Chapter 5: The Pulse of the Forgotten

The world around Raphael seemed quieter than before. It wasn't that the wind had stopped or that the earth had settled—it was something deeper, something beneath the surface of existence itself.

That second pulse, the one that had echoed back at him, hadn't come from an external force. It had come from within him.

Something inside was waking up.

He clenched his fist, feeling the slow hum of his resonance vibrating against his skin. It was different now. Less like a weapon, more like an awareness.

"Kieran," he said, his voice sharper than before. "Do you feel that?"

She studied him for a moment before shaking her head. "No. But whatever it is, it's changing you."

He exhaled, trying to make sense of what was happening. His resonance had never acted like this before. It had always been something he commanded, something he forced to obey his will.

But now, it was responding to him, almost like it had a mind of its own.

His fingers twitched. There was only one way to figure out what this meant.

He closed his eyes and reached inward.

Immediately, the world fell away.

---

Inside the Resonance

Raphael found himself standing in a vast, colorless void. It wasn't empty, but it wasn't full either—it was like a space caught between existence and nothingness.

And in the distance, something was waiting for him.

A pulse of energy rippled through the void, steady and rhythmic. He took a step forward, and with each movement, the pulse grew stronger, more familiar.

Then he saw it.

A massive, broken construct floating in the void. It was cracked, incomplete, yet still radiating power.

It was a piece of him.

His resonance hadn't been stolen by the entity. It had been fragmented.

And this was one of the lost pieces.

Raphael inhaled sharply, stepping closer. As he did, he could feel memories flickering at the edge of his mind—things he didn't remember learning, techniques he had never used, power he had never tapped into.

This was what he had been missing.

He reached out, his fingers brushing against the shattered construct—

A surge of energy exploded through him.

The void trembled.

And suddenly, everything snapped back into place.

---

Reality - The Cliffside

Raphael's eyes snapped open, and a shockwave erupted from his body. The ground beneath him cracked as his resonance roared outward, no longer just a passive hum but an unstoppable force.

Kieran shielded herself, her hair whipping wildly in the burst of power. "What the hell did you just do?"

Raphael exhaled slowly, flexing his fingers. The feeling was still there, thrumming beneath his skin—a connection he had never fully understood until now.

"I was never incomplete," he murmured. "I was just... disconnected."

Kieran gave him a sharp look. "Disconnected from what?"

He looked down at his hands, watching the faint, rhythmic pulse of his resonance.

"From myself."

He grinned, fire igniting in his emerald eyes.

"And now? I think it's time I put myself back together."