Chapter 72 – The Astral Map
The city was still recovering.
Kael-X had vanished after collapsing the temporal loop, leaving only faint scorch marks and twisted air where the glyph once hovered. But elsewhere, in the shadowed sanctuary of Echo Spire, Maya and Elijah studied something even more dangerous than a weapon—knowledge.
Elijah leaned over the edge of the stone table, tapping through glowing layers of the projected map hovering above them.
"It's not just a map," he muttered. "It's a record… a cartography of shifting anomalies. Look at this—see this cluster?" He expanded a region glowing in pulsating gold and violet.
Maya narrowed her eyes. "Those are… echoes."
Elijah nodded slowly. "Every time Kael-X breaks the rules of time or reality, the Astral Map records the residue. But here's the thing—this cluster didn't come from Kael."
Maya froze. "What?"
He rotated the image. "This one's older. And it matches Void-signatures. Exactly like the ones tied to Veyron. Only... stronger. Older."
Maya stepped back, her thoughts racing. "You're saying there's someone—or something—out there beyond even the scope of Veyron's Void heritage?"
Elijah gave her a tired look. "I think Kael-X isn't the first. I think someone—maybe even a group—came before. And the Ouro-Core's obsession with him? It's not fear. It's recognition."
The room fell into silence, broken only by the humming of the map's light.
Suddenly, the stone door behind them creaked open. A small drone floated in, dropping a silver sphere onto the table before whirring away.
The sphere cracked open.
Inside it, a single shard of obsidian.
Elijah recognized it immediately. "Void mirror fragment."
Maya touched it gently—and her eyes widened with horror.
She saw Kael-X, standing before a throne made of living shadows. Around him were dozens of creatures, humanoid but not human. And on the throne—
A figure. Masked. Silent.
Holding Kael's heart in its palm like it was a memory it owned.
Maya snapped back, gasping.
"We're not just tracing anomalies anymore," she whispered. "We're walking into someone's design."
Elijah looked at the map again.
Lines shifted.
Symbols rearranged themselves.
At the center… Kael-X's name burned brighter than ever.
Maya paced the chamber restlessly. The vision from the obsidian shard haunted her—Kael-X, surrounded, heart in hand, yet unbroken. That wasn't just a possible future… it felt like a warning.
"Elijah," she said quietly, "how long have you been studying this?"
He glanced up from his datapad, eyes heavy with sleeplessness. "Since the Echo Spire activated after Kael's emergence. I didn't want to believe it at first, but... the signs were always pointing toward something older. A forgotten war. A silence in the timeline."
She turned back to the glowing Astral Map. "What about the others? Are any of the shadow beasts aware of this?"
Elijah frowned. "They're connected to it… deeply. Especially Veyron. He's not just Void-touched, Maya. I think he's a—"
A ripple passed through the map. Lines bent. New sigils bloomed in the air, one after another, spiraling toward the center.
"…a remnant," Elijah finished, stunned. "A remnant of whatever came before the timelines we know."
The room dimmed suddenly, as if the light itself was holding its breath.
A whisper filled the space—not with sound, but through thought. Maya and Elijah both turned toward the mirror fragment. It now pulsed slowly with Void energy, and a faint voice seeped into their minds.
"He is not the end. He is the awakening."
Maya stepped closer. "What did you say?"
The voice echoed once more, slower this time, like the rumbling of time itself folding inward.
"You walk in echoes. But he… he carries the original scream."
Then silence.
Elijah rubbed his forehead. "We need to find Kael. Now."
Maya nodded. "Not just to help him… but to stop what's coming. Or maybe... who."
Before they could react, the entire Astral Map flickered—and a new mark appeared.
A third force.
Not Ouro-Core.
Not Kael-X.
Something... ancient. Forgotten. Stirring.
Elijah's face went pale. "Maya… I think we're late."
She turned to him. "Then let's not waste another second."