Rizal's Echo lingered.
Even as the vision faded from Sam's mind, the residue of what he had seen remained—like ink smeared across the inside of his skull.
He saw things that hadn't happened yet. Felt the heartbeat of truths that hadn't been spoken. His thoughts were no longer his alone.
The Mind Seer Vein had awakened.
And it whispered of things buried deep: revolution unfulfilled, spirits unanchored, and enemies hidden in plain sight.
Location: The Mirror Sanctum, beneath the ruins of Old Escolta
"How ironic," said a voice behind a fractured obsidian mask, "that the nation's greatest thinkers are now its most dangerous anomalies."
Six figures stood in a circle of cracked resonance crystals. Cloaked. Masked. Each represented a forgotten ideology, a suppressed doctrine, or a twisted ideal.
They were the Shadow Court—the true architects behind the Rift manipulations. Unseen. Unnamed. Unshackled from time.
And in the center stood the Masked Girl—young, pale, eyes glowing with unnatural cerulean light. She didn't speak much. She didn't need to. Her very presence bent the energy around her.
She was their weapon. Their oracle. Their doorway.
But something had shifted.
"He's begun contact with the La Liga node," one Court member said. "Rizal has breached the memory threshold."
The Masked Girl tilted her head, her lips barely parting. "He dreams in mirrors now… but he hasn't drowned."
Another Court member—the one known only as Archivist No. 3—tapped a gloved finger against an ancient map.
"Our Rift-Seeds in Pampanga and Samar are ready. If he activates the Mind Seer fully, he'll uncover the Source Layer."
The first responded: "Then we bury him under it."
Location: New Intramuros HQ, Nightfall
Sam stood on the rooftop, wind brushing against his cheeks. In one hand, he held a fragment of Rizal's projection—etched into crystal like a neural seed. In the other… doubt.
Rael joined him, silent for a moment.
"You saw something, didn't you?"
"I saw them," Sam said. "People who don't just use the Rifts… they shape them. People who erase truth, rewrite it. They're building a new order. And we're not just fighting monsters anymore."
Rael's jaw tightened. "We never were."
Sam glanced at the stars, recalling Rizal's voice:
"If they fear your thoughts, they will try to silence your existence."
He turned to Rael.
"We need to find the La Liga fragments. If I'm going to stop them… I need to remember everything."
Back in the Mirror Sanctum…
The Shadow Court prepared their next move.
The Masked Girl—her name never spoken—opened her palm. A Rift Seed bloomed in mid-air like a black lotus, humming with unfiltered resonance.
"Let him see," she whispered. "Let him hear the screams of memory."
And as her voice echoed, a new Rift cracked open above Old Manila.
Not like the others.
This one screamed truth—warped, twisted, corrupted.
It was a Rift of memory.
And Sam was already walking toward it.