Chapter 7: The Price of Power
Location: Unknown Realm – Interstice Between Soul Layers
Silence.
Not the comforting kind, but the dense void between moments that never should have existed.
Aethan's eyes fluttered open.
He was… nowhere.
No ground. No sky. No gravity. Only white fog and floating shards of broken memories, each one reflecting a different version of him. Some wept. Some laughed. One slit his own throat with a smile.
And then came the System Voice, colder than ever.
---
> [Soul Integration Initiated – Tier-1 Divine Evolution Candidate Confirmed]
Sync: 88%
Warning: Anomaly Detected.
You are not alone.
Activating Forbidden Trait Recognition Protocol...
> [TRAIT DETECTED: Echoborn Aberration]
Description: A being birthed not from time, but from every time that failed to exist.
Effect: Grants the user access to "Parallel Outcomes" – alternate versions of self across dimensions. However, reality will reject prolonged use.
Status: UNSTABLE
Decision Required: Accept Trait | Reject Trait
Note: Acceptance will erase your current timeline's anchor point (Althera's soul signature).
> [Accept]
[Reject]
---
His hand hovered over the decision prompt.
Sweat dripped—even here, in the void.
To accept meant power beyond comprehension. The ability to borrow strength from every version of himself that had survived worse fates.
But it also meant losing Althera's remaining essence, the last thing tying him to who he used to be.
Lysandra's voice echoed faintly from the edge of this void-realm.
"Aethan… don't forget who you are."
But who was he now? A brother? A weapon? Or something else?
---
He clenched his fist.
"I'm done being weak."
He pressed Accept.
---
> [TRAIT ACCEPTED – ECHOBORN ABERRATION UNLOCKED]
Soul Anchor Severed: Althera's Essence Lost
Emotion Lock Strengthened: +20% resistance to memory-triggered paralysis
Skill Tree Expanded: Aberrant Echo Channeling unlocked
A scream tore through the void—not his, but every version of him across infinite timelines, all howling in unison.
He didn't flinch.
Instead, he absorbed them.
The fragments of his alternate selves fused into his body—one had mastered fire, another wielded shadows, a third had kissed death itself and returned with its voice in his lungs.
Now, they were all part of him.
---
> [NEW SKILL: Echo Channel – Variant Switch Lv. 1]
Allows Aethan to temporarily borrow a combat trait or ability from one of his Echo Selves
Duration: 15 seconds | Cooldown: 3 minutes
[NEW SKILL: Paradox Breaker Lv. 1]
A single strike that exists in all timelines simultaneously. Once used, timeline distortion increases drastically.
---
The void cracked open like a mirror.
Light poured in—and he fell.
---
Location: Blackwake Sanctuary (Neutral Zone)
Time: 2 Hours Later
Lysandra jolted as a blinding light deposited Aethan onto the obsidian floor.
His appearance had changed.
His hair was streaked with strands of silver. His veins glowed faintly, and his eyes—one blue, one gold—spoke of other lives. Lives not lived here.
"You're back..." she whispered.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he stepped past her and stared at the shrine nearby—a cracked statue of a forgotten goddess.
"I made a choice," he said at last. "I let her go."
Silence.
"I had to," he continued, voice flat. "To win."
Lysandra stood, unsure whether to hug him or slap him. "And what did it cost?"
He looked her dead in the eyes.
"Everything that ever made me human."
---
> [System Alert: Consequence Path Activated]
Title Earned: Hollow Sovereign
Allies' Trust Modifier: -25% (Lysandra – Distrust Initiated)
Special Passive Gained: Crown of Contradiction
Effect: As long as Aethan walks the path of the Echoborn, fate itself bends—but emotions decay.
---
Blackwake's doors burst open.
A figure entered—tall, cloaked in golden roots and glass feathers. His voice echoed with a divine authority.
"So… the aberration rises."
Aethan raised his scythe, now sleeker and pulsing with unstable echoes.
"And you are?"
The stranger bowed mockingly.
"Sereth, the Arbiter of Equilibrium. I am here to offer balance… or execute anomalies."
Aethan's smirk held no humor.
"Try."
---
The walls cracked as Sereth raised a hand—summoning ethereal scales in the air. One held a burning world. The other, a broken child.
"Let's weigh your sins, shall we?"
---
> [New Quest: Balance Breaker]
Objective: Defeat Sereth OR Offer One Core Memory for Equilibrium
Reward: Divine Resistance + Skill Evolution
Penalty for Refusal: Realm Lockout
---
Lysandra gasped. "You can't fight him—he's a Realm-Level entity!"
But Aethan simply whispered, "Then I'll steal what I need from a version of me who's already killed him."
His eyes flickered.
A new voice whispered in his ear—not Sereth's, not the System's…
His own.
A darker, twisted version.
> "Use me. For this moment, I'll lend you the weapon that turned gods into meals.
"
---
A massive, black-bladed halberd appeared in Aethan's hand—its shaft made of spine, its blade dripping soul-venom.
Sereth's expression shifted—ever so slightly.
Fear.
---
To be continued...