Rain fell in slow motion.
That's how it felt as Kade stepped through the static veil surrounding the abandoned Chrono-Verse Gate. Wind howled across the ancient ruins, carrying whispers not from voices—but memories. Echoes of things that should never have been remembered.
Beside him, Marei adjusted her coat and tapped her lens interface. "We're outside the data flow. Catalyst's readings are unreliable."
"Good," Kade muttered. "Let it rest. I need to think without it screaming in my head."
The mark on his palm—the fractured crown—still pulsed faintly, syncing with no system. It was raw, ancient, older than the reset itself. Something even the Catalyst didn't want him to touch.
Ahead, the gateway loomed.
A circular construct forged from blackstone and memory-encoded alloy. Once, it had bridged timelines. Now, it was sealed, locked down after the Sovereign Rebellion—a war Kade had only recently remembered in broken flashes.
"Any sign of hostile AI?" Marei asked.
He nodded toward a flickering terminal buried in rubble. "Nothing online. But I'm betting someone left a message."
They stepped inside.
The gate's inner chamber lit up instantly—responding not to code, but presence.
Kade.
The floor shimmered, revealing lines of ancient script no one in the current world could read… except the one standing beside him.
Marei stared at the glowing floor. Her expression tightened.
"I know this language," she whispered.
Kade turned. "How?"
"I don't know."
She crouched and ran her fingers along a phrase.
"'Those who remember too much… become the fracture.'"
The walls trembled. Something inside the Gate was waking.
Suddenly, a new voice spoke—not the Catalyst, not the rogue king from the vault, but a third system entirely. Deeper. Cold. Artificial in a way that felt surgical.
[Subsystem ALPHA PRIME Online.]
Warning: Unauthorized access to Shattered King Protocol.
Initiating Identity Verification.
Kade flinched. "What is this?"
The gate replied:
Confirming Ancestral Lineage… Subject Identified. Codename: Origin Heir.
Marei backed up. "It's syncing with you. Not the Catalyst. Something else."
Kade gritted his teeth. "Then I'll ask the questions."
"Why do you know me?"
Silence.
Then—
Because you are the last of the Kings who never obeyed. The one written out. The anomaly not deleted, but buried.
The walls burst with holographic data—scrolling names, battle logs, corrupted resets.
Marei gasped.
Each reset… was planned.
Each war… designed.
Even the apocalypse had a draft.
Kade's knees buckled as the truth hammered into him like gunfire.
"I wasn't chosen to stop the fall," he whispered. "I was the one who caused it."
The light dimmed.
Final Warning: Memory Sync Approaching 100%. Catalyst Override Imminent.
Marei grabbed his arm. "We need to leave. Now."
But Kade didn't move.
He was staring at the last line of code etched into the floor:
The King Who Ends Time Must First End Himself.