Chapter 113 — "The One Who Should Not Merge"
1. Cael: The Breach Knows His Name
The resonance alarm wouldn't stop screaming.
Not out loud—no sirens, no klaxons, no blaring speakers—but inside Cael's Pulseband. Inside his bones. Inside the scar of memory the Breach had carved into him.
The silhouette of light and static hovered above the infirmary floor, glitching in and out of shape like a corrupted hologram struggling to imitate a living form. Pieces of it flickered between humanoid outlines and fractured geometric shards.
Its voice—if it could be called that—buzzed with a dissonant vibration.
Cael—CΔel—Ca—el—
The distortion stretched his name into broken pieces, like someone pulling at threads of existence.
Lyra stepped between Cael and the apparition without hesitation, stance low, hand hovering near her Pulseblade emitter.
"Identity yourself," she demanded.
The figure spasmed—once, twice—like the very act of existing was painful.
No… name…
Only… remainder…
Only… what was not erased…
Cael's breath hitched.
Lyra glanced back at him sharply. "You understand this thing?"
"No," Cael said. "But my Echo did."
The figure rippled, static crawling across its outline.
Echo. Yes.
Your other self.
Your fracture.
Your denial.
Your—merge—
Lyra snapped her arm forward. "Do not approach him."
But the being wasn't moving.
It was collapsing.
Folding inward. Distorting.
Like a resonance construct that had lost its stabilizing anchor.
Cael stepped forward before he recognized he'd moved.
"Stop—it's not attacking."
Lyra grabbed his wrist—hard, enough to stop him in place.
"Cael. It followed you out of the Breach. Nothing that crosses that threshold is harmless."
He looked into her eyes—still faintly glowing with resonance.
"I know. But it's… dying."
2. A Fragment of a Self That Shouldn't Exist
The being's body flickered faster, each glitch revealing pieces of a shape Cael couldn't fully track—an arm here, a mask there, ripples of armor that looked like they came from a design that never reached reality.
It was familiar.
Wrongly familiar.
A voice inside him whispered—
The voice of his Echo.
We were experimenting with forms. Identities. Paths we didn't take.
Not everything was erased.
Static surged.
Lyra pulled Cael back instinctively. "It's destabilizing!"
The being spasmed, its outline vibrating so violently the walls themselves hummed.
Cael steadied his breath.
"Look at me," he said quietly. "Focus on my voice."
The light-shards swiveled toward him.
Merge— the being crackled.
Fix… the incompletion… fill what was removed—
Cael shook his head. "I can't merge with you. I don't even know what you are."
The being flickered into coherence for one chilling second.
A face.
His face.
Or rather—
His Echo's face, distorted, broken, incomplete… but unmistakable.
Lyra inhaled sharply.
Cael's stomach dropped.
"…You're the parts they deleted," he whispered.
The being shuddered as if the words hit it physically.
Yes… deletion… erasure… un-person… un-self…
Left in the Breach… cut… cut… cut away—
Lyra's hand tightened on her Pulseblade. "Cael, step back now."
But Cael remained frozen, pulse hammering.
This wasn't an enemy.
It was an amputated memory, alive when it should not be.
The fragment reached toward him—not aggressively, but desperately.
You are incomplete.
I am incomplete.
We were one.
We must—
"No," Cael said firmly. "If we merge, you'll overwrite me. Or I'll overwrite you. Either way, one of us dies."
Lyra moved closer to Cael, positioning herself slightly ahead of him.
"You heard him," she said. "Back away."
The being distorted—
Strained—
Cracked—
And then—
Not merge…?
Then anchor.
Anchor to the other one.
The one tied to you.
The one your link chooses.
Lyra stiffened.
Cael's blood ran cold.
"Lyra—move!"
3. Lyra: A Resonance That Bites Back
The fragment lunged—not toward Cael, but toward her.
Lyra activated her Pulseblade in a flash of blue-white light. The blade carved a clean arc—
But it passed through the being as though slicing through vapor.
Static exploded around her.
Lyra stumbled back, catching herself on one knee, teeth clenched. The resonance surge felt like someone had reached directly into her Pulseband and twisted.
"Cael—don't let it touch me—!"
She tried to stand, but the fragment pressed closer, its form rippling around her like a glitch in gravity.
Anchor.
Stabilizer.
She holds the other half.
"What half?" Lyra gasped.
Cael dragged her backward, pulling her out of the distortion field. The moment their hands touched, the fragment recoiled violently, shrieking in broken resonance.
Two heartbeats… reject… interference… cannot overwrite…
Lyra breathed hard, every nerve trembling.
Cael kept her close—too close—one arm steadying her shoulder.
"You okay?" he said, voice low, urgent.
Lyra nodded, though her Pulseband still buzzed painfully. "It tried to use me as an anchor. Like I'm some kind of… stabilizing conduit."
Cael swallowed. "Because of our resonance link."
Her breath caught.
He wasn't wrong.
The fragment crackled again, its form dimming.
If you do not merge…
Then sever the link.
Break the tether.
Choose one self.
Kill the other.
Before the Breach decides for you.
The temperature dropped.
Lyra felt every hair on her arms rise.
"Cael," she whispered, "that's a threat."
"No." Cael exhaled sharply. "It's a warning."
The fragment flickered, shards collapsing inward.
Sky… breaks…
Breach… grows…
Two cannot exist…
Fate collapses on the plural…
Then it looked at Cael, voice fading.
Finish what was started…
Or everything… will echo… until it breaks…
And with a final, twisting flicker of light—
It vanished.
Gone.
No trace.
Only silence.
4. The Impossible Choice
The infirmary lights stabilized one by one.
The resonance alarms faded.
Lyra sat heavily in the nearest chair, hand pressed against her forehead. Cael leaned on the bed beside her, breathing hard, his Pulseband still flickering faintly.
She spoke first.
"…Cael. If that thing was telling the truth—"
"I know."
"Our link—"
"I know."
Lyra's voice softened, but the weight behind it grew heavier.
"If our resonance link is forcing the Breach to react… we might not be able to ignore it anymore."
Cael didn't answer.
Not immediately.
Instead, he slowly sat beside her, their shoulders brushing—just barely, but enough.
"Lyra," he said quietly, "breaking the link could mean losing what the Echo showed me. Losing you again."
Lyra stared down at her hands.
"But keeping it could destroy Zephyr."
They sat in silence—
Shoulders touching,
Pulsebands glowing faintly in sync,
Both breathing the same slow, heavy rhythm of people standing on the edge of an impossible choice.
The sky outside crackled with widening light.
And their Pulsebands pulsed together one more time—
Soft.
Inevitable.
Unmistakable.
As if reminding them that choice was coming soon.
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End of Chapter 113