The Harbinger hit the rooftop like a meteor.
Concrete shattered. Steel bent inward. A shockwave rippled across the skyline, scattering debris like sparks from a forge. Aiden slid backward across the roof tiles, digging shadow-fangs into the ground to anchor himself before the force sent him flying off the building entirely.
The creature rose slowly.
Its form was impossibly tall—
a skeletal silhouette forged of silver bone and coiling shadow vapor.
Its chest flickered with pulsing starlight, each heartbeat echoing in the air like distant thunder.
Aiden felt the parasite recoil.
**MOONFALL ENTITY CLASS: HARBINGER
THREAT LEVEL: ABSOLUTE
HOST MORTALITY PROBABILITY: 93%**
"Yeah," Aiden muttered, breath sharp. "Not really looking for a number today, thanks."
The Harbinger tilted its head.
Its movements were smooth, almost curious—
like something examining an unfinished sketch.
Then it spoke.
**"YOU DO NOT MATCH THE PARAMETERS."**
Aiden froze.
What?
The Harbinger inspected him like a mismatched puzzle piece.
**"THE REGRESSOR PATHWAY IS… INCOMPLETE."**
Aiden's heart stuttered.
"You can sense that?"
The Harbinger took a single step forward.
The temperature plunged.
Frost crawled across the rooftop.
**"YOUR EVOLUTION IS BEHIND SCHEDULE."**
Aiden's pulse hammered.
Behind schedule.
Someone was accelerating Moonfall.
Someone was pushing the parasite's evolution.
Someone was forcing the world to collapse earlier.
The Harbinger seemed disappointed.
**"THE ECHO WAS CLEAR.
THE HOST SHOULD BE FURTHER ALONG."**
Aiden's blood turned to ice.
The Echo.
The **future version** of him.
The thing that stood at the pinnacle of parasite evolution.
The thing that destroyed the world.
Aiden stepped back.
"The Echo sent you?"
The Harbinger's void-eyes blazed.
**"THE ECHO WATCHES THE CYCLE.
THE ECHO CORRECTS THE TIMELINE.
THE ECHO COMMANDS US."**
Aiden felt like someone had punched a hole through his chest.
His future self wasn't just a nightmare.
It was orchestrating the apocalypse.
The Harbinger lifted one clawed arm.
**"YOU WERE MEANT TO BE FURTHER.
YOU ARE DEFECTIVE.
WE WILL CORRECT YOU."**
Aiden's shadow-mantle ignited instantly, responding to the threat with feral violence. Violent violet fire burst across his back, forming jagged wings that split the air with each pulse of his heart.
The parasite surged.
**HOST ENGAGEMENT FORCED.
INITIATING SHADOW-CORE OVERRIDE.**
Aiden shouted back aloud,
"No—we're not overriding anything! I'm still in control!"
The parasite disagreed.
A wave of dark heat rolled through his veins. His vision sharpened, colors distorting into impossible gradients. His heartbeat synced with the Harbinger's own pulse, creating a terrifying rhythm between them.
Aiden staggered.
"Stop—stop—don't evolve now—"
But the parasite pushed harder.
**EVOLUTION OPPORTUNITY DETECTED.
FORCING ADAPTIVE RESPONSE.**
Aiden grit his teeth so hard he felt his jaw creak.
If he let the parasite run wild, he'd lose memories—
maybe his name, maybe Lyra—
or worse, he'd accelerate into the very thing he feared becoming.
The Harbinger extended its second arm.
The shadows around it curled inward like serpents ready to strike.
**"BEGIN CORRECTION."**
Aiden exhaled once—
—and the rooftop erupted.
The Harbinger's first strike wasn't a projectile.
It was **gravity**.
A sheer drop in pressure yanked Aiden forward, pulling him toward the monster like a puppet hooked by invisible wire. His feet left the ground as the force twisted the air into a spiraling funnel.
Aiden fought the pull with everything he had, shadows latching onto vents and pipes—anything to anchor him.
The metal screeched but held.
Barely.
The Harbinger glided toward him, each step distorting reality around it.
**"SUBMIT.
EVOLVE.
JOIN THE CYCLE."**
Aiden snarled.
"Not happening."
He slammed his fist into the rooftop.
Shadow-flame exploded outward, blasting the gravity field apart long enough for him to roll free. He slid across broken concrete, then launched himself forward using his mantle like a burst engine.
He struck fast.
A shadow-fang blade formed along his arm.
He aimed for the Harbinger's core.
The blade met bone—
And shattered.
Aiden's momentum faltered.
The Harbinger didn't react.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't even acknowledge the attack.
It simply looked down at him with clinical disappointment.
**"WEAK."**
Then it swung.
The blow wasn't physical.
It was a shockwave—
a blast of raw Moonfall energy.
It hit Aiden square in the chest.
He flew backward—
—through a ventilation tower,
—through a metal support beam,
—and finally crashed against a reinforced wall hard enough to crater it.
His ribs screamed.
His lungs burned.
His vision split.
The parasite screamed at him too:
**HOST STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FAILING.
REINFORCEMENT REQUIRED.
ACCEPT EVOLUTION.**
"No—" Aiden gasped. "No. I'm not losing memories. Not here."
The Harbinger advanced.
**"DEFECTIVE HOST.
EVOLUTION MUST BE FORCED."**
Aiden spat blood onto the ground.
"Over my dead—"
The Harbinger blurred.
Aiden didn't see it move.
One moment it was ten meters away.
The next its hand was around his throat.
His back slammed into the wall again.
His feet dangled off the ground.
The creature's grip tightened like a vice of bone and fire.
Aiden's breath vanished.
The Harbinger whispered:
**"WE WILL FIX YOU."**
And every instinct in Aiden's body screamed—
**Run. Fight. Evolve. Choose something. Anything. NOW.**
Aiden's vision dimmed at the edges as the Harbinger's fingers—if they could even be called that—tightened around his throat. The skeletal appendages felt weightless yet crushing, like cold fire pressed against his skin. His windpipe trembled under the pressure. His boots scraped uselessly against the shattered wall behind him.
The parasite thrashed in a frenzy.
**HOST VITAL FUNCTION COMPROMISED.
ENFORCING OVERRIDE.
ACCEPT EVOLUTION.**
Aiden dug his nails into the Harbinger's wrist, forcing air through his crushed throat long enough to rasp:
"No—override—means—losing—her—"
The parasite surged, annoyed with the mention of Lyra.
**EMOTIONAL ANCHOR DETECTED.
DISRUPTING FUNCTION.**
Aiden choked.
He felt something slip in his mind—
like a memory being tugged toward the drain.
Not now.
Not here.
He slammed his head back against the wall, letting the pain snap him into clarity. His shadow-mantle flared violently, reacting to his desperation, stabbing outward in jagged tendrils.
They struck the Harbinger's arm.
The impact didn't hurt it.
But it made the monster _notice_.
A shrill vibration rang through the air as the Harbinger rotated its head, studying Aiden like an irritating puzzle piece.
**"UNSTABLE HOST.
PARASITE RESISTANCE DETECTED."**
Aiden forced a breath through his bruised throat.
"Yeah—sorry—I'm not—your puppet—"
The Harbinger tilted its head.
**"YOU WILL BE."**
It raised its free hand.
Silver energy gathered at the fingertips, distorting the rooftop, warping the air, bending physics like clay.
Aiden's pulse exploded.
That attack—
he knew it.
The same technique the Harbinger used to wipe out half the capital in the last timeline.
If it hit here, hundreds would die.
Including him.
The parasite screamed:
**HOST MUST EVOLVE.
EVOLVE OR DIE.**
"SHUT UP!" Aiden roared.
His shadow-mantle exploded with violent force, the tendrils whipping outward with enough speed to crack the concrete beneath him.
He drove both knees upward—
—and struck the Harbinger's arm at the exact joint where the bone flickered.
A crack.
A fracture.
A ripple.
The monster released him.
Aiden dropped to the rooftop, coughing violently, clutching his bruised throat. Air burned his lungs like acid. His vision wavered. But he forced himself to stand.
He glared at the Harbinger through blurred eyes.
"You're not… correcting me," he rasped.
"I'm correcting you."
The Harbinger lowered its hand.
**"DEFECTIVE.
RESISTANT.
IRRATIONAL."**
Aiden wiped blood from his lip.
"Get used to it."
The Harbinger moved first.
Its body flickered—
a blur of silver.
A distortion of gravity.
A shape too fast for human eyes.
The parasite adjusted Aiden's reflexes automatically.
Aiden ducked—
Just as a bone-scythe arm sliced through the space where his head had been. The blow ripped a deep trench into the rooftop.
No time to breathe.
No time to think.
Aiden sprang backward, shadows trailing like afterimages. His mantle extended into multiple shadow-fangs, each one sharpened beyond physical material. He slashed diagonally—
The Harbinger deflected with a flicker of bone.
Sparks of corrupted light scattered.
Another strike came.
A crescent slash powered by Moonfall energy.
Aiden barely blocked it with his mantle, the impact sending a jolt up his spine that made his knees buckle.
The Harbinger's voice rumbled through the distorted air:
**"ACCEPT THE CYCLE."**
Aiden spat blood onto the ground.
"Not a chance."
He dashed forward, using his mantle to anchor himself mid-air, shifting directions faster than gravity allowed. He appeared above the Harbinger and drove a spear-like shadow down toward its core.
The Harbinger caught it with two fingers.
Aiden's heart dropped.
The Harbinger's grip tightened—
And shadow shattered like glass.
Aiden landed hard, rolling across the fractured rooftop.
Pain tore through his ribs. His shoulder screamed. His lungs barely pulled air.
The Harbinger descended toward him like a falling star.
**"THE DEFECTIVE HOST MUST BE REMOVED."**
It raised both arms.
Silver energy crackled.
Aiden felt weight vanish around him—
the air turning thin,
the rooftop bending inward under gravitational compression.
An execution field.
A technique no Tier-1 human should ever survive.
The parasite howled:
**HOST MUST EVOLVE.
HOST MUST—
HOST MUST—**
Aiden slammed his palms to the ground.
"I said—STOP OVERRIDING ME!"
His mantle erupted.
Not in flame.
Not in shadow-fangs.
But in **something else**.
It unfurled like a circular wing of runes—
complex sigils, lines of shimmering violet,
symbols that shouldn't exist at his current tier.
The rooftop vibrated.
The Harbinger hesitated.
**"…THAT PATTERN.
YOU SHOULD NOT POSSESS IT."**
Aiden didn't know the pattern.
But the parasite did.
And for once, it obeyed.
**SHADOW-CORE: RESONANCE DEFENSE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.**
A shockwave burst outward from Aiden.
The silver execution field tore apart—shredded into harmless particles.
The Harbinger staggered.
For the first time.
Aiden rose slowly, his mantle dripping violet light.
His eyes glowed.
His voice darkened.
"You don't tell me how to evolve."
The Harbinger's void-eyes widened.
Because the regressor—
the "defective host"—
had just activated an ability impossible for his tier.
An ability only one being should have:
**The Shadow-God Echo.**
The Harbinger froze.
Aiden's mantle—once ragged, reactive, instinctive—now flowed like a living storm.
The violet runes spiraling along its edges pulsed with a rhythm that did not belong to the mortal tiers.
The rooftop vibrated under the pressure.
The Harbinger's voice dropped to a whisper.
**"…UNAUTHORIZED PATTERN.
UNSCHEDULED ASCENSION."**
Aiden lifted his head.
For a moment—just a sliver—
the world saw something dangerous forming in his eyes:
Not corruption.
Not instability.
Not loss of control.
**Resolve.**
He stepped forward.
His shadow followed a heartbeat before he moved, as if the world lagged behind his intentions.
The Harbinger stepped back.
Not out of fear.
But calculation.
**"THIS STATE BELONGS TO THE ECHO.
NOT YOU."**
Aiden's voice, when he answered, was steady despite the fire cracking through his lungs.
"I don't care who it belongs to."
He raised his hand.
The mantle responded—
converging, sharpening—
forming a scythe-like arc of condensed shadow and violet resonance.
It hummed with lethal potential.
"I'm using it."
The Harbinger thrust out its arms, weaving another gravitational field.
Moonfall energy gathered like a swirling storm above its head, forming a cascading set of pressure rings that could implode the entire rooftop in seconds.
Aiden inhaled once.
The parasite whispered:
**HOST ACCESSING RESTRICTED ROUTE.
DANGER LEVEL: EXTREME.
RECOMMEND… PROCEEDING.**
Aiden almost laughed.
"Finally something we agree on."
He moved.
Aiden collided with the Harbinger in a blur of violet and silver.
The resonance scythe sliced downward—
a clean strike aimed straight at the Harbinger's core.
The Harbinger countered with its gravitational rings—
three collapsing fields converging on Aiden's chest.
Impact.
A soundless explosion ripped outward.
The rooftop fractured.
Stones rose into the air like drifting petals.
Windows shattered across the adjacent building.
The sky rippled, the Moons pulsing violently.
Aiden's scythe cut through the gravitational field—
but shattered halfway.
The Harbinger's pressure imploded against Aiden's ribs—
but faltered halfway.
Both forces cancelled each other out.
Aiden skidded backward, boots grinding sparks into the rooftop.
His ribs felt like cracked glass.
His mantle spasmed, runes flickering.
The Harbinger stumbled too—
a small fracture splitting across its outer bone plating.
It stared at him.
**"…IMPOSSIBLE.
HOST SHOULD NOT COUNTER MOONFALL ENERGY."**
Aiden spit blood.
"Get used to disappointment."
The Harbinger extended both its arms.
The cosmic fracture behind it widened.
Moonfall lightning twisted outward, spiraling into the Harbinger's chest.
A FAR more powerful charge than before.
Aiden felt the parasite panic.
**HOST CANNOT WITHSTAND THIS ATTACK.
FORCED EVOLUTION REQUIRED.
SACRIFICE MEMORY TO SURVIVE.**
"No!" Aiden roared. "I am not losing another—"
Lyra's face flickered through his mind.
Her voice:
_Aiden… I see you dying…_
Aiden felt the world tilt.
He clenched his jaw until he tasted blood.
"No."
His mantle burst outward again—
but not with runes, not with fangs, not with flame.
Something else bloomed.
A circle of faint blue light.
Gentle.
Soft.
Unstable.
A **Resonance echo**.
Lyra's echo.
She wasn't here—
but her memory, her anchor signature, her emotional imprint—
reacted to his breakdown.
Aiden whispered:
"…not losing you again."
The Harbinger unleashed its full Moonfall charge.
Aiden raised the half-formed Resonance circle—
And the impact detonated the rooftop.
Silence.
Dust drifted like falling snow.
The rooftop had been carved into a crater of shattered stone.
Half the ventilation units were gone.
A section of the roof hung over the edge of the building like a broken jaw.
Aiden lay in the debris, chest rising in shallow breaths.
He wasn't dead.
He wasn't intact either.
His mantle sparked with broken runes.
Violet light bled into the cracks of his skin.
His vision flickered in and out.
But he was alive.
Across the crater, the Harbinger struggled to stand.
Half of its skeletal casing was fractured.
One arm hung limp.
Its void-eyes dimmed slightly.
It looked at Aiden with something closer to curiosity than rage.
**"…THE ANCHOR HAS INTERFERED."**
Aiden coughed blood.
"Yeah," he rasped. "She's good at that."
The Harbinger tilted its head.
**"THE ANCHOR SHOULD NOT RESONATE AT THIS STAGE."**
Aiden forced himself to sit up.
"Everything is happening early."
The Harbinger paused.
**"…THE CYCLE IS BROKEN."**
Aiden nodded once.
"Yeah. No kidding."
Silence stretched.
Then the Harbinger spoke again.
**"THE ECHO MUST KNOW THIS."**
It began collapsing inward—
its form dissolving into silver particles that drifted toward the sky fracture.
Aiden forced himself onto trembling legs.
"Wait—!"
The Harbinger didn't listen.
**"WE WILL RETURN.
THE CYCLE WILL BE CORRECTED."**
Aiden stepped forward—
—and the Harbinger vanished.
The rooftop fell silent.
Aiden sagged to his knees.
His mantle flickered weakly.
His pulse trembled.
The parasite whispered:
**HOST IS APPROACHING CRITICAL FRACTURE.
FULL STABILIZATION REQUIRED.**
Aiden stared at the sky.
The fracture across the moons had dimmed—
but hadn't closed.
He wiped blood from his mouth.
"This is only the beginning."