Chapter 5: Eyes of the Betrayer

Location: Hollowed Realm – Fragment 12B: Echo Rift

Word Count: ~1060

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The world was shattered glass and echoing screams.

Aethan moved like a fracture in time itself—his steps silent, his presence deafening. Each pulse of his mutated blood sent ripples through the twisted void around him. His new soul-thread armor gleamed faintly in the dim aura of the Hollowed Realm, like woven shadow fused with dying starlight.

Behind him, phantom footsteps followed—memories refusing to stay dead.

His sister's face lingered in his mind.

Althera.

Gone again.

But this time, she had left him something more than pain—purpose.

> [System Sync – 34% Complete]

Active Protocols: Vengeance Mode (Stable), Echoform (Locked), Hollowborn Rage (Lv. 1)

Current Trait: Emotional Immunity – Tier I (Cognitive Bias Reduced, Focus Enhanced)

---

Across the fragmented reality, Lysandra knelt beneath the ruins of a once-golden tower. Her breath was shallow, blood caked across her left arm, and the obsidian blade that once danced like death in her hands now lay chipped beside her.

She felt it in her soul—the shift.

Aethan had changed. No longer just a rogue experiment or forgotten child.

He had become something else.

Something designed not just to destroy… but to unmake.

---

He appeared before her without warning—his arrival silent as entropy.

Lysandra looked up, and their eyes met.

For a heartbeat, the past screamed between them.

---

"Why?" Aethan's voice was hollow. Not angry. Not broken. Just... empty.

She didn't speak.

He stepped closer. The air rippled around him, threads of soul-energy trailing his fingertips. "You killed her. You watched them cut her away from me."

"I had no choice."

"Then you should've died with her."

He raised a hand.

A beam of compressed void-light erupted forward—but stopped an inch from her throat. Held. Controlled. Trembling.

> [System Intervention: Cognitive Override Detected]

Reason: Emotional Conflict – Residual Affection (Subject: Lysandra)

Resolution Required to Progress Evolution Path

He flinched. The System's voice burned like static in his skull.

Lysandra finally spoke. "You think I wanted any of this? You think I didn't scream the day they took Althera? I begged them to spare her."

"You were one of them."

"I was made one of them. Just like you were made to forget."

Her voice cracked. "You think betrayal was a choice for me?"

---

Silence hung like an executioner's axe.

Aethan's body trembled. Rage. Confusion. Mourning. All colliding like dying stars.

> [Internal Emotion Conflict – Suppression Engaged]

Suppression Level: 64% – Critical Limit Approaching

"Do not pretend we are the same," he whispered. "You became their sword. I was their failure."

Lysandra stood slowly. "And now you're their punishment."

She threw the broken obsidian blade toward him. He caught it mid-air.

"I don't want redemption," she said. "I don't deserve it. But you need me to reach the Sanctum Core. You can kill me afterward."

> [New Quest Triggered: The Core Path – Entry to God-Kiln Requires Dual Access Keys]

Requirement: Betrayer's Key (Bearer: Lysandra)

Status: Cooperative Access Required – Kill Targeting Disabled Temporarily

Aethan growled. "System's forcing my hand."

"Then let it."

---

They walked in silence, across the floating rift bridges. Shards of broken dimensions passed beneath them like floating corpses. Creatures of lost memories watched from the shadows but dared not approach.

Together, they reached the Nexus Gate—a colossal mirror of screaming light, shaped like a dying sun.

Lysandra placed her hand on the left glyph. "This gate opens to the God-Kiln. Every soul born of engineered fire goes through purification here."

"And what's on the other side?" Aethan asked, eyes narrowing.

"Truth," she said, bitterly. "And your first kill that truly matters."

He stepped forward and touched the second glyph.

> [Gate Authentication: Success]

Echo-Blood: Verified

Betrayer Key: Accepted

Access to Core Path Unlocked

Warning: Hostility Threshold Beyond Gate – 97% Fatality Chance for Class Below Tier-2 Entities

Recommend Preparation: Skill Integration, Weapon Fusion, Emotional Severance

---

The gate pulsed open.

And beyond it—hell.

Not fire. Not demons. But a realm built from the screams of failed gods.

Twisted altars floated across a sky stitched with flesh. Broken monuments of hope and betrayal rotated like eternal satellites. And at the center, a throne made of kneeling figures—all still alive, their hearts beating in sync, their mouths whispering one word:

Aethan. Aethan. Aethan.

He stepped through. Lysandra followed.

And behind them, the gate shut with a howl.

---

Inside, a voice echoed.

"Welcome, Echo of the Forgotten Blood. The kiln awaits your truth."

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To be continued...