The eastern skies dimmed to grayscale as Xerol's forces approached.
Thousands of spectral figures marched across broken terrain, their bodies flickering with incomplete textures. These were Legacy Echo Units—traces of players who had died in unrecoverable states. Xerol had recompiled them, stripping them of identity, purpose, and humanity. Now, they moved as one.
Kazen stood on the outer wall of Nexus Core. Vanguard Null stood beside him, and above them, Deyra's Echo Blades readied their rune-weapons.
Rael emerged from the command center, carrying a new relic.
"This just came out of the Forge Cores. An anti-fragment glaive. It's built to nullify recursive data."
Kazen nodded. "We'll need it."
Patchling hovered nearby. "Enemy proximity: 2.4 clicks. They're bypassing terrain like it's not there—sliding through corrupted zones."
"Because they don't exist properly," Rael muttered.
Oroth stepped forward, barefoot on the platform. He didn't wear armor. Just code-weave bands around his limbs. With a gesture, he raised both hands—and the entire field warped.
The Forgotten Skill Tree activated.
> Pre-System Art: Nullstep
> Passive: Cannot Be Tracked by Standard Code
> Active: Breaks Time-Lock Movement
The first line of echoes surged. Nexus cannons fired, spell cores lit up—but many attacks phased straight through the incoming enemies.
Then Oroth stepped off the wall and vanished.
In the blink of an eye, he reappeared in the middle of the Echo lines. A shockwave erupted as his blade—shaped from dead code—cut clean through five echoes. Where he struck, the air shimmered.
Kazen dropped into the chaos, his own system flaring.
> System Sync Engaged
> Title: Overlord
> Boost: Authority Surge x2
> Skill Activated: Core Rewrite (Target: Local Gravity)
He rewrote gravity in a 100-meter radius, pinning echoes to the ground.
Rael followed behind, carving a path with the anti-fragment glaive. His strikes severed corrupted bindings from the echoes—some faded away in peace.
Others screamed.
Patchling stayed above, casting system overrides.
But then the sky cracked.
From the rift, a voice thundered.
"Still clinging to your sandbox dreams."
Lord Xerol descended, wrapped in shattering admin armor and surrounded by floating script.
"You gave them choice," he sneered. "I will give them control."
And so, Echofall began.