The air was thick with ash and static as the rescue team combed the crater where Kael had vanished. A mile-wide sinkhole now marked the ruins of Echo-17. The glyphs were gone. The corpses, gone. As though something had consumed them.
Commander Elira paced the command deck of Bastion Theta, knuckles white as she gripped the edge of the console. The main screen flickered with aerial footage of the impact zone, red circles marking points of anomalous heat. She turned to the technician beside her.
"You're sure this signal came from his unit?"
"Yes, Commander," he said. "Kael Renn's biometric chip reactivated twenty-two minutes ago."
She leaned in, watching the waveform. "He fell into a hole the size of a building. That was forty-eight hours ago. And now his vitals are stable?"
"Not just stable…" The tech hesitated, adjusting a slider. "They're enhanced. Ten times above baseline. It's… inhuman."
Elira didn't flinch. She'd read the files—rumors of engineered soldiers, of things buried in the old zones. She'd ignored them. Until now.
"Send a retrieval team," she said. "If he's alive, I want him brought back—contained, if necessary."
And if he's not him anymore? she thought, but didn't say.
---
Kael awoke in darkness.
He wasn't cold. He wasn't in pain. In fact, he wasn't even breathing.
He remembered the collapse. The cavern. The figure. And then… the cocoon. A sensation like drowning in fire. His own screams swallowed by ancient voices.
Now, he stood.
He looked down at his body. His armor was cracked, but his skin—exposed at the edges—was intact. Cleaner. Healthier than it should've been. His reflection stared back at him in a pool of black water: same sharp jaw, same tousled dark hair—but his eyes.
His eyes glowed.
Not fully. Not bright. Just… a flicker. Like embers hiding beneath soot.
He took a shaky step forward.
The cavern was gone. He stood on a flat, obsidian floor surrounded by what looked like ancient structures—pillars of twisted metal, fossilized into stone. The walls pulsed faintly, like the entire space was breathing.
Then he heard it.
A chorus.
Whispers behind his ears, beneath his skin, threading through his bloodstream like static.
We are the Echo. You are the Seed.
Kael fell to his knees, gripping his head.
"Shut up… shut up—!"
You opened the door. You cannot shut it.
He wanted to vomit, cry, scream—but his body refused. His pulse surged. His muscles tensed. Something was inside him, not possessing, but… becoming.
He stumbled forward, drawn by a presence.
A pedestal stood at the chamber's far end. Upon it lay a weapon. Not a rifle. Not a blade. It was something in-between—silver and black, shaped like bone and machine, humming with an unseen rhythm.
His hand moved on its own.
Take it.
He did.
Instantly, memories flooded him—not his own. Battles in dead cities. A great rupture in the sky. Creatures birthed from sorrow and silence. And himself, standing amidst them, not as prey…
…but as judge.
---
Meanwhile — Bastion Theta Perimeter Wall
The dust storm parted as the retrieval team's transport glided to a halt, spotlights cutting through the red-gray fog. Eight soldiers moved out, weapons drawn, sensors sweeping for heat signatures.
"Captain Renn?" called a voice.
Silence.
Then—a figure emerged from the ash, slowly, calmly, like he had all the time in the world.
"Don't shoot!" the lead medic shouted. "That's him! It's Kael!"
But as he drew closer, the team hesitated.
His armor shimmered with silver veins. His irises burned faintly gold. And on his back was a weapon none of them recognized—organic, metallic, alive.
"Kael," said the squad leader. "Are you… alright?"
Kael tilted his head. "I don't know."
The world around him felt too slow. His ears picked up their heartbeats. His eyes could see through the haze. And the voices—the Echo—still hummed beneath his skin.
"I think… something woke up in me."
---
Bastion Theta — Medical Quarantine
Kael sat alone in the chamber, four-inch glass between him and the observing officers.
Wires and sensors tracked his vitals.
Every reading was off the charts.
High Command watched from above, debating quietly, fearfully.
"Genetic markers have changed," murmured the lead researcher. "He's not entirely human anymore."
Commander Elira entered the room, flanked by two guards.
Kael looked up. "Elira."
"You remember me?"
"I remember everything. But it feels like it all happened to someone else."
She studied him for a long moment.
"You fell into a sinkhole surrounded by ancient tech, disappeared for two days, and returned… altered."
Kael didn't respond.
She crossed her arms. "The weapon on your back. What is it?"
"I don't know. But it feels like… mine."
"Then we've got a problem." She tapped the glass. "The Council thinks you're infected. Tainted. A threat."
"I'm still me."
"Are you?" she asked.
Kael flinched. Even he didn't know anymore.
Suddenly, the lights in the chamber dimmed. A low rumble echoed through the base. Then came the alarm.
"Code Black breach!" a voice shouted over the speakers. "Unknown hostiles at Gate 3! All squads mobilize!"
Kael stood as the room locked down.
Elira's eyes widened. "They followed you."
---
Outside, under the blood-colored sky, something moved.
Shapes—humanoid, twitching, evolving.
Born from the ruin Kael had awoken in. Drawn to him like a beacon.
They didn't crawl or charge.
They knelt.
And one of them whispered—
"We found our king."