He emerged from echo. Not from earth. Not from sky. But from the fracture in time.
On a foggy morning, a young man stood in the center of the Carving Garden. No one recognized him. No one saw him arrive. But he knew every stone. He spoke names never taught. He touched the stone from the future—and it glowed.
"My name is Raka," he said. "I am a Satria from Season Seventeen."
Yohwa stood still. "Season Seventeen hasn't happened."
Raka smiled. "Not yet. But the echo has arrived."
Rava approached. She felt resonance from Raka's body. But it wasn't stable. It shifted with every word he spoke. As if he wasn't an echo from one region—but from many possibilities.
Numa tried reading his frequency. "He's not an echo," he said. "He's a reflection from a future not yet chosen."
Lonto asked, "Why have you come now?"
Raka looked at the mirror stone. "Because you've begun to open the door. And I am the voice that slipped through."
In the village, children began dreaming of Raka. But the versions they saw were different. Some saw him as a savior. Some as a traitor. Some as an echo that deceived.
Yohwa invited Raka to sit. "What do you remember?"
Raka replied, "I remember a garden in flames. I remember stones killing each other. I remember myself as a Satria who failed to protect the echo."
Rava asked, "Then why come here?"
Raka looked to the sky. "Because maybe, if I arrive early, the garden won't burn."
That night, Yohwa dreamed. He saw Raka standing in the garden, holding a stone never carved. It glowed—but the echo it released was from every version of the future—good and terrible.
He woke confused. The next morning, he stood before Raka. "You're not an echo. You're not a Satria. You're a question."
Raka smiled. "And a question doesn't need an answer. It only needs to be heard."
The Soul Eclipse approached. It didn't absorb. It didn't weep. It simply spun above Raka. And the echo from Season Seventeen began to resonate in Season Four.