Chapter 0 – Echoes Before the Rift

"They said the planet we used to live died long ago… but it still

screams beneath us."

Black.

A hum beneath silence.

Then a voice — layered in static, yet calm.

VOICE LOG 1: "The core ruptured seventeen seconds before

their reality inverted. We couldn't stop it. We were already too late. We

always are."

They said the planet we used to live on — Earth, Eden, whatever it once was

— died long ago.

But it still screams beneath us.

Every step we take, every structure we rebuild, every Rift we try to seal…

It's built on top of its corpse.

And the corpse never sleeps.

EXCERPT: RIFT WAR DOSSIER // CLASSIFIED LEVEL OMEGA "Subject:

Temporal Cascade Failure // Project Echofall

The incident at [REDACTED] confirmed the collapse of all seven known dimensions

within Zone Theta. Survivors reported encountering 'versions of themselves'

that shouldn't exist.

Estimated casualties: incalculable. Reality was not designed for recursion."

A boy stares up at a fractured sky. His eyes, flickering with light that

doesn't belong in this timeline.

His name is Aarav, though he doesn't know it yet.

Not this version of him.

Not the one buried deep beneath.

He dreams of a blade that sings in his hand.

Of a woman's voice calling him "my son."

Of fire, of screaming. Of falling again and again and again…

FIELD LOG 37-B | Observer Unit "Mira Veil" | AGE: 14

"Father didn't come back. They said he went to the Deep Layers of the Rift.

They lied.

I know he found something.

I still have the blade he left me — it hums when I get too close to the wrong

places."

They say heroes are forged in fire.

That's a lie.

Heroes rot in silence, forgotten beneath ash and timelines.

In the year 7 AR (After Rift), the first Rankings were

established.

Not to assign power. But to delay fear.

The public needed order. A system.

Commander. General. Captain. Vice-Captain. Cadet.

A hierarchy to hold back the chaos surging from every Rift.

But it was a facade.

Even the strongest — the so-called "legendary Captain" they whisper about —

He's only delaying the inevitable.

AUDIO EXCERPT // UNSTABLE RECORDING "…If you're hearing

this, Reyan… stay away from the Core Zone. They're using us. It's not just

experiments. It's loops.

You were never meant to win. But he… he breaks the loop.

Aarav is the key. Just like last time…"

Somewhere, a child hums a forgotten lullaby.

A melody echoing across time.

His brother is gone. Or maybe… he never existed at all.

His name was Kairav, or something like it.

He once smiled with eyes full of light.

Now, they say he's the storm that devours worlds.

There are no gods in this world.

Only echoes.

And the rift is the wound they never stitched shut.

UNKNOWN TRANSMISSION – CLASSIFIED RIFT CORE BLACK BOX – 00:00:01

"This isn't the first time.

The timelines always eat themselves.

But this one… this one is different.

He remembers.

And that changes everything."

Fade out.

Then a single heartbeat.

Then a scream.

Then silence again.

[END OF CHAPTER 0]