The black sun cracked above the desert.It wasn't light that spilled from it—but a scream.The sky wept black sand, and from beneath the glass dunes… something ancient stirred.
Zareth ran.
His breath tore from his lungs in ragged gasps. A dead world stretched behind him, but what followed wasn't just death—it was worse. Twisted bones stitched into crawling horrors. Flesh that wore masks of the people it devoured. Shadows that walked without form.
"Keep running!"
His brother's voice still rang in his ears.But his brother was gone.
Zareth reached the end of the ruined bridge, the abyss yawning wide below.A chasm of pure nothing.
Behind him, the beast came.
Nine limbs. Too many eyes. Jaws that opened sideways. Its skin was a hive of whispering mouths.And all of them screamed his name.
Zareth… Zareth… Zareth…
He didn't cry.He didn't beg.
Instead, he turned.
The broken sword in his hand wasn't enough. The system hadn't awakened for him like it had for the others. There was no armor. No miracle. No stats to save him.
Just his breath. His blood. And his brother's memory.
The beast lunged.
Zareth stepped forward—into the maw.And smiled.
[Sacrificial Loop Engaged]
You have traded Blood for Power.Memory of the First Death: Unlocked.Awakening Path: Bound by Echoes.Loop Count: 1
Pain.Then darkness.Then something worse.
His eyes opened—not to life, but to the moment before death.
The same ruined bridge.The same scream in the sky.
Only now… he could hear the system whispering beneath reality.
You must die to evolve.You must lose to remember.You must sacrifice to awaken.
Zareth didn't understand. Not fully. Not yet.But the beast was coming again.And this time…
He remembered.
[Loop Blessing Activated]
You retain fragments of experience, emotion, and pain from previous loops.
He tightened his grip on the broken blade.
When the monster burst from the sands, its roar shook the ruins—but Zareth was already moving.
Not as a boy afraid to die.But as someone who had.
[Instinct Surge: +5% Reaction Time]
[Pain Adaptation: Tier I]
[Loop Echo: Defensive Memory Acquired]
The blade sang.
He slashed—not blindly, but with knowledge no one else should have. The beast recoiled, its shoulder bleeding black vapor.
But the system wasn't done.
[Trial Modifier Unlocked]
New Threat Detected: The Hollow ChoirEstimated Loop Failures: 978
He didn't know what that meant.Didn't need to.He knew only this:
Every loop would kill him.Every loop would teach him.Every death would sharpen him until he became something the world could no longer ignore.
Zareth screamed——not in fear… but war.
The sky shattered.And something heard him scream back.
[Entity Marked: Zareth of the Echo Loop]
[Death Affinity: Confirmed]
[Legacy Fragment: Awaiting Activation]
Let the Sacrifices Begin.
Far away, in a tower that bled time…An old man watched.He smiled.
"The First Echo has begun."
Behind him, the world map twisted—entire nations graying to ash.Something ancient moved beneath it.
Waiting.