Chapter 164: The Ghosts That Watch the Living

They gathered on the precipice of what once was.

The battlefield known as Vaerund's Hollow had been wiped clean by Rei's awakening, yet the air still trembled with echoes. Not ghosts, not specters—but the memories of choices never made. Roads untaken. Wars unfought. Lives unlived.

Eirenne stood with her mist coalesced tight, voice low. "This place shouldn't echo. There was no battle here."

Mireille's scanner clicked. "That's because the resonance is backward. Not from what happened—but from what could have."

Noira tilted her head. "Pre-echo? A warning?"

Rei kneeled, placing his hand on the trembling soil. "No. A message."

The ground split—not violently, but as if giving birth to understanding. From beneath rose a singular monument. Simple. Stone. Carved with one phrase:

> 'If you must burn, burn for someone else.'

The group stared in silence.

"I didn't carve this," Rei said.

A pause.

Then a whisper came on the wind.

"It was left… by a future you."

---

Chrono-Spirit Interference Detected

Back at Spiritforge Sanctuary, alarms pulsed softly. The system stammered in its usual calm tone:

> [Temporal Feedback Registered: Unstable Sovereign Fragment Loop — Entity Unknown. Preparing Containment Protocols.]

Karasu appeared from the shadows, his eyes black as unlit stars. "He's here."

"Who?" Mireille asked.

Karasu's voice was flat. "You. From another ending."

Rei's brows furrowed. "How? The system can't cross timelines."

Karasu gave a grim smile. "He can. He never needed a system."

---

Arrival of the Null-Sovereign

The sky fractured.

Not shattered—fractured, like a mirror splitting along a smile. And from the rift walked a version of Rei stripped of warmth. No spirits accompanied him. No resonance followed. Only silence.

He wore the same face.

But his eyes were vacant.

"I was born when you refused to choose," the Null-Rei said.

Mireille whispered, "He's… what you'd become without us."

Null-Rei's hands sparked black fire. "I remember every fragment you erased. I am the grief you buried, the truths you ignored."

Rei didn't flinch. "And yet you walked alone."

"I survived alone," the Null snapped. "They made you weak. They made you feel. They made you hope."

Rei stepped forward.

"And that's why I won."

---

Dual Sovereign Clash: Echo vs Void

It wasn't a fight of fists or flames. It was existence colliding with negation.

Every step Null-Rei took undid color.

Every breath Rei took brought it back.

Mireille, Noira, Eirenne—none could intervene. It was sovereignty against sovereignty. Truth against denial.

Rei summoned all nine flames.

But Null-Rei countered with absence—voids shaped like memories. They collided in a maelstrom of conflicting pasts.

A battlefield of forgotten yesterdays.

Rei fell.

Then stood.

Fell again.

Stood again.

Until finally—

He opened his hand.

Not in attack. In offering.

"Come back," Rei said. "You're me. I remember you."

Null-Rei trembled. The void cracked. And for the first time—he wept.

> [System Integration Request: Echo-Reclaimer Class Sovereign. Risk: Memory Overlap. Proceed?]

"Yes," Rei whispered.

The final echo folded into him.

---

System Status: Sovereign Profile Complete

> [Sovereign Rei: Full Integration Achieved — All Paths Resolved. Memory Duality Stable. Core Identity: Restored.]

As dawn rose over Vaerund's Hollow, Rei stood alone—yet never more whole.

Karasu bowed his head.

"The last ghost has returned home."