The scream of the sky hadn't ended.
It twisted like a blade, echoing across the ruins as black sand howled through the air.The cracked sun bled shadows over the broken bridge where Zareth stood—alive again.Alone again.And worse... awake.
Beneath the glass dunes, the beast stirred.
He could hear it.The weight of memory pressed into his bones like a second skeleton.The system whispered beneath his skin.
[Loop Count: 2][Sacrificial Path Bound][Instinct Surge: Active][Loop Echo Retained: First Death—Pain, Blood, Defiance]
He didn't flinch.
This time, he didn't wonder what was happening.This time, he knew what was coming.
A rumble split the sand.Then claws, too many.Eyes that didn't blink.A body that shouldn't exist.
The monster emerged in full—lurching, screaming, alive with mouths that remembered him.
Zareth... Zareth... Zareth...
He raised the broken blade.
The bridge behind him still led nowhere.The abyss still waited, endless.And his brother…His brother's voice was still gone.
But Zareth didn't tremble.
He stepped forward.
Not a child running from death—but a curse learning to wear its name.
[Loop Echo Triggered]
Muscle Memory: ActivatedPredicted Movement Pattern: 27% Accuracy
He moved.
The monster lunged—screaming open with five jaws—and Zareth dropped low, blade flashing across its limb.A gash tore through flesh. Vapor hissed from the wound.
[Pain Link Registered]
Target Reactivity: ConfirmedHostile Consciousness: Bound to LoopDesignation: "The Hollow Choir"
A dozen mouths opened across the monster's skin—and began to sing.
Not sound. Not voice.But a pull.
Zareth's thoughts fractured. His vision blurred.Memories he didn't own clawed into his head—a girl screaming in a garden of eyesa tower swallowing its own shadowa hand reaching through glass, begging to be killed
He fell to one knee, clutching his skull.
The system roared against the pressure.
[Loop Interference Detected]
Warning: Entity is attempting to overwrite your death pathSolution: Counter with Sacrifice
Zareth's lip bled.He didn't care.
He took the blade—and drove it into his own hand.
Blood hit the stones.Pain screamed through him—real, anchoring, his.
[Sacrifice Registered]
Path ReassertedEcho Stabilized
The monster howled in rage.Its song cracked.
Zareth stood.
The blood from his wound dripped into the sand—and the sand drank it.
A circle of red glass bloomed beneath him.
The system paused.
[Unusual Reaction Detected]
Blood-bound loop imprint forming…Resonance with Forgotten Legacy: 1%
He didn't understand.Didn't need to.
The monster charged again.
He met it halfway—not with strength, but with memory.
A twist to the side. A feint. A slash aimed not for flesh—but for where the pain had been before.
[Critical Strike]
Wound Reopened from Loop 1Pain Multiplier Applied
The beast shrieked, stumbling.Its limbs spasmed, vision faltered.
Zareth's eyes gleamed.
He whispered, "You're not the only one that remembers."
[Loop Bonus: Psychological Resistance I – Gained]
You are learning to defy the things that live in screams.
Suddenly—a shadow fell.
Not from the sky.From above it.
He looked up.
The black sun cracked again—this time with silence.Not a scream.Not a sound.A void.
And in that silence… something looked back.
[Attention Acquired]
Ancient Observer DetectedTier: UnquantifiableDesignation: ✦ The Wound That Watches ✦Interest: "Zareth of the Echo Loop"
The air trembled.
The monster froze, as if sensing something it couldn't face.
And in that frozen instant, the system shifted:
[Loop Title Unlocked]
You are now known as…[The Hollow Heir]Bearer of memory, blood, and recursion
Zareth felt it.
A weight behind his name.
A curse turned crown.
But before he could move—the monster moved first.
It leapt.
It sang.
It burned.
Zareth screamed.
And this time… the world screamed with him.
Everything vanished.
Far away, in a place between timelines,the tower that bled time shifted again.
The old man stared into the threads of fate, fingers trembling.
He whispered to no one, "Two loops, and already he dares the Wound..."
Behind him, the world map twisted.One more kingdom faded to ash.
[Next: Chapter 3 – The Crown That Bleeds]He has died twice. But he has never been alone.