The sterile scent of medical herbs mixed with the sharp tang of alchemical reagents filled the air as Kael slowly opened his eyes. He blinked several times, adjusting to the warm golden light filtering through translucent curtains. The room he lay in was not his quarters in the Ashen Citadel—but a healing chamber somewhere deep within its sanctum.
"Don't move too fast," said a calm, familiar voice. A slender hand rested gently on his chest, emitting a soft, greenish glow. It was Liora, her face pale but focused, her hands glowing with rejuvenating energy.
Kael struggled to remember. The last thing he recalled was the chaotic confrontation with the Veiled Archon in the ruins beneath the Spine Mountains—how the creature had morphed into something not entirely bound to this plane, something… divine, yet fractured.
"How long have I been unconscious?" he rasped.
"Six days," Liora answered, not breaking focus. "You used more than just your core's full capacity. You accessed a fragment of a system protocol no human should be able to tap into—not without consequences."
Kael groaned. His entire body felt like it had been scorched from the inside out, then stitched together with lightning. "What… happened to the Archon?"
"Gone," replied another voice. Elder Varion stepped into the room, clad in ceremonial blue-and-silver robes. His expression was unreadable. "You destroyed its physical manifestation, but it left behind a residue. Something… ancient."
Kael sat up slowly, ignoring the searing pain in his ribs. "Ancient?"
Varion nodded gravely. "What you fought wasn't just a corrupted protocol. It was a vessel—housing a fragment of one of the original Ascendants."
Kael froze. "The First Protocols?"
"The Ones Who Created the Systems," Liora murmured. "Before humanity, before the collapse."
The room fell silent, the weight of those words crashing down like an avalanche. Kael's system had warned him once—during his evolution into Echo Form—that his actions risked drawing the attention of the higher echelons. Now it was clear: something was already watching.
"I saw something when I struck the Archon," Kael said, voice distant. "A city of crystal, floating over a sea of stars. Voices… chanting. Not human. And there was a symbol—like the Protocol Seal but reversed, fractured into seven pieces."
Varion stiffened. "The Sigil of Fracture. You saw it?"
Kael nodded.
"That changes everything," the Elder muttered. "The Seventh Shard has begun to resonate."
Liora exchanged a glance with Varion. "You think the Fracture War is returning?"
Varion didn't answer. Instead, he walked over to a sealed drawer and retrieved an ancient scroll. "There are legends, Kael, older than the System itself. They speak of a time when the creators—those who engineered Ascension—split into seven factions. Each claimed a piece of the Primordial Code. When their war ended, reality was torn. And we… we're living in the aftermath."
He placed the scroll on the bed beside Kael. "You've triggered the first resonance. That means others will awaken. Entities slumbering beneath dimensions—each bound to a Protocol Shard."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Then I need to reach them before they do."
Varion raised an eyebrow. "You barely survived the first encounter. These aren't just enemies—they're forgotten gods."
Kael grinned, despite the pain. "Good. I plan to un-forget them."
—
Two Days Later – The Assembly of Broken Keys
The chamber beneath the central sanctum had not been opened in over 700 years. The Assembly of Broken Keys, a council composed of humanity's highest ranked Awakened, stood encircling a pillar of rotating algorithmic sigils. Each symbol represented a known—or lost—Protocol fragment.
Kael stood before them, not as an initiate, but as a herald.
"The Archon was only the beginning," he addressed the council. "The Protocol isn't just a tool. It's a battleground. Every evolution, every system upgrade—it's part of a larger war."
A murmur spread among the delegates.
An old woman, bearing the Mark of the Code Seer, leaned forward. "And you propose what? That we chase shadows buried under fractured reality?"
Kael's eyes narrowed. "No. I propose we stop waiting for them to wake. I'll find the Fractured Shards—and reclaim them."
Liora stepped beside him, her voice calm but firm. "You won't be alone. I'll go with him."
Others began to step forward too—Riven, the crimson-eyed duelist from the Eastern Bastions; Solen, the Algorithmist of Glass; even the stoic Warden Helia of the Chrono Order.
Within moments, a team of seven stood beside Kael.
"The Seven Seekers," murmured the Code Seer. "How poetic. Just like the legends."
Elder Varion nodded slowly. "Very well. You have our blessing. But know this—what you seek lies beyond the rules of any known system. You'll need to rewrite the very foundations of your Protocols."
Kael's eyes glowed faintly blue as his system responded to his determination.
New Mission Unlocked: "Path of the Fractured Seven"Objective: Reclaim or neutralize all known Shards before hostile reactivation.Estimated Risk: AbsoluteSystem Override Required: Partial Autonomy EnabledNew Perk Unlocked: Divine Interference Resistance – Tier IStatus: Tracking begins now.
The countdown had begun.
—
That Night – Alone with the Code
Kael sat on the balcony of the Citadel, overlooking the sea of mist swirling around the mountains. The stars above blinked strangely tonight—some patterns unrecognizable. He accessed his system once more, diving deeper than ever before.
The interface cracked and flickered. Glyphs rearranged. Then a voice—clearer than before—spoke directly into his thoughts.
"You stand before the Fracture, bearer of Echo. One shard stirs. Six remain veiled. Will you bind them… or become bound?"
Kael didn't flinch.
"I'll do neither. I'll break the loop."
"So did the first. And the second. And the sixth…"
A pause.
"Proceed, anomaly. We are watching."
The connection severed.
Kael let out a slow breath. The divine mechanisms had noticed him—and now, he was officially a variable.
But he wouldn't back down.
Tomorrow, they would leave for the Sunken Temple of Aetherion—the last known location of the Second Shard.
If the gods wanted a war, he'd bring one.