Hours after the Council encounter-before any debrief-Ken was pulled into a Null Sector Resonance Chamber. They said it wasn't training. It was recognition
The Null Sector didn't spit them out.
It let them go.
The transition wasn't dramatic. No light beams, no portals ripping open. Just a soft tremor across the Citadel sky, as if reality quietly re-stitched itself after holding its breath.
Ozaru, Nina, Tojo and Alkhaz stepped back through the Convex Gate—silent. Not numb. Just aware.
Ken was not "missing."
That word felt incorrect. Too small.
Ken was elsewhere.
Tojo was the first to speak, though barely. "He wasn't pulled in. It felt like… he answered something."
Ozaru didn't reply. His gaze lingered on the horizon, where Riftfall had bled into reality like a bruise in space-time. He wasn't scared. But something inside—the faint creation pulse—kept playing the porcelain mask in his mind.
Not like a memory.
But,
Like the memory was replaying him.
Nina stood a little apart. Crimson wasn't glowing. It was uniquely… breathing. Like her stone felt acknowledged. She wasn't angry or panicking. She was restless. Like something had knocked, and Crimson hadn't decided whether to answer.
Tojo's Destruction stone didn't flare or surge. Instead, it went quiet. Listening. As if it sensed something conscious for the first time—but didn't know whether to attack it or understand it.
While also him and ozaru being mentally prepared for future to get accepted by CDC as Wielders of God stones or something else... he was nervous.
Alkhaz remained the calmest. He didn't show surprise. Not concern. Just… recognition.
"You saw," Ozaru said quietly. Not asking. Stating.
Alkhaz didn't deny it. "That wasn't a Riftfall surge," he said. "That was a call. And Azure didn't get lost. Azure responded."
Nina frowned. "Then where the hell is he?"
Alkhaz's answer wasn't loud, but it silenced the air.
"Not where…"
He looked up.
"…with whom."
---
KEN being in Echo Space
Echo space, whear CDC captains or authorised members can see memories of them by using powers of technklogy while memories connected through Genesis stone.
Whear Ken,
He wasn't floating.
He wasn't standing.
He wasn't even placed anywhere.
Echo Space didn't feel like a location. It felt like awareness.
There was no gravity.
But there were weights—of memories.
But not his.
They drifted around him in silhouettes. Not people. Not visions. Shapes of choices. Fragments of what could have been. What should have been. What almost was.
Not futures.
Not past.
Possibilities.
Azure was calm. Not glowing. Not speaking. Just listening. Like it, too, understood—this wasn't something you used power on.
This was something you responded to.
He heard it without hearing it.
Felt it without feeling it.
> "Some Genesis users shape their power.
But a few… are shaped by it."
He didn't know if this was a voice. There was no speaker. No figure. No presence. Just memory—watching.
Not observing.
Remembering.
He wasn't being tested.
He wasn't being judged.
He was being recognized.
---
CITADEL – GENESIS COUNCIL CHAMBER
"We are not logging this as a Riftfall surge," the Archivist said.
Six Council members watched the swirling Echo Rift data across the holo-panel.
"The Azure didn't destabilize," another corrected.
"It aligned."
The room was quiet.
An elder leaned forward. "And you're telling me it synchronized? With who?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Until the Archivist spoke.
"Not who." He paused, studying the unstable recording.
"With memory."
Nina, listening from afar, whispered—almost unconsciously—
"He's not gone… he's seen."
She should have gone to her missions while being a caltain of division but she choos not to
Ozaru glanced at her but stayed quiet.
Then, the Council shifted to something even more interesting.
"Has the Kael bloodline responded yet?"
"Not directly," someone said. "But it will."
Ozaru heard that.
And didn't understand.
Not yet.
---
KESTREAM ARCHIVES THE NAME THAT DOESN'T VANISH
Alkhaz walked alone.
He shouldn't be here. He knew that. But rules weren't built for everything.
Frosted panels flickered softly, displaying not knowledge—but memory records of Genesis synchronization. Only a few names ever appeared here.
He traced a glowing seal.
ZARION KAEL.
Not exiled for power.
Not hunted for betrayal.
Just… different.
> "He didn't break Genesis laws," Alkhaz whispered.
"He tried to listen to Genesis differently."
And for that—he disappeared.
He wasn't erased.
He was withheld.
Alkhaz closed the panel. His eyes were steady now.
Ken wasn't lost.
He had been… noticed.
ECHO SPACE THE MOMENT THE MEMORY LOOKED BACK
The porcelain mask wasn't a figure.
It didn't walk.
It didn't float.
It simply was.
Not inviting.
Not threatening.
Just there.
Ken didn't fight it.
Didn't speak.
Didn't ask anything.
For the first time—he understood
This wasn't about what Genesis could show him.
It was about what Genesis could see of him.
The mask didn't approach him.
It mirrored him.
Not like a reflection.
Like a recognition.
Its blank face began to shift—not forming a mouth, or expression.
Just one faint thing:
An eye.
But not human.
Not creature.
An awareness.
Not judging him.
Acknowledging him.
> "You did not step into Riftfall," the Echo told him.
> "Riftfall stepped into you."
He opened his eyes.
He was back.
Citadel air.
Cold floor.
Reality.
But something else too.
He wasn't stronger.
He wasn't changed.
He was…
seen.
Nexarius mission is unknowingly getting aligned...
whear tojo and ozaru both still didn't get the charm they deserve, not yet but in future they will! whear Tojo as MC stands!?!
Alkhaz being mysterious his Equilibrium taking the shape of situation.
While nina sacrificing her role to get to know about politics behind CDC?
Chapter 14 Preview...
"Ken returned.
But it wasn't Ken who came back."