They emerged from the Underwalks through a jagged crevice that opened into the crumbling ruins of a long-forgotten neighborhood—streets bent sideways, lampposts rusted and half-sunk in pavement warped like melted wax. Everything shimmered faintly, like a dream fighting not to be forgotten.
Lira stepped forward, her face pale. "This place is not on any map."
Kade scanned the ruins. "No… it's my home."
He didn't know how he knew.
But he did.
Each cracked wall, each vine-choked sign, each broken toy half-buried in the dust screamed familiarity.
Lira moved carefully beside him. "This isn't real," she said. "It's a reconstruction. A memory loop. The Veil's trying to show you something."
"No," Kade said, swallowing. "It's trying to make me remember."
A faded street sign read: Virell Lane.
His surname.
His hands trembled.
"Do you think this place burned when the world fractured?" he asked, barely audible.
"No," Lira replied. "I think you burned it. Or were forced to."
Kade turned sharply. "What?"
Before she could answer, the ground shifted.
The sky turned black.
A scream echoed.
The world around them twisted—walls melted into shadow, and the street rearranged itself like a puzzle being undone. A child's laughter rang out, eerily distorted.
From the ruins rose a figure.
A boy—no older than ten—barefoot, eyes hollow, mouth stitched shut.
Carrying a lantern of flickering blue flame.
"What the hell?" Kade whispered.
Lira gripped his arm. "That's not a person. That's a Wisp Echo. A memory guardian, born when a soul fragments too violently."
The boy raised the lantern.
The shadows behind him came alive.
Three beasts emerged—canine shapes made of teeth and fog, each bound by ethereal chains, snarling silently.
Kade drew his obsidian knife. "Let me guess. Fight or forget?"
"No," the lantern-boy said, voice echoing despite the stitched lips. "Fight to remember. Or forget forever."
The beasts lunged.
Kade moved, calling on the new technique—Echo Step.
He flickered backward just before a beast's claw grazed his chest, appearing behind it and slashing across its spine. The knife bit deep, ripping through fog and forcing the thing to disperse in a howling wail.
Another lunged at Lira—she ducked and flung a vial from her pouch. A burst of green fire blinded the creature.
Kade took the chance—flicker, slash, vanish—and took down the second.
But the third was fast. Too fast.
It pinned him, jaws snapping an inch from his face.
Then—
A shout.
The lantern-boy moved.
Chains extended from the lantern, wrapping around the beast's neck—and ripping it apart.
Kade gasped as the boy approached, shadows trembling behind him.
The flame inside the lantern grew bright—and a scene formed in the air.
A memory.
A house on fire.
A woman screaming.
A man holding a blade to his own son.
Kade.
The boy in the memory had the same eyes as him—but younger. Innocent.
"Don't look—" Lira tried to pull him away.
But it was too late.
He remembered.
His father.
The man who tried to kill him.
The night the Ash Choir came for him—and he accidentally unleashed the first fragment of the Veil within him.
The fire didn't destroy his house.
Kade did.
"No—no, I didn't—" Kade backed away, gripping his head. "It wasn't me!"
The boy—his younger self—stared at him silently.
Then held out the lantern.
Inside the flame, something shimmered.
A shard of obsidian.
A piece of the knife.
Another fragment of memory.
Kade reached for it—
—and pain surged through him.
Visions. Blood. Screams. The night he chose to forget everything. To abandon his name. To die and rise as someone new.
Then calm.
The memory settled.
The shard fused with the knife, making the blade longer, darker. Glyphs appeared on its edge.
New ability unlocked: Lantern Grasp.
Kade can trap fragments of memories or enemies in flickering ether-flames, locking them inside objects for a short time.
He dropped to one knee.
Lira helped him up.
"You saw it all, didn't you?" she whispered.
"I killed my father," he said, hollow.
"No," she said. "You survived your father. There's a difference."
The world around them began to collapse. The memory faded.
The lantern-boy—his Echo—gave a final glance… and vanished.
---
Elsewhere...
The Archon stood at a grand table carved from living stone.
Around it sat the Seven Shattered, his inner circle.
"Two shards now," one hissed. "He moves faster than the others."
"He remembers too much," another murmured. "Shall we begin Collapse Protocol?"
"No," the Archon said.
He looked out the window at the city far below.
"We'll send her."
The others fell silent.
"You can't mean—"
"She knows him. Better than anyone."
---
Back beneath the city…
Kade and Lira stood in silence.
Ahead, a new tunnel opened, covered in ice.
And in the distance—
Footsteps.
Familiar.
"Someone's coming," Lira said.
Kade tensed. "Who?"
The figure emerged from the mist.
A girl, cloaked in frost-blue robes. White hair. Silver eyes.
Her aura made the air shiver.
"Kade," she said, smiling softly. "It's been a long time."
His breath caught.
He didn't know her.
But his soul did.
---
End of Chapter 14