---
I didn't sleep that night.
Ren did. Peacefully, somehow. He curled into a warm bundle on the thin mattress they'd given us in the barracks. I sat beside him with my knees pulled to my chest, back against the cold stone wall, eyes open.
The silence of the room was too perfect. Too... manufactured. Like the silence after a scream.
I kept seeing it.
That Rift in the sky. The way it tore open like a wound across reality. The way it stared down at us like an unblinking eye, watching, measuring, deciding.
I thought I had escaped the worst of my life when we fell.
But something deep in my gut whispered: *You haven't even seen the worst yet.*
---
A knock came just after dawn.
Sharp. Controlled. One knock, pause, two more.
I was on my feet before the third knock landed.
Ren stirred behind me, groggy but safe.
Kuroha opened the door, her cloak already damp with morning mist.
"Time to move," she said.
I didn't ask where. I didn't need to.
---
We followed her through the early morning fog. The village around us was waking slowly. Fires burned in stone hearths. Blacksmiths clanged metal to life. Vendors laid out rough bread and dried herbs under makeshift canopies. It was primitive, but organized.
Efficient. Like soldiers. Or survivors.
No one smiled.
They watched us like we were animals in a cage they didn't build.
---
Kuroha brought us to the central tower — a spiraling spire of pale, metallic stone, lined with sigils that pulsed faintly like heartbeats.
Waiting at the entrance was Commander Irvas.
His single good eye studied me with that same brutal silence. Like he could see something in me no one else dared to look for.
"Today's the trial," he said. "Soulframe awakening."
I said nothing.
"Most don't survive it."
Still nothing.
He grunted. "At least you're not pretending to be brave."
"I don't pretend," I said. "I act."
He almost smiled. Almost.
---
The awakening chamber was round and dim, lit by runes that hovered midair. In the center was a raised stone platform, surrounded by sigil-carved pillars.
"This is the Coreframe," Irvas explained. "Stand inside. Don't resist."
I helped Ren sit by the wall. He looked up at me, anxious.
"Niichan… what if something happens to you?"
"Then something happens to the world," I whispered, ruffling his hair. "Not to me."
I stepped onto the platform.
The moment I crossed the outer ring, I felt it — a tug, like fingers hooked into my skull, pulling me inward. A second later, the world snapped.
And I fell into myself.
---
**Memory.**
The first thing I saw was the door.
Old, wooden, cracked at the edges. The basement door.
I hadn't seen it in years, and yet I knew every scratch on its surface.
I heard voices behind it.
Screaming. Not mine.
Ren's.
I ran.
The door wouldn't open.
I kicked it. Slammed my fists into the frame. My hands bled.
Still wouldn't open.
Then I heard another voice.
Soft. Curious.
"Why are you trying to save him?"
I turned.
And saw myself.
Not in a mirror. Not symbolic.
Me. Same age. Same face. Same dark eyes.
But he was smiling.
And I wasn't.
"You know he'll get hurt again," the other me said. "Again and again. You can't stop it."
"I will," I said, voice cracking.
"You can't. You're too small. Too weak. You're just a scared kid pretending to be a genius."
I stepped toward him. "I don't need to be big. Or strong. I just need to be **enough**."
His smile flickered.
"You'll break."
"I already did."
---
The world shattered around me.
And something deeper opened.
---
> 🔥 **SOULFRAME AWAKENED**
> Name: *The Broken Thread*
> Type: Unique / Emotion-Based
> Description: "A soul fractured by trauma but held together by an unbreakable bond."
>
> ▪ **Threadbind** — Manifest invisible soul-threads. Bind, sever, or control movement and emotion through contact. Strength scales with clarity of intent.
> ▪ **Overstrain** — Convert physical health into mental acceleration and magical output. Risk: burnout, memory collapse, death.
> ▪ **Brother's Thread** (PASSIVE) — When Ren is within 10 meters, gain +50% to reaction time and emotion-linked abilities. Vision widens; instincts sharpen.
---
The Coreframe chamber returned.
My knees buckled. I hit the stone floor hard.
Breath came in ragged gasps.
Ren was at my side in an instant, his little hands grabbing my arms. "Niichan?! Are you okay?! What happened?!"
I couldn't speak yet. My heartbeat was too loud.
But I nodded.
Irvas stepped forward. "Unique class," he muttered. "Haven't seen one since Kuroha."
That made me glance up.
Kuroha looked… not surprised. But disturbed.
"Your Soulframe is emotional-reactive," she said. "That's rare. Dangerous."
"Everything about me is dangerous," I replied.
She didn't argue.
---
We were given a new room in the east barracks. A private stone shelter. Two beds. A washbasin. One window, covered in glyphs that shimmered when touched.
Ren played with a piece of string he found. I watched him from the corner of my eye while I adjusted the old map Irvas had given me. Nine Shards. We were in the **Fourth**.
"Do you think Mommy and Daddy are here too?" Ren asked suddenly.
I froze.
"No," I said softly. "They didn't come with us."
"Good," he said. And then: "I hope they're scared."
I looked at him. Really looked at him.
There was a tiny crack in his voice. Not anger.
Fear. The kind I recognized. The kind that lived in me.
I walked over and sat beside him. "You're safe now, Ren."
He nodded.
But he didn't smile.
---
That evening, Kuroha visited again. She brought food and something else: a small black stone, polished smooth.
"This is a Nullgem," she explained. "It absorbs trace magic. Helps if your Soulframe causes bleed-through in your sleep."
"Mine will?" I asked.
She hesitated. "If your bond is that strong… yes."
"Thanks," I said.
She placed it beside my bed and turned to leave.
"Why are you helping me?" I asked suddenly.
She paused in the doorway.
Then she said, "Because you looked into the Rift and didn't scream."
---
That night, I dreamed.
But it wasn't a dream.
I stood in a field of white thread.
Each strand pulsed with memory. Some beautiful. Most unbearable.
And in the center of it all — a silhouette.
Not me.
But familiar.
Tall. Cloaked in red.
It turned slowly.
No face.
Just a voice like rusted chains.
**"You were chosen, not summoned."**
I took a step back.
**"Nine Shards. Nine Thrones. Nine Trials."**
"What are you?" I whispered.
**"You already know."**
Then the field snapped shut like a trap.
And I woke up gasping.
---
Next morning, I trained.
Irvas insisted on it. Not with swords — with myself.
He had me activate my Soulframe again and again until my fingers bled from thread-casting. He made me bind stones, bend poles, pull weights using invisible cords. Each time I hesitated, he threw sand at my face.
"Focus or die," he barked. "That's the rule here."
Ren watched from the sidelines, munching a fruit. "Niichan! You look like a squid!"
I almost smiled.
Almost.
---
By sunset, I collapsed into the grass, every nerve buzzing. My skin burned from soul overuse.
Kuroha approached and offered a water pouch.
I drank.
Then said, "You said you awakened a unique Soulframe too."
She nodded.
"What is it?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she drew her blade.
For a moment, it glowed — not with fire or lightning. But silence.
A silence so deep, I stopped breathing.
Then she sheathed it.
"It's called *Stillness*," she said.
And I understood.
Her power was death in its quietest form.
---
That night, Ren crawled into my bed without asking.
"I had a bad dream," he murmured.
I didn't ask what kind.
I just held him.
My thread pulsed faintly against his skin — invisible, but real. Warm. Protective.
He fell asleep against my chest.
And I stared at the window.
The glyphs flickered.
Something *was* watching.
Even now.
Even here.
---
At midnight, the alarm bell rang.
---
**End of Chapter 3*