The city smelled of rust, smoke, and decay. Broken neon flickered over streets littered with shattered glass and abandoned mech shells, casting long shadows that twisted like living things. Kael Ardyn pulled his tattered coat tighter around his thin frame, the wind biting through him like a hungry animal. Life here was a constant scavenger's fight, and tonight promised no exceptions.
The rooftops had been quiet, empty, but the alleyways told another story. Factions of Echo users—blood cults, mech guilds, and shadow-wielders—stalked the streets, hunting scraps of power, relics left behind from a cycle long forgotten. Kael had learned to stay invisible, moving through their chaos like a shadow, unseen yet aware.
He crouched on the edge of a collapsed building, peering into the ruins below. The city's underground had swallowed countless secrets over the decades, forgotten tunnels that twisted like veins beneath the dying metropolis. It was here that Kael made his living—salvaging pieces of the old world, pieces that might fetch a few credits, or sometimes something far more dangerous.
Tonight, something felt different. The air was heavy, electric, humming with a resonance he couldn't place. Kael frowned, scanning the darkness. A faint red glow pulsed from deep within the rubble, uneven but deliberate. His heartbeat quickened. Relics were rare, but ones that glowed like this were nearly mythical.
He slid down the crumbling wall, landing lightly in the rubble-strewn alley. The glow grew brighter as he neared an overturned concrete slab. And there it was: a coffin-like machine, partially buried, pulsing with blood-red veins of light crisscrossing silver metal. The air around it seemed to thrum in harmony with Kael's heartbeat, as if the relic had been waiting just for him.
Kael reached out instinctively, fingers brushing the cold metal. The moment his skin made contact, a jolt shot through him—a resonance that seemed to pierce his very soul. Images flashed behind his eyelids: endless skies of blood and steel, cities consumed by fire, voices whispering in languages he had never known. His chest tightened; he gasped.
"Impossible…" he muttered. Echoes were meant to choose their users. One per soul. And yet, this coffin… it called to him in a way that defied every law he had ever known.
A low hum grew into a roar, vibrating through the ground, the walls, the air itself. Kael staggered back as the veins of light wrapped around his wrist, his arm, and then his entire body. His vision blurred; reality seemed to fold inward, a twisting kaleidoscope of crimson and silver.
And then, silence.
Kael collapsed onto the rubble, chest heaving. The glow dimmed, retreating into the relic as if it had never been there. He rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of the storm inside his mind. That's when he noticed it—the first mark. A faint, silver sigil on his palm, intricate and alien, pulsating faintly as if alive.
His mind raced. An Echo Core… it shouldn't have been possible. Not one, but two distinct resonances intertwined within him. He could feel them, whispering, tugging at his consciousness in strange, conflicting directions. One was warm, like blood running through his veins—raw, predatory, hungry. The other was cold, precise, mechanical, calculating.
Kael's fingers flexed, and instinctively, the sigils glowed. The warmth pulsed outward, a subtle heartbeat, while the cold lines shimmered, forming geometric patterns that hovered above his skin. He could feel them testing each other, negotiating control.
"What… what are you?" he whispered, voice trembling. The echoes didn't answer, not in words, but in visions. Memories not his own flickered—blood-stained corridors, collapsing towers, machines that moved as if alive, spectral figures watching from the shadows.
The city's wind howled, carrying the distant screams of scavengers and Echo users alike. Kael forced himself to stand. If he fell here, alone, with this power awakening inside him, it might consume him before he even had a chance. But something deep inside—the faint ember of defiance, of curiosity—told him he couldn't run.
He lifted his eyes to the night sky. The stars were hidden behind a thick veil of smoke and neon haze, but beyond the city, something waited. Something ancient. And for the first time in his life, Kael felt he was part of something far larger than himself. Something dangerous. Something… extraordinary.
A sound echoed from the ruins—a low, metallic screech, like gears grinding against bone. Kael's heart raced. Whatever had been drawn to the relic had noticed him. And in the shadows, he could see the faint outline of movement. A figure, cloaked, silent, watching.
Kael clenched his fists. The dual Echoes inside him pulsed in response, synchronizing like a heartbeat with the impending threat. Warm blood and cold steel intertwined, urging him forward, whispering possibilities he had never imagined.
"Let's see… what you've got," he muttered under his breath, a smile cracking his lips despite the fear gnawing at his chest.
The first battle of his life—or perhaps the first step toward something far more terrifying—was about to begin.
And the city, indifferent and decaying, waited to see if he would survive.