System Recoil

The Rift District pulsed with unease.

Rain hissed down on cracked rooftops, splashing against neon signs that flickered like dying hearts. In the distance, a Rift flare lit the skyline purple for a heartbeat before vanishing. The city was glitching—subtly, dangerously—as if reality itself was trying to hold together with broken code.

Kael Riven stood on the edge of Terryl's hideout, eyes scanning the murky alley below.

His body still thrummed with the remnants of the Sigma Core's echo—his veins glowed faintly beneath his skin like threads of stolen light.

Whatever he'd absorbed in that vault, it had left a mark deeper than system logs could track.

Behind him, Niko leaned against the wall, silent. He was watching Kael with a mix of concern and awe—like he didn't quite recognize his brother anymore.

Inside, Terryl was pacing while Vega hammered away at a battered terminal surrounded by jury-rigged processors and blinking nodes.

"You're lucky you're alive," Vega muttered. "The Sigma Core wasn't meant to integrate with anything outside of the Ascendant framework. And you… you broke it."

Kael stepped in. "I didn't break it. I consumed it."

Terryl grunted. "Yeah, well, it's biting back."

He pointed to a display where red code spiraled like a whirlpool.

Lines pulsed violently, as if something massive was pushing through from the other side.

"Residual signal drift," Vega said. "The Protocol is trying to heal. Reconstruct what it lost when you tore out its heart. That… is system recoil."

Kael crossed his arms. "So what happens next?"

"You become the wound it's trying to close." Vega tapped a key. "Which means it's going to hunt you."

A warning ping interrupted them. Terryl spun around, slamming a palm onto the control pad. "Breach. Three Echo signatures. Northwest quadrant. Underwell zone."

Kael's eyes sharpened. "That's close to the shelter sector."

Terryl nodded grimly. "System ghosts, old folks, scrappers—none of them can fight."

Kael didn't hesitate. "Gear up. We move now."They arrived minutes later.

The Underwell was a ruin of collapsed strata and forgotten terminals—data lines still flickered weakly through shattered panels, casting warped shadows across the rubble. A surge of dark static crackled as three wraiths emerged from a flickering rift gate.

They were humanoid—but barely. Wrapped in glitching bindings and bound with fractal sigils across their torsos. Their limbs shifted erratically, weapons fused into their arms. One bore a jagged halberd made of compressed echo code. Another carried a chained flail that flickered in and out of visibility.

The center figure raised its head.

Where a face should've been, there was only a red rune—a broken loop of command code.

It spoke, its voice like a failing speaker system:

"UNIFY THE LOST. RETURN THE CODE."

Kael summoned his weapon.

The air twisted. Darkness folded inward and collapsed into his hand as his scythe appeared—a towering obsidian shaft topped with a crescent blade that shimmered with spectral light. The edge pulsed with every Echo he had ever consumed, crying out for release.

He gripped the haft tight. "I'm not giving anything back."

The wraiths attacked.

Kael moved like a phantom, sliding into Echo Field. The world slowed. He could see their soul patterns unraveling like threads—perfect.

He swept the scythe low and wide.

The blade carved through the halberd-wraith, its form glitching violently as it exploded into a burst of raw code and static. He pivoted without pause, the scythe spinning in his grip with deadly elegance, catching the flail before it struck.

Terryl roared as he body-slammed the third wraith into a fractured slab, kinetic bursts flaring at his fists.

But the second one—faster than the others—phased and blinked toward the lower ruins.

Niko was down there.

Kael's eyes burned violet.

[Recursive Override – ACTIVE]

[Time Lock Engaged. Initiating Trace Warp]

[Soul Integrity: 86%]

In a blink of dark light, Kael warped directly in front of the oncoming wraith.

He raised his scythe and cleaved straight downward.

The impact shook the ground. The wraith screamed, glitching uncontrollably as its body was split. Kael twirled the weapon once and flung the upper half away—watching it disintegrate in a whirl of dying sparks.

The remaining enemy tried to retreat, but Vega's drone surged in and launched an overcharged cascade burst—disrupting its core and ripping it into nothing.

Kael dropped to a knee, his scythe planted like a banner.

Silence.

Then Vega's voice crackled through the comms. "You alright?"

Kael panted. "Still standing."

Terryl hauled himself over the wreckage. "That's three down. But we both know that was just the scouting party."

Kael stood.

The air behind him shimmered. A ripple—then a distortion.

He whirled, scythe raised.

But it wasn't a wraith.

It was Velron Kane.

Clad in armor laced with obsidian circuitry, the Grand Marshal of the Obsidian Creed stepped from the shadows with the calm arrogance of someone who'd already won.

"You've drawn quite a storm, Ghost."

Kael's scythe pulsed.

"I'm not in the mood, Velron."

Velron smiled coldly. "You've become a virus. And we delete viruses."

Kael took a step forward. "Try."

Velron didn't move. Instead, he raised a finger—and a dark sigil appeared in the air.

[Admin Command: System Lock]

[Attempting to freeze protocol access…]

Kael's body jerked as the Echo Protocol stuttered.

But then—

[Echo Protocol: OVERRIDE DETECTED]

[Access Denied: You are not the system's master.]

Velron's eye twitched.

Kael stepped forward, scythe dragging across the concrete with a sharp hiss. "You're not in control anymore.

The System you serve is breaking."

Velron's voice turned low. "You don't understand what you've awakened."

"I don't care."

They stood tense—for a breath—before Velron backed away into the shadows.

"This isn't over, Reaper."Back at the hideout, Vega ran diagnostics.

"You're not just carrying the Protocol anymore," she whispered. "You are the Protocol now."

Kael leaned back, the scythe resting across his shoulders. "Then it better learn how to fight."

Niko looked at him, wide-eyed.

"What now?"

Kael stared out the window—toward Skybreaker Spire, where the beacon code Vega tracked still pulsed faintly like a heartbeat.

"We end this at the source."

He raised the scythe.

"Time to Reap."

The next morning came with no sunrise—only the dull flicker of failing sky-screens overhead and the sour tang of ozone in the air.

Arcadia was restless. Rumors had already begun to spread like corrupted files: a Reaper wielding echoes, Rift wraiths hunted in the Underwell, a Grand Marshal repelled.

Kael sat alone near the far end of the hideout, sharpening his scythe with deliberate strokes. The blade didn't dull in the normal sense—it pulsed with soul energy—but the motion helped him focus, anchoring his thoughts. Every time the edge hissed across the obsidian whetstone, it sang with the cries of the broken.

Footsteps behind him.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Shinra's voice. Calm, but guarded.

Kael didn't turn. "Didn't try."

Shinra leaned against the wall beside him, arms folded, gaze sharp. "You've changed. Since that vault… you don't even move like the same person."

"I'm not the same person."

"Yeah," Shinra said quietly. "That's what I'm worried about."

Kael paused mid-sharpening. He finally looked at Shinra—his old friend, his anchor from the slums.

"I'm not slipping, Shin. I'm just seeing things clearer now."

"Clearer?" Shinra scoffed. "You nearly tore yourself apart out there. You think that scythe listens to you? It's feeding off you."

Kael stood, the blade humming in his hand.

"I'm feeding off it too."

Before Shinra could answer, Vega's voice echoed from the other room.

"Kael. You need to see this."

They moved quickly to the central terminal, where Vega was rewiring an uplink connected to one of her hacked sky-sat nodes. The screen displayed a trembling feed—grainy, distorted, but unmistakable.

A massive Rift Gate was forming over the Skybreaker Spire.

Kael's eyes narrowed. "That wasn't there yesterday."

"It wasn't," Vega confirmed. "But it's pulling code straight from the System's central line. Whatever's coming through—it's not local. It's an import. A deep-tier protocol. Possibly a Guardian-class override."

Shinra leaned in. "You mean like a failsafe?"

Vega's lips tightened. "No. I mean like an executioner."

Kael didn't flinch.

"Let it come."

Vega gave him a sharp look. "You don't understand. This thing… it's not a wraith. It's a Core Manifest. A manifestation of system law. If the System thinks you're a threat to its stability, this isn't going to be a trial. It's going to be erasure."

Kael walked to the window.

Skybreaker Spire towered in the distance, wrapped now in spiraling threads of violet lightning.

"I'm not just a threat," Kael murmured. "I'm the collapse event."

He turned back, voice steady.

"We're not waiting. Gear up, trace the node path. We head for the Spire tonight."

Niko stood behind them, fists clenched. "I'm coming too."

Kael hesitated… then nodded. "Stay close. Don't touch anything glowing."

Shinra cracked a grin despite himself.

And so the Reaper, the hacker, the fighter, and the boy moved to strike at the very code of Arcadia.

No more hiding.

It was time to reap the truth.