The night after the greenhouse incident, campus buzzed with rumors. Broken glass, scorched soil, and whispers of a fight no one could fully explain — yet the administration said nothing. No investigation. No alerts. Just... silence.
Ronan sat in his room, blinds closed, lights off, fingers hovering above the system menu. The girl in silver — the Echo Diver — haunted his thoughts.
She had power. Controlled, refined. But more importantly, *freedom*. She wasn't bound by the same limitations the Circle enforced on their marked members. She moved like someone who had walked through fire and remembered the heat.
Ronan's system pulsed again.
*[Status Update: Anchor Agent – Inactive]*
*[New Directive: Investigate Echo Diver Presence]*
He leaned back in his chair. "You're giving me missions now?"
The system didn't respond — not in words, anyway.
Then something unusual happened.
*[Unlocked: Passive Upgrade Path – Echo Threading Lv. 1]*
*[Ability: Begin sensing temporal disruptions left behind by divergent system users.]*
*Temporal disruptions?* That meant people like her — the Diver — left energy trails different from the Circle. It wouldn't just let him trace them. It might eventually let him understand *why* they broke away.
---
By morning, Ronan had made his decision. He couldn't sit and wait anymore. The Circle was hunting. The Diver had shown herself. And whatever line he'd been walking before was long gone.
Lyra met him near the old archives again. She carried her sketchpad — not for drawing this time, but to map what Ronan described to her from his system's scan history.
"You think this girl... the Diver... you think she's on our side?" she asked.
"I don't think she's on *anyone's* side," Ronan replied. "But that doesn't mean she's the enemy."
They traced energy signals across the northern side of campus — the quiet part, near the old art building. Ronan stopped as his system pulsed again.
*[Temporal Echo Detected – Strength: Medium]*
*[Location: Rooftop Access, Building C]*
He led the way, pushing through an old stairwell door that groaned with rust. At the top, the rooftop was empty — flat, wind-brushed, and silent. But Echo Sense showed them what normal eyes could not.
A trail. Faint steps in violet-blue energy, circling the rooftop before vanishing at the edge.
"She was here," Ronan muttered. "Watching."
"Watching what?"
He turned, following her path visually, and stopped when he saw what she must've seen: the center of the campus. The library. The Clock Tower. The Circle's likely base of operations hidden beneath layers of normality.
"She's watching *them.* Just like us."
Lyra frowned. "So, we follow her trail?"
Ronan nodded, but before they could move—
*[ALERT: Unknown Energy Spike Detected Nearby]*
A sudden surge of red light erupted from the alleyway below.
They ran.
---
Down the stairs. Across the quad. Into the alley.
There, three students stood surrounding another — a new freshman, trembling, his eyes half-glazed. Ronan recognized the signs instantly. Another Anchor transfer was about to begin.
The lead figure turned.
Not Tami. Not anyone he recognized.
But definitely Circle.
Lyra stepped back. "There's too many this time."
Ronan activated *Disruption* again. The energy blasted forward — but this time, one of the attackers raised a shield.
*[Counter-Field Detected – Rank C Sigil Variant]*
They were adapting.
The girl leading the attack smiled.
"So you're the ghost in the system," she said. "You're messing things up for everyone."
Ronan didn't answer. He scanned for the weakest of the three and charged.
The fight was fast, dirty, and nothing like his old training simulations.
One attacker tried binding him with a sigil chain — but Lyra swung a broken pipe, cracking it apart before it reached him. Ronan struck the second directly with a wave of energy, sending him into the alley wall. The third, the girl, grinned wider.
"You don't get it," she said, stepping closer. "You're not saving anyone. You're *interrupting progress.*"
Then something pulsed above them.
A ripple in the air — violet again.
The Diver was watching.
The girl felt it too and hesitated.
That was all Ronan needed.
He pushed his palm forward and activated *Disruption Lv. 2* — the upgraded version.
A focused burst. A concentrated impact.
The girl screamed as her sigil shattered. The red light around her died.
The battle was over.
---
Afterward, Ronan and Lyra helped the shaken freshman sit up.
"You'll be okay," Lyra said gently. "You weren't fully linked yet."
"Who *were* they?" the boy asked weakly.
Ronan exchanged a glance with Lyra.
"No one you need to remember," he said. "Just rest."
---
Later that night, the system rewarded him.
*[Anchor Disruption Completed – +120 EXP]*
*[New Passive Unlocked: Sigil Immunity Lv. 1 (30% resistance to anchor-based control)]*
*[Echo Threading – Rank Up → Lv. 2]*
But more importantly, another message appeared.
Not from the system.
From the Diver.
*"You're close to understanding. But close is not safe. They're calling for something stronger. Prepare yourself, Ronan."*
Then a final line:
*"When the Circle begins *the calling,* even those with systems may fall."*
---
He didn't sleep that night.
Not out of fear, but from planning.
Because if the Circle was preparing something called *the calling*, then time was running out.
He wasn't the anomaly anymore.
He was the target.
---