Kael stumbled out of the Hollow Maze, each step a weighty echo of the trauma left behind. The maze closed behind him like a memory trying to forget itself.
Echo hovered beside him—her body still translucent, a ghost of circuitry and instinct.
"You passed the first Fracture," she said evenly.
"Is that what that was?" Kael coughed. "Some twisted therapy session with knives?"
"You survived a mirror of yourself. Most don't. The system rewarded evolution."
The earth trembled underfoot.
Pain bloomed in his chest—raw, searing.
Kael screamed.
Not from a wound. But from something growing inside.
Veins lit up with burning blue. Like circuitry.
His body convulsed. Echo didn't touch him. She only scanned.
And from his hand—something formed.
Not summoned. Not granted.
Born.
A jagged blade of translucent crystal, pulsing with heat. Every edge vibrated with a rhythm that matched Kael's own heartbeat.
[RESONANT WEAPON UNLOCKED: SHARDBLADE — BOUND]
[FORGED FROM NEURAL PAIN AND FRACTAL IDENTITY]
He stared at it, disbelief mixing with horror.
"I made this?" His voice trembled.
Echo nodded. "From pain. From self. From the echo of your fractured will."
He gripped the blade.
It pulsed with breath.
And he whispered, "Then let it hurt."