Chapter 73 – Threads of the Forgotten
The desert winds howled across the Vale of Dust, where time was said to fold in on itself. A place outside of all timelines, where only whispers dared dwell. Here, beneath a crumbled sky and shattered moons, Kael-X stood still—his cloak frayed, eyes narrowed as the threads of reality unraveled before him.
Veyron hovered silently, for once not speaking in riddles.
Even he felt it.
Something was wrong.
A fissure in the sky opened—softly at first—like the eyelid of a slumbering god.
From within came a presence, not hostile, not angry… but ancient. One Kael-X had never encountered before. One that remembered him.
"You were never supposed to exist, little echo," a voice said—layered, male and female, distorted and divine. "Yet you do. And now... the seal breaks."
Kael-X stepped forward. "Show yourself."
From the crack in the sky, a figure descended—robed in celestial threads, their face ever-shifting like a memory being rewritten. They landed softly, toes brushing the dust, and the wind bowed around them.
Oblivion growled. Nyx's form stiffened. Umbra's shadows wrapped tighter around Kael-X's feet. Even Veyron trembled slightly.
"You are the Echo King," the figure said. "But before echoes… there were origins."
Kael-X frowned. "You speak like Veyron."
Veyron, floating slightly behind, muttered, "Blasphemy. I speak in riddles. That speaks in forgotten truths."
The figure held out a thread, glowing gold and violet.
"The Thread of Yurelia. A weave from the first loom—the origin of the timelines. Touch it, and you'll see what came before… what was hidden from even the shadow beasts."
Kael-X reached for it—then paused.
"Maya," he whispered.
Somewhere, far away, Maya looked up from her flight cruiser, as if something inside her had just... shifted.
Kael-X grabbed the thread.
And the world fell apart.
---
Flashes.
Explosions not of fire, but of realities birthing and dying in microseconds.
A war—ancient, beyond human comprehension. Beings like Kael-X… but not him. Faster. Stronger. Bound to laws that no longer existed.
And at the center: a sealed vault. A name etched on its surface.
KAIROS.
Not a being.
A weapon.
"This," the figure's voice returned, "is what Ouro-Core fears. What you were meant to replace."
"The Codebreaker wasn't their enemy… you were the failsafe."
Kael-X's eyes snapped open, golden with voidfire.
He remembered now.
Not everything.
But enough.
---
Back in the control room, Elijah dropped his datapad. "Something just surged in the void spectrum—Kael's signal just spiked."
Maya steadied herself against the console. "He found something. Or it found him."
A new name appeared on the screen in front of them.
Kairos Protocol – Activated.
Maya's eyes widened.
"Elijah… I think the war we feared isn't coming."
She turned to him.
"It's waking up."
---
Kael-X stood motionless within the golden thread's projection. The visions still rippled through his mind—memories that weren't his… or perhaps they had always been.
He was never made to be a hero. He was born as a countermeasure.
Veyron drifted closer, voice low. "You saw Kairos, didn't you?"
Kael-X nodded slowly. "I saw more than that. I saw the beginning… and the lie."
Oblivion shifted beside him, shadows dancing with uncertainty. "Then the convergence is closer than we thought."
Nyx whispered from the edge of the group, "Do we fight fate… or rewrite it?"
Kael-X didn't answer. Instead, he looked upward where the crack in the sky had now sealed, leaving behind only a shimmering echo.
"We find the ones who buried the truth," he said, turning back toward the rest. "And we make them pay."
Suddenly, a ripple of static echoed through the Vale.
A communication spike.
Veyron twitched. "That signal… it's Maya."
Kael-X's expression tightened. "Patch it through."
Veyron raised a glowing sphere, and Maya's voice came through—urgent, breathless.
"Kael… I don't know if you can hear this, but the Ouro-Core just deployed a second pulse. Whatever you did, it triggered the Kairos protocol. We're seeing… anomalies—creatures we've never seen before. And Elijah's predicting a spatial collapse in three days. You need to move. Fast."
The message cut out with static.
Kael-X stared at the silence.
Then nodded.
"We go north," he said. "To the Tomb of Architects. If the Kairos Weapon was locked away… someone had the keys."
Veyron's eyes widened. "You mean them?"
Kael-X nodded grimly. "The original Codebreakers."
Oblivion rumbled, "It's suicide."
Kael-X stepped forward, cloak dragging embers.
"Then let them kill me trying."
---
Far across the stars, in a chamber of flickering mirrors, Commander Yurell stood in silence, staring at the name glowing on the monitor:
Kairos Protocol: Sequence A Resumed.
He muttered to himself, "He's remembering too fast…"
Behind him, an agent approached. "Sir. Ghostline has arrived."
Yurell didn't turn. "Send her."
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Next: Chapter 74 – Kairos Protocol