The wind tore Kaelen's scream from his throat as he plummeted.
The rooftop vanished above him.
The Fragment's violet silhouette shrank to a distant star.
The world blurred into streaks of dark walls and broken windows.
Gravity took him.
Hard.
The ground rushed up like a fist.
Kaelen twisted instinctively, trying to protect his head but panic scrambled his limbs
the wind roared the drop was too fast
Brace for Null Shift.
The whisper cut through his fear like a needle of ice.
"What...what do I do?!"
Trust me.
He didn't have time to argue.
The impact hit
But instead of bone-shattering pain, Kaelen felt the world… fold.
A flash of black.
A hollow pop.
A sensation like dropping through silence, falling between two layers of reality.
Then
The fall stopped.
Kaelen hit the ground but softly, as if landing on a mattress of shadow.
He gasped, rolling to his knees, heart hammering inside his ribs.
"What—what just?"
Null Shift successful.
Host injury: minimal.
Stamina: critical.
Kaelen clutched his forehead.
Null Shift.
A way to cancel the impact?
To displace resonance at the moment of contact?
Or…
To momentarily remove himself from the world's vibration?
He didn't have time to process it.
A sound screeched from the rooftop above.
A sound that didn't belong in mortal air.
The Fragment was descending.
Kaelen staggered back, boots slipping on loose gravel.
"No, no, no—damn it"
He darted into the nearest alley, lungs burning, legs trembling violently.
Broken crates littered the ground. Pipes hissed steam. The district smelled of rust and abandonment.
He ran.
He didn't know where.
He didn't know for how long.
Only that he had to put space between himself and
VWOOM.
A flash of violet tore down from above, slamming into the cobblestones meters behind him, blowing up a storm of shards.
Kaelen stumbled, nearly falling.
The Fragment emerged through the dust—
floating, unharmed, unbothered.
"ESCAPE RATE: 0%.
CONTINUING TERMINATION."
Kaelen's breath hitched.
"Why me?!" he shouted, voice raw.
The Fragment paused mid-air.
"BECAUSE YOU CARRY WHAT SHE FEARED."
"BECAUSE YOU ARE WHAT SHE FAILED TO END."
Kaelen's pulse spiked.
He backed into a corner a crumbling stone wall blocking his path, alley narrow, nowhere left to run.
The Fragment hovered closer arm raising
resonance gathering like a violet star forming between its palms.
Kaelen felt the heat of inevitability.
He was going to die.
Tonight.
Alone.
Unknown.
Erased for something he didn't understand.
His vision blurred.
His stomach dropped.
His knees threatened to give until
A shield of shimmering blue slammed down from above like a meteor.
It struck the Fragment's attack head on
BOOM
The explosion shook the alley, collapsing parts of the buildings.
Dust swarmed the air.
And from the smoke
Raina emerged.
Bleeding.
Limping.
But alive.
Her left arm hung twisted, armor cracked, Echo circuits flickering.
One eye swollen.
Blood ran down her temple.
But her shield Echo was still active.
Barely.
She planted herself between Kaelen and the Fragment.
"You want him?" she rasped, coughing blood.
"Then you go through me."
Kaelen's eyes widened.
"Raina you're injured"
"Stay back," she growled.
"You move, you distract me, and we both die."
The Fragment hovered before them, evaluating.
"FEMALE RESONANCE: DEGRADED."
"OBSTRUCTION: MINOR."
Raina spat blood into the dirt. "Come closer and find out."
The Fragment raised its arm
But something was different now.
Its movements were slower.
Less fluid.
Its edges flickered, violet shards glitching around its limbs.
Kaelen squinted. "It's… weakening?"
Raina didn't look away from the enemy. "Fragments can't maintain form long. But long enough to kill us."
The Fragment extended both palms.
"PRIMARY RESONANCE: OVERLOAD."
An orb of concentrated violet compressed in front of it an attack ten times stronger than anything it'd used before.
Raina's voice cracked. "Kaelen… run."
"I'm not leaving you."
She snarled, "This isn't romantic loyalty this is death! GO!"
Kaelen shook his head fiercely. "I can help"
"You?!"
She almost laughed.
"You can barely stand! You're drained! You're"
The ground vibrated violently.
The Fragment released the orb.
Raina screamed and threw up her shield.
BOOOOOOOOM
The explosion lit the night like lightning.
A wave of force tore the alley apart, hurling Kaelen backward.
He hit the ground hard, tumbling across broken stone.
He choked, coughing dust.
The world rang.
His ears buzzed.
Slowly...achingly. He pushed himself up.
His vision swam.
His lungs burned.
"R…Raina…?"
He saw her on one knee, shield shattered, armor cracked almost in half.
Her Echo sputtered like a dying flame.
She looked up at him.
Her expression fierce.
Then soft.
And Kaelen felt it.
A ripple.
A vibration unlike any other.
Not from the Fragment.
Not from the Echo.
From her.
Something in her chest flickered a resonance he had never sensed before.
Not power.
Not Echo light.
Something… deeper.
A willingness.
A choice.
A willingness to die. She is willing to die for you.
The gauntlet whispered with a trembling hum he'd never heard.
This is the threshold.
The spark.
The precursor.
Ultimate Resonance: unstable.
Incomplete.
Fragile."
Kaelen's heart stopped.
"Raina—don't"
But it was too late.
Her body leaned forward instinctively, without hesitation arms outstretched ready to shield him.
To die for him.
The Fragment sensed it too.
It reacted instantly.
"FORBIDDEN RESONANCE DETECTED."
"IMMEDIATE TERMINATION REQUIRED."
Its form surged with violent spikes of violet energy.
Kaelen screamed, "STOP!"
He lunged forward but his legs collapsed under him.
Too weak.
Too slow.
Too late.
The Fragment's hand pulled back for a killing strike aimed directly at Raina's heart.
The gauntlet's rings spun violently, faster than ever.
Kaelen felt a surge of power rise in his arm
wild unstable overwhelming Trigger.
Trigger, Kaelen. TRIGGER IT
He slammed his palm against the ground.
A shockwave of Null tore outward
But he was too drained.
The impact fizzled halfway.
The wave collapsed.
Raina whispered one word to him without looking back
"…Live."
And the Fragment's killing blow fell
CRACK
It pierced her shield.
It pierced her armor.
It pierced
The world froze.
Kaelen's breath stopped.
Raina's body convulsed.
Her eyes widened not in fear but in something else entirely.
Acceptance.
And Kaelen's vision went black at the edges.
Something in his chest tore open.
A scream rose inside him not aloud but along resonance lines.
A scream of instinct.
A scream of defiance.
A scream of something ancient, buried in his blood.
The gauntlet exploded with black light.
HOST RESONANCE UNSTABLE.
ULTIMATE TRIGGER ATTEMPTING.
FAILURE LIKELY.
Kaelen didn't care.
He reached toward Raina.
He reached with everything left in his soul.
"RAINA—!!"
The Fragment twisted its arm, driving the strike deeper and Raina's blood hit the ground.
Everything went silent.