Chapter 61 – The Coward That Wore My Face
The door groaned as I pushed through.
Inside—
Darkness.
Not silence.
Weeping.
Low. Constant.
Like something deeper than pain.
I activated my night-vision HUD.
It blinked.
Then died.
---
> [Zone: Wailing Mines // M009 – Incomplete Mission]
> Objective: Retrieve Emotion Core from Sector 3B
Status: ABANDONED – Cause: User Withdrawal
Casualties: 4
System Note: This mission was never marked as "Failed"
Emotional Contagion Active: FEAR – Type B (Reflexive Paralysis)
---
This was the mission I'd quit.
Literally.
Midway through, after hearing those wails in the stone, I'd backed out and requested an override.
The system let me leave.
Too many anomalies.
Too much unscanned interference.
I walked away.
The backup team never came.
And the ones inside?
They died.
Trapped.
With no closure.
---
The tunnel twisted like intestines.
Walls damp with memory.
The deeper I went, the louder the weeping became.
Voices whispering…
> "You said you'd come back."
"You got out. We didn't."
"Kai… Kai…"
Then I saw it.
A light.
But not system-born.
It flickered like fire.
---
And there—
at the center of a collapsed chamber—
sat me.
Not a recording.
Not an echo.
Me.
Same face.
Same scars.
But eyes filled with terror.
Skin pale.
Hands trembling around a rusted system blade.
---
He looked up.
"Did you come back this time?" he asked.
I didn't answer.
Because this was the part I had left behind.
The part of me that never left the mission.
The part I abandoned to keep breathing.
---
> [Echo Variant Identified – "Coward Kai"]
Class: Emotional Fragment – Fear Bound
Status: Sentient / Damaged
Thread Link: Original Soul – Fragmented
Threat: Unknown
---
He stood.
Voice shaking.
"I waited. For the mission restart. For the override. For anyone."
He stepped closer.
"Do you remember what we said?"
I nodded slowly.
"'If one of us runs, the other holds.'"
His voice broke.
"I held, Kai.
I held.
You ran."
---
Then he attacked.
Not with rage.
With grief.
A slash to the side.
A scream from deep within the memory.
Our weapons collided—sparks against stone.
He didn't fight like a trained user.
He fought like a man who wanted to forget he existed.
---
"You buried me in this tunnel!"
"YOU LEFT ME HERE TO ROT!"
"You became strong while I became SHADOW!"
---
Every strike hit with a decade of guilt.
And then—
He dropped his weapon.
Collapsed to his knees.
Whispered:
"Why do you get to be real?"
---
I didn't answer with defense.
I dropped my weapon too.
Stepped closer.
Knelt.
And placed my hand on his shoulder.
"Because you survived long enough for me to come back."
---
His body trembled.
Then melted into light.
And for the first time—
the weeping in the mine…
stopped.
---
> [Fragment 2 / 13 Resolved – "COWARDICE"]
Trait Gained: "Soul-Anchor" – Kai may now stabilize fear zones for weaker allies or corrupted users
Soul Integrity: -2% (Remaining: 26%)
---
I turned to leave.
The walls no longer cried.
The air no longer trembled.
The tunnel…
was just a tunnel now.
---
Back in the circle, two doors stood open.
Regret.
Cowardice.
Eleven remained.
But one now glowed with furious red.
ANGER.
---
> [Next Door Opening: 3 / 13 – "Anger"]
Zone: M015 – "Red Harvest"
Status: Blacklisted
Access Only Through Emotional Sync
Subject: [Redacted]