The silence after battle is the loudest sound in the world.
The Echo was gone. The monster — that False Core — devoured with it. But something had shifted in me. Deep. Quiet. Irreversible.
I didn't need a System notification to know that much.
Arlen sat slumped beside me, his shirt soaked in blood. "That thing... was part of you?"
I didn't answer. Not because I didn't want to — but because I didn't know.
The door to the Rift cracked open with a high-frequency whine.
Guild reinforcements poured in — boots, rifles, panic. Too late.
A woman with silver-threaded braids knelt beside me. Her uniform marked her as a Guild Examiner.
"You're Crispin David?"
I nodded, dazed.
She looked past me at the mangled battlefield. At the empty space where something had bled through dimensions. Then her eyes landed back on me. Narrowed.
"You weren't supposed to survive this Gate."
Arlen chuckled weakly. "We get that a lot."
The woman raised a scanner to my chest. Frowned. Raised it again.
[UNCLASSIFIED SIGNATURE DETECTED]
Permission denied.
Access locked by external protocol: 'Ash Protocol – Gen Zero'
Her breath caught. "...What the hell are you?"
I stood, unsteady, and gave her the most honest answer I could:
"I wish I knew."
Outside the Rift, night had fallen over Blackridge, and the world kept turning like it hadn't just tried to kill me again.
But I was different now.
The Echo didn't feel dormant anymore. It felt awake. Watching. Waiting.
When I glanced into the mirror of the Guild's mobile clinic, I saw something standing behind me — just for a second. A tall figure. Cloaked in shadow. Wearing my face.
And smiling.