Chapter 4: The Fractured Echo

Raphael stood at the edge of a desolate cliff, the wind howling through the void beneath him. His mind was a storm of thoughts, replaying the entity's words over and over.

"You are incomplete."

His fingers twitched. That thing hadn't just outclassed him—it had severed him from his own power like it was cutting through silk. That wasn't something that should've been possible.

And yet, it had happened.

Kieran sat nearby on a broken pillar, her expression unreadable. She hadn't spoken much since their conversation. She was waiting—waiting for him to figure out what came next.

He wasn't going to stand here and lick his wounds.

He needed to dig deeper.

"Resonance isn't just power. It's connection."

Raphael closed his eyes, focusing on the flow of his essence. His resonance wasn't just some external force—it was an extension of himself. It vibrated, pulsed, sang with every thought and emotion he had. It was as much a part of him as his heartbeat.

But there was something missing. Something fractured.

He had always treated his power like a weapon—something to wield, to refine, to master. But if the entity had taught him anything, it was that resonance wasn't just a tool. It was communication.

A frequency.

A song.

Raphael exhaled sharply. His body moved on instinct, shifting into a stance. He needed to listen to his power, not just force it to obey.

The ground trembled beneath him.

His resonance pulsed outward—not as an attack, not as a flex of dominance, but as a call. A ripple through reality itself.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then—

The air shimmered.

A second pulse echoed back toward him, faint but unmistakable. It wasn't just his own power—it was something else.

His eyes snapped open.

"What the hell?"

Kieran straightened. "What happened?"

Raphael didn't answer immediately. His resonance had responded to something, but he wasn't sure what. It was like casting a stone into an ocean and hearing something knock back from the depths.

He reached out again, this time more deliberately.

The response came faster. Stronger.

Something old stirred beneath the surface of his consciousness. Not an entity, not an outside force—

But a part of him that had been buried.

And now, it was waking up.

Raphael smirked.

"So that's how it is."