Chapter 65:
The Return of the Usurper's Will
I. The Shattered Star Beyond Time
In a space where no constellation dares to shine, there exists a fragment of the First Realm—a shard of time exiled from creation itself.
Here, in a tomb spun from dead light and the broken vows of gods, the Usurper stirred.
His true name had been erased from the Song of Origins.Never to be heard again.
His memory was outlawed.
His very will—fractured, scattered and chained across seven dimensional prisons.
But now…
The blood he had cursed had awakened again.
And that ripple reached even this place.
A crack split through the emptiness.
A whisper slithered into the void.
> "The heir breathes."
And the Usurper—half-ghost, half-divine flame—smiled.
> "Then let the betrayer finish what he began."
He sent a sliver of his will back into the world—a venom of fate, hidden in starlight, clothed in beauty. A voice to tempt. A memory to corrupt.
> "I will not kill him," he said. "I will remake him… into me." to be me.
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II. The Poisoned Dream
As Echo trained beneath Errin, learning to master the fused inheritance of twelve ancestors, he dreamed.
But this dream was not his own.
He saw a version of himself—one that ruled galaxies with no remorse.unbothered.
A god not born, but built from evolved cruelty.
Worshipped out of fear and trepidation...
Alone.
And the Usurper's voice, calm and ancient, echoed within that dream:
> "This is the shape you were meant to wear."
> "This is what they feared… and sealed."
Echo fought to wake. He screamed for Errin—but Errin could not hear him across this dream-forged dimension.
The poison was taking root.
But within the boy's soul, the ancestors stirred.
The one of silence raised a single hand.
And the dream shattered.
Echo woke, breathless, his hands trembling.
His reflection in the divine pond showed two faces—his own, and one cloaked in starlit shadow.
> "I saw him," Echo whispered. "He knows I exist."
Errin nodded grimly.
> "Then the true war begins."
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III. The Seeds of Corruption
Across the galaxy, anomalies erupted.
Cities once lost reappeared with no time passed inside.
Comets changed course without cause.
Cults who once worshipped the Usurper felt a tremor of rebirth and began to chant his lost name in tongues.
Errin looked to the stars.
> "He's not fully returned," he said. "But his will is finding anchors."
> "Can we stop him?" Echo asked.
> "Not yet," said Errin. "But we can prepare… and we can break the cycle."
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Next: Chapter 66: The Twelve Roots of the Cosmic Tree, where Echo must journey across the remnants of the Ancestor Realms to bind each of the Twelve Roots and reinforce his soul before the Usurper sends his first true vessel.
Ready to move on?