deep for either of them to understand.
Ayra sat beside her, knees drawn to her chest. Zayen was sharpening a broken blade with a stone, eyes flicking up now and then toward the skyline of Veltraxis. The morning had broken, but its light didn't touch the Wastegrounds. Here, it was always gray.
"She has Saryen's Vault," Zayen murmured. "That's not something you survive alone."
Ayra tilted her head. "What was Saryen's power?"
Zayen blew out a slow breath. "Dreamshaper. She could enter minds… rewrite memories… bury truths in fantasy. In the old wars, she made entire cities forget they existed."
Ayra looked at the girl again. "Then she was dangerous."
"No," he said, voice low. "She was used."
Silence.
Ayra touched the cracked metal at her side, her body still humming from her own Vault's awakening. Vareth. Kael. Two echoes now lived inside her—one a queen who scorched the heavens, the other a rebel who shattered chains. She could feel them stirring sometimes, brushing the edges of her thoughts. Whispering.
You are the bridge.
You are the vessel.
You are what they fear.
Zayen's voice broke her thoughts. "We can't stay here long."
"They'll come for her," Ayra said.
"They'll come for us all." He stood. "The Vaults are waking faster. That doesn't happen unless something is forcing them. Someone."
Ayra's system blinked.
> [SYSTEM ALERT: Code Breach Detected Near Sector 9]
[Unauthorized Vault Activation Imminent]
[Vault Integrity Status: Red]
Sector 9… that was the edge of the Gene-Memory Cathedral—a sacred site guarded by the Ancestor Priests. No one was allowed to activate or even study Vaults there without full Bloodline clearance.
Ayra stood. "We go."
Zayen looked at her. "You sure?"
"Yes."
"And her?"
Ayra turned to the sleeping girl. "We'll bring her."
Within minutes, they were moving again—Zayen carrying the girl on his back, Ayra scouting ahead through the broken ruins and memory-polluted fields. It was silent, but the silence was no longer peaceful. It pulsed. Like something watching.
They reached the edge of Sector 9 as evening fell.
And saw the fire.
Not orange or red.
Violet.
> [WARNING: Echo Distortion Field Detected]
[Vault Output Unstable — Catastrophic Failure Likely]
Smoke rose from the center of the once-sacred plaza. Ancestral towers were shattered, their walls bleeding glowing liquid memory. Priests and researchers lay scattered across the marble steps, some breathing, most not. In the heart of it all stood a young man—unmoving, eyes burning violet, skin cracked with glowing veins.
Ayra's breath caught.
Another like them.
But wrong.
He wasn't just syncing.
He was being possessed.
> [Echo Detected: Vault - Rhazien, The Flame Prophet]
Sync Level: 92%
Host Identity: Unknown
Status: Overwritten
Zayen swore under his breath. "He's lost."
Ayra stepped forward. "We need to stop the echo before it spreads."
The boy—no, the Vessel—turned toward them slowly. His eyes were nothing human anymore. They were like stars seen through fire.
"Another Vaultfire…" Zayen said, gripping his blade. "Get ready."
Ayra closed her eyes for half a second.
Vareth. Kael. I need you.
> [Dual Echo Sync Initiated]
Traits: Sky-Burner's Flame + Memory Override
Combined Output: 43%
Status: Unstable but Acceptable
Risk: Neural Feedback - Medium
Her feet lifted slightly off the ground as fire wrapped around her arms—blue from Vareth, silver from Kael. Her eyes glowed faintly, not like the boy's—but enough.
The boy let out a sharp, inhuman cry. Flame exploded from his body in a wide arc. Trees died. Stones cracked. Air sizzled.
Zayen threw a shield of bone-steel in front of the girl on his back and dove behind a broken monument.
Ayra stood her ground.
"Rhazien!" she shouted. "You don't have to do this!"
But the boy didn't answer. Only flames.
> [Psychic Interference Detected]
Attempting Echo Override…
Ayra stepped forward, her hands raised. She knew what she had to do.
Get close.
Touch him.
Use Kael's memory override.
And pray she didn't get burned alive.
She moved fast, ducking under a wave of plasma, rolling through cracked stone, leaping over a pillar. The air was thick with heat and screams of forgotten voices.
Then—she was there.
She grabbed his hand.
His mind exploded into hers.
Flames. A throne. A father screaming. Chains burning away. His Vault hadn't just awakened—it had consumed him. He hadn't fought it. He wanted to burn.
"Let me in," she whispered in the boy's memory. "Let me in!"
Kael's override kicked in like a whip cracking through fire. Ayra channeled it through her hands into the boy's body, forcing her echo's will through the walls of his memory.
> [Override Level Reached: 61%]
Host Response: Struggling
Collapse Rate: Decreasing…
He screamed.
And dropped.
The fire vanished.
Ayra fell beside him, gasping, her body covered in burns. Her ears rang. Her muscles ached. But the boy… he was breathing. His eyes were closed. Human again.
Zayen ran over. "You did it."
"No," Ayra said. "We did."
The three Vaultbearers lay on the cathedral steps under the ruined sky. For a moment, the city was quiet. The wind carried no voices.
Then her system blinked again.
> [Vaultfire Rebellion Sequence: Activated]
Condition: Three or more Echo-Bearers linked in proximity
Result: Memory Zone Expansion… initializing.
New Mission: Claim a zone. Defend it. Build the resistance.
Ayra sat up.
A zone?
The system wasn't just giving them Vaults now.
It was giving them territory.
"Zayen," she said, her voice hoarse. "It wants us to claim this place."
He raised a brow. "You mean… fight for it?"
She nodded.
"If we don't build something of our own… they'll keep hunting us one by one."
Zayen stood, looking around the plaza. "This place is holy. They'll come for it."
Ayra smiled grimly. "Then we give them a war they won't forget.