The sea lost its color long before they reached the reef.
Where once the Shifting Sea had glowed with mirrored hues of pearl and gold, the waters beneath Ashara's small vessel now rippled in bruised, stagnant greys. It wasn't storm that painted the waves this way—but time itself, fractured.
Each hour passed differently.
The stars above drifted without rhythm, flickering in and out of alignment. The sun, when it rose, bled silver instead of light. And the sky, when she stared long enough, bent in spirals she couldn't explain.
"Feels like we're floating inside someone's dream," Caelum muttered, adjusting the sail.
Ezekiel stood at the prow, quiet and tense. "It's worse. This is where forgotten time collects. The remnants of spells cast centuries ago. Broken pacts. Lost hours. Failed rituals."
Ashara held the Heart of Echoes tightly beneath her cloak. Its pulse had been steady since they left the Deep Bloom.
Now, it beat erratically—like it knew what was waiting ahead.
System Update:
✦ Region: Reef of Broken Time
➤ Temporal Instability: 76%
➤ Memory Distortion Active
✦ Anchor Thread Detected – Cycle 4
➤ Name: Malach
Her breath hitched.
Malach.
The name returned like a blade sliding between her ribs.
In her fourth life, she had been not an empress—but a soldier.
A commander.
And Malach had been her second. Her most loyal. Her shadow in every battle, her shield in every court.
She had died in that cycle too. But not by enemy hand.
She ordered the retreat.
He stayed behind to buy her time.
She never returned.
The grief had consumed her.
So had the guilt.
She'd never been sure what hurt worse: his betrayal for not obeying her final command, or her own for leaving him behind to die.
And now—
System Notice:
✦ Echo Presence: Malach
➤ Status: Unstable | Echo-Bound
➤ Affinity: Fractured | Hostile
"He's here," she murmured. "Malach."
Caelum's brow furrowed. "From your last life?"
"No. From the one before that."
Ezekiel turned slightly, voice rough. "The one you don't talk about."
"There's a reason for that."
They reached the reef at twilight—or what passed for it in a sky that spiraled with stars one moment and devoured them the next.
The ship scraped against something invisible.
Beneath the waves, skeletal structures rose—crimson coral and blackened stone, half-formed towers swallowed by seaweed and memory.
Ashara stepped off the boat and into shallow water that shimmered like broken glass.
Each ripple echoed with voices.
Cries.
Laughter.
Whispers in a language only her bones remembered.
At the center of the reef stood a monolith, cracked and jagged. Etched into its face was a sigil—her fourth cycle's mark. A twin-pronged crown pierced by a falling star.
Caelum drew his blade.
Ezekiel's eyes narrowed. "He's close."
Then the coral screamed.
He rose from the reef like a revenant—no longer a man, but something hollowed by time and anchored by pain.
Malach's body shimmered with ethereal scars, his armor cracked and fused with shards of ancient coral. His once-human eyes were voids of silver light, and a crimson sigil burned over his heart.
"Selara."
The name slammed into her.
Not Ashara. Not Selene. Selara.
That had been her name in Cycle Four.
"Malach," she said softly. "You should be dead."
"I was." His voice was distorted—layered with something not entirely human. "But you left a mark on me. One that the gods could not erase."
"You disobeyed my final order," she said, trembling. "You were meant to retreat."
"And you were meant to come back," he hissed. "But you never did. You left me in the reef to burn."
The water boiled around him.
System Alert:
✦ Echo Fragment Battle Imminent
➤ Malach – Cycle 4 Shadow Echo
➤ Abilities: Coral Bind, Memory Lash, Echo Reversal
✦ Optional Objective: Cleanse Echo
➤ Risk: Memory Drain (Moderate)
➤ Reward: Anchor Recovery + Skill Unlock
✦ Optional Objective: Destroy Echo
➤ Risk: Severe Loyalty Penalty
➤ Reward: Sigil Core (Rare)
"Don't," Ashara said, stepping forward, hands raised.
"I begged the gods to erase you," Malach whispered. "They couldn't. You're carved into my soul like fire into stone."
Ezekiel growled. "We can end this now—"
"No," Ashara said. "I'm the one who abandoned him. I'll face this."
Malach moved with unnatural speed, blade formed of coral and broken vows. He struck toward her, and Ashara barely parried, her dagger humming with the Heart's resonance.
Skill Triggered: Echo Reversal
➤ Mirrored Malach's strike
➤ Counter Success
The blow threw him back, and for a heartbeat, his eyes flickered.
"I trusted you," he said, voice trembling.
"I loved you," she said.
Lightning cracked the sky above.
System Notice:
✦ Emotional Resonance Detected
➤ Echo Stability Dropping
➤ Chance of Redemption: 27%
Malach clutched his head, screaming.
Ezekiel shouted, "Ashara—he's breaking!"
But Ashara saw what the system couldn't.
She stepped forward, ignoring the danger, and pressed a hand to Malach's chest.
"You deserved peace," she whispered. "You deserved better than me."
Skill Unlocked: Memory Severance
✦ Ashara may sever a hostile echo's link to divine anchors
✦ Risk: 12% memory bleed
✦ Proceed? ➤ [Yes]
She closed her eyes.
And let go.
Malach collapsed with a strangled cry.
His coral armor cracked.
The reef pulsed.
And the sigil stone behind him split—revealing a glowing fragment within, shaped like a dagger made of blue fire.
System Update:
✦ Echo Cleansed
✦ Anchor Fragment Recovered – Cycle 4
➤ New Skill: Coral Bind (Snare enemy in place for 3 sec | Cooldown: 30 sec)
✦ Memory Drain: Minimal
✦ Loyalty Shift:
➤ Caelum – [Resonance: Protective Conflict]
➤ Ezekiel – [Loyalty: Strengthened – "Steadfast"]
Ashara knelt beside Malach's body, now still.
"I'm sorry," she said one last time.
That night, they made camp atop a high reef ledge. The sky above settled into an eerie quiet—no wind, no stars. Just the sound of breathing and waves that didn't move.
Ashara sat beside the dying embers of their fire.
Ezekiel approached, silent.
"You spared him," he said finally.
"I owed him that," she replied.
Caelum watched them from across the fire, expression unreadable.
Ashara's gaze lifted to the black ocean beyond.
"One more anchor," she whispered. "And still so far to fall.