The rift closed behind Yeon Jin with a gentle hiss like breath sucked from the lungs of a dying world. The silence he left in the Chamber of Silences felt distant now, replaced by dull echoes and flickers of torchlight ahead.
He blinked. The air was different. Cold, metallic. The walls around him curved upward into a dome, stitched from stone and glass that shimmered like memories. Inscribed into them were more of the Codex's sigils, shifting gently, whispering as if murmuring through time.
Footsteps approached.
Mi Rae emerged from the shadows, her coat slightly torn, the edge of her braid damp with blood and rain.
"You did better than most," she said, her tone quieter. "The mirror usually breaks them."
Jin stared.
"That... version of me. Was that really possible?"
"Only if you choose power without remembering who you are."
He touched the pendant, feeling it hum.
Mi Rae stepped closer, her expression unreadable.
"Now comes the real test."
She placed her hand on the wall. A hidden door slid open, revealing a massive hall — half cathedral, half command center. At its heart, a glowing map hovered in midair, displaying fractured regions marked in red and silver.
Jin frowned.
"What is this place?"
"This is our refuge. What's left of the Fractured Line."
Around the room, figures began to emerge cloaked warriors, engineers, children with glowing eyes. All of them watched Jin as if seeing something sacred... or dangerous.
A young soldier approached — his arm replaced by a mechanical graft that shimmered with Codex threads.
"Mi Rae. Is this the Eclipse Carrier?"
She nodded.
"Yes. And he's awake."
The Codex War Begins*
Mi Rae activated the map. Each blinking light represented a bearer — some dead, some scattered across the continent.
"The Entropy Council is hunting every fragment of the Codex," she explained. "Each bearer carries a memory. You... carry the nucleus."
Jin's pulse quickened.
"Why me?"
"Because your bloodline connects to the Origin Thread — the first Codex ever recorded."
She turned.
"And that makes you their greatest threat."
Jin paced, his mind flashing back to his mother's voice, the mirror, the seal breaking.
"Then teach me. Don't protect me — prepare me."
Mi Rae smiled faintly.
"Then come."
She led him deeper into the sanctuary.
Initiation of the Fractured Line*
In a chamber lit by bioluminescent crystals, Jin stood bare-chested, facing three elders of the Fractured Line. Each one touched the Codex relic embedded into a pedestal.
One by one, memories surged into his mind — not his own, but ancestral echoes:
- A desert battlefield where a woman turned sand into fire.
- A child whispering to machines buried beneath a ruined city.
- A man who tore the sky apart to silence a god.
Each one was a past bearer. Each one... had failed.
An elder stepped forward.
"The Codex chooses through suffering. But survival isn't enough. You must anchor it."
"Anchor?" Jin asked.
The elder placed a hand on his chest.
"Bind your pain. Name it. Own it. Only then will your thread stabilize."
Jin inhaled.
Images of his orphanage. The masked men. His mother's final breath.
He whispered:
"I am the silence after the scream. I am the echo of those forgotten."
The room pulsed.
Codex update: Anchor established. Fracture stabilized. Ability unlocked: "Echo Veil"
Vision of the Council
Suddenly, Jin collapsed.
Darkness surged around him.
He was pulled into a vision — a circular hall made of obsidian and light. Twelve figures stood in silence. Each wore a cloak of entropy — woven from fading stars and shattered memories.
One voice broke through:
"He is awake."
Another:
"The nucleus must be retrieved."
Then a final voice — colder than death:
"Let the Reclaimers rise. He will return to us... alive or shattered."
Jin awoke, gasping.
Mi Rae knelt beside him.
"The Council knows."
He gritted his teeth.
"Then let them come."