The first sign of its arrival was silence.
Not the quiet that settles after a storm, but the kind that consumes sound itself. The kind that makes the world hold its breath. The wind stilled, the light dimmed, and even the Rift's endless hum faltered as if in fear.
Kael stood at the heart of the ruined valley, his eyes tracing the shifting colors of the sky. Fragments of broken satellites floated like dead stars above, the aftermath of the Rift's expanding pulse. Lyra adjusted her gauntlets, unease flickering in her amber eyes.
"You feel it too," she said.
Kael nodded slowly. "It's close."
Then the silence broke.
The air in front of them split like glass. From the fracture stepped a figure draped in mirrored cloth that shimmered between liquid and flame. Its face was hidden behind a mask shaped like a broken crown. Every motion bent the space around it, rippling through light and time alike.
It was neither man nor machine. It was echo.
"I am the Herald of Fracture," it said, voice echoing from a thousand directions. "Servant of the Fragment Emperor. Keeper of the forgotten. I come not to destroy...." it tilted its head slightly "...but to remember what should never have existed."
Lyra drew her blade, its energy core sparking with blue light. "You'll find plenty here worth destroying if that's what you came for."
The Herald's head turned toward her, and suddenly the air between them folded inward. For an instant, Lyra saw herself hundreds of versions of herself, frozen mid-motion, screaming in silent loops. Then reality snapped back.
"Lyra!" Kael caught her as she staggered, blood trickling from her nose. "What did it do?"
Her voice trembled. "It showed me… everything I could have been. Every version of me that didn't survive."
The Herald's tone softened. "You misunderstand. The Emperor does not hate. He collects. He preserves the truths that time seeks to erase. And Kael Tanabe…" its gaze turned to him "…you are the last fragment he requires to complete the memory of the Rift."
Kael's grip tightened on his weapon. "You said her name."
"Of course," the Herald replied, head tilting slightly. "Akiya Tanabe. The girl who became the bridge between what was and what will be. She lives in the core still not as human, not as god, but as the song that keeps the Rift alive."
Kael's voice broke. "Then she's suffering."
"In a way," the Herald said. "She dreams the dreams of countless worlds. But soon, when the Emperor rises, she will awaken as his heart."
Kael's eyes blazed with fury. "Over my dead body."
The Herald's laughter was like shards of glass tinkling across stone. "That is the plan."
It moved.
Space bent. Time cracked.
Kael barely saw the strike a wave of energy that split the earth open, slicing through stone like silk. Lyra leapt forward, her blade clashing against the Herald's arm, sparks cascading in slow motion. Every blow she landed was mirrored back at her, as if reality itself refused to let her harm it.
Kael darted forward, activating the shard Akiya had left him. Light burst from his palm the same wavelength that resonated with the Rift's energy. When it struck the Herald, its form flickered violently, revealing glimpses beneath the mask a swirling mass of faces, all screaming Akiya's name.
"What are you?" Kael shouted.
"I am what remains of those she couldn't save," it hissed, voice fractured and mournful. "Every soul lost when she merged with the Rift… lives within me."
Kael froze, heart pounding.
Lyra stumbled back, whispering, "Then killing it means killing them."
The Herald raised its hand again, and the sky shattered. Mountains bent backward as the Rift's energy surged into the valley, turning air to liquid light. Kael forced himself to move, to think, even as the weight of impossible gravity pressed down.
He focused on Akiya's shard. The light inside it pulsed, faint, rhythmic, familiar. For a heartbeat, he heard her voice again.
"Kael… remember who you are."
The Herald stopped mid-step. The Rift's pulse hesitated.
That voice didn't come from the shard. It came from inside the Herald.
Kael took a step forward, his voice trembling. "Akiya… is that you?"
The Herald shuddered violently, its mask cracking. Through the fissure, a single human eye glowed faint blue, warm, alive, full of pain.
"Kael…" it whispered. "He's waking up. You have to..."
The voice cut off as the Herald screamed, its form distorting into a vortex of energy. The sky imploded. Lyra was thrown backward as Kael's vision filled with white.
When the light cleared, the Herald was gone. Only the fractured air remained, whispering with fading echoes.
Kael knelt in the debris, clutching the glowing shard to his chest. "She's still fighting," he said quietly. "Even from inside that thing."
Lyra staggered to her feet, staring at the horizon. "Then we have no time. If she's trying to warn you, the Emperor must already be moving."
Kael stood slowly, the light of the shard burning brighter in his hand. "Then we go to the Rift."
"The Rift?" Lyra asked, alarmed. "Kael, entering it again could tear you apart."
He met her gaze, calm and certain. "Maybe. But if she's still inside… I'm not leaving her there."
As he spoke, the wind began to shift carrying faint whispers that didn't belong to this world. The fragments of Akiya's voice, scattered through time, were gathering once more.
And far above, beyond the clouds, the stars began to flicker one by one like dying memories.
The Fragment Emperor was stirring.
....To be continued...