The next day, tension was already hanging in the air at Aethelgard Academy.
After their talk in the garden, Kaelan spent the rest of the day studying data about the alternate version of the Artifact — but what he found only made things more confusing.
"According to the archives, there's no official record of the Stormdancer Type-B," Kaelan muttered as he scrolled through the database in his private lab.
Riko, who happened to walk by, overheard him.
"Type-B? Oh, that's one of Dr. Aris's secret projects. Even I don't have clearance for it."
Kaelan turned toward him, curious.
"You know something about it?"
"A bit." Riko sat beside him. "Type-B isn't just an alternate model. It's... fundamentally different. The connection system doesn't use Aura or Grit."
"Then what does it use?"
"Dr. Aris called it Soul Resonance. But honestly, I have no idea what that means."
---
Meanwhile, deep below the academy, inside the maximum-security prison, Klaus was planning something.
He'd been there for six months — six months of silence and rage.
"Two minutes until shift change," he whispered to himself, eyes locked on the clock.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway. Two guards appeared in front of his cell — but Klaus knew they weren't real guards.
"Ready, boss?" one of them whispered.
Klaus nodded. "The Stone Dagger?"
"Got it from the confiscation vault."
They moved quickly through the quiet corridor. Klaus was still wearing his prison uniform, but there was fire in his eyes again — a fire long dead.
When they passed the storage room, Klaus stopped. "I need something from here."
Inside the dusty room, he found what he was looking for — a small metal case. Inside, wrapped in velvet cloth, lay a stone dagger carved with strange spiral markings.
"Legend says this can give me the power to fight Kaelan," Klaus murmured, gripping the dagger.
"Boss, we need to hurry," one of his men urged.
But Klaus had already decided. With a swift motion, he stabbed the dagger into his own hand.
The pain that followed wasn't like anything he'd ever felt — not physical, but something deeper. It was like thousands of foreign voices were fighting to enter his mind. The world around him spun, filled with the screams of machines — dead Artifacts crying out.
"Boss!"
Klaus collapsed, convulsing. But through the agony, he felt something new rising inside him — a surge of power.
A shadow began to form behind him, taking the shape of an ancient battle mech.
Wraith had awakened.
Nearby prison drones flickered to life, their bodies warping into darker, twisted versions of themselves.
Wraith had found its first host.
Klaus rose again, eyes glowing crimson.
"Now," he hissed — his voice layered, like several people speaking at once.
"Let's begin."
---
Up above, in the academy, Kora suddenly screamed in pain. She clutched her head, face pale.
"Something's wrong!" she shouted. "I can hear them... the screams of trapped souls!"
Sofia and Kaelan rushed over.
"Screams? What kind of screams?" Kaelan asked, worried.
"Like... Artifacts being tortured," Kora gasped. "The energy feels like my Stormdancer's — but twisted."
Dr. Aris burst into the room, looking panicked.
"Klaus has escaped! And he took the Stone Dagger from storage!"
"The Stone Dagger?" Sofia repeated.
"It's an ancient artifact," Dr. Aris explained. "Legend says it contains the souls of Artifacts destroyed in the old war.
Those who bond with it can summon an Echo — the spirit of a dead Artifact."
Kora nodded weakly, still clutching her head. "That's what I heard... the Echoes. They're suffering."
Kaelan looked at her seriously. "And you can hear them because you're connected to an Echo too, right?"
Dr. Aris sighed. "Kora is a descendant of one of the survivors from the Stone Dagger incident decades ago. The Echoes are in her blood — dormant until she found a compatible vessel: the Stormdancer Type-B."
Sofia looked between them.
"So Kaelan's power comes from the Trinity System, and Kora's from the Echo System?"
"Exactly," said Dr. Aris. "And Klaus just forced an Echo into himself. That's dangerous — for him, and for all of us."
The alarm blared. Riko ran in, tablet in hand.
"Klaus has been spotted at the old robot factory outside the city! And he's not alone — there's a weird energy signal with him!"
Kaelan's expression hardened. "Then we stop him before it's too late."
But before they could move, Kora collapsed, screaming.
"Klaus's Echo... it's too strong! He's torturing them!"
In the hangar, the Stormdancer Type-B suddenly powered up on its own, moving toward the launch bay.
The clash between two systems — Trinity and Echo — was about to begin.