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Chapter 12 - False core

I stepped forward, one boot crunching over glass and old bones. The chamber curved like a broken dome, its ceiling laced with glowing red veins. Arlen stayed close, his crossbow raised, but even he couldn't hide the tremor in his breathing.

The air shimmered. Something slithered behind the walls.

[System Alert]

False Core proximity: 22 meters

Warning: Core is mimicking organic life

Mental Interference: 14%

Mental interference? Great.

I clenched my jaw. The whispering started again. The same low murmur I'd heard in the hospital, back when I first survived the Gate that was supposed to kill me.

Only this time, the words made sense.

"Descendant of Ash. You are not ready."

"What the hell?" I spun around. "Did you hear that?"

Arlen shook his head, pale. "Hear what?"

Of course not. Just me again.

I pushed forward, sword drawn — still chipped from the last mission. The Echo stirred inside my ribs, hot and hungry. Something about this Rift wasn't just calling to it… it was trying to wake it up.

That's when the wall split open.

Literally — like a wound tearing through meat and shadow. And from it crawled something I can only describe as a lie made flesh.

It looked human. Sort of. Female, tall, graceful — but her eyes were hollow voids, and her limbs bent at wrong angles. Her voice echoed not from her mouth, but from the space behind my ears.

"You brought a child of blood into my house? Fool."

Arlen fired.

The bolt hit square in the chest.

She didn't flinch.

Her hand blurred.

Arlen flew.

I shouted, lunging forward — blade slashing through the air — and hit her neck with everything I had.

She caught it between two fingers.

And smiled.

That smile triggered something. Something feral. Something buried.

[Shadow Echo Detected]

Binding Level: 22%

Condition Met: Protective Instinct

Initiating Shadow Echo Projection…

Black fire exploded from my back.

The world slowed. The Echo burst out — tall, jagged, faceless — like a knight forged from screaming shadows. It roared, a silent sound that shook the glass dome.

And then it attacked.

Not controlled by me — not fully. It fought on instinct. My instinct.

My rage.

The creature shrieked as the Echo slammed into her, blade of void-light flashing like thunder in reverse. She clawed at it — tore off its arm — but it grew another, blacker than the last.

Arlen coughed somewhere behind me.

I grabbed him, dragging him to cover behind a melted statue. "You still with me?"

"Yeah… remind me to never piss you off."

"Noted."

The Battle

The Echo fought like it had done this before — like it had danced this dance a thousand times in some lost war I couldn't remember.

But the woman — the False Core — was adapting.

Her body shifted. Grew spines. Her arms elongated. She screamed — and the chamber screamed with her.

Glass shattered. The dome began to collapse.

I couldn't keep up.

My knees hit the floor. Blood from my nose. My ears. My mouth.

Warning: Shadow Echo Overexertion.

Collapse Imminent.

Shutdown Recommended.

"No."

I wasn't done.

I bit my tongue — hard — to stay conscious. Grabbed a shard of my own broken blade and drove it into my palm.

Pain. Real pain.

The Echo flickered — and looked at me.

It looked at me.

And nodded.

Then it wrapped itself around the False Core — like a cage of night — and dragged her into the abyss it had come from.

Gone.

Silence.

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