The system pulsed in his head like a second heartbeat—irregular, erratic, but purposeful. Kieran had barely recovered from the Core's message when the system flared to life without warning.
[Breakpoint Protocol Initiated.]
[Accessing Fragmented Memory: Class-Ω.]
[Warning: Subject consciousness instability at 67%. Proceeding…]
Pain lanced through his skull, white-hot and overwhelming. Kieran staggered, catching himself on the cold stone floor. Elias stepped toward him, but the glow in Kieran's eyes made him hesitate.
"What the hell is it doing to you?" Elias asked, tension in his voice.
Kieran didn't answer. He was somewhere else again.
—
A war-torn skyline. Towering spires shattered. Storms of crimson lightning tearing through the atmosphere. Kieran stood atop a ruined platform—older, hardened, scarred. In this memory, he wasn't just surviving.
He was commanding.
Behind him stood legions—strange, hybrid soldiers marked with Abyss runes and human tech. He raised a hand and pointed toward a gate pulsing with unstable energy.
"We finish it here," he said. "No more resets."
Then a figure emerged from the gate—taller than Elias, cloaked in distorted shadows. Familiar. Too familiar.
"You again," it said, voice like splintered glass. "Always rebelling. Always breaking the loop."
Before Kieran could react, everything fragmented.
—
He woke gasping, Elias crouched beside him.
"You were out for almost a full minute," Elias said. "And your vitals went… erratic."
"I saw…" Kieran clenched his fists. "A memory. Not just mine. A version of me leading an army. Fighting someone who—" He paused. "They knew me. Like this has happened before."
Elias didn't blink. "Then the protocol confirms it. You're not just bonded to a rogue system. You are the anomaly."
[Breakpoint Protocol Complete.]
[System Evolution Available: Select Path—Dominion | Reversion | Fracture]
Three options blinked in front of Kieran's vision. None of them felt safe.
Elias crossed his arms. "Choose wisely. One leads to control. Another, to becoming something else entirely."
Kieran stared at the choices—each a road toward a future he barely understood.
And he was running out of time.