Chapter 17 — The Echo Born From Nothing
Morning light spilled over the shattered sky of the Broken Realm, highlighting the floating stone platforms and drifting fragments of laws. Leo stood on the highest cliff, eyes sharp, expression unreadable. He wasn't angry… he was calculating.
Last chapter ended with the entire realm discovering Leo's presence. Now everything begins shifting.
---
The Realm Reacts
Whispers spread like wildfire across the Broken Realm.
"Is that the one?"
"The being who fixed timelines before we even existed?"
"No… that can't be him. If it is, why is he here?"
No matter where they hid—behind fractured temples, under collapsing skies, in ruined law-forges—every creature felt the same thing:
A presence too calm.
Too quiet.
Too powerful.
Leo didn't show any pressure, but his existence alone bent the shape of the realm. Colors shifted near him. Broken laws realigned themselves like scared children. The air hummed.
And that was Leo simply standing still.
---
Null Reaver Moves
Far away, in a hollowed black crater where reality thinned like smoke, Null Reaver watched Leo through an orbiting shard of void-glass.
He clicked his tongue.
"So the rumor was true," he whispered. "The one who stands beyond absolute."
But Null Reaver didn't fear him.
Not yet.
Because Null Reaver had been waiting centuries for one thing:
Not Leo…
But the aftershock of Leo's arrival.
A ripple.
A disturbance.
A path that could only open when someone like Leo stepped into a broken world.
And now it was forming—dark lightning twisting across the crater.
"Good," Null Reaver murmured. "The Gate of Echoes will awaken. If he came… then the fragment must be close."
---
Leo Notices Something Wrong
Leo closed his eyes.
He felt the realm shaking—not from fear, but from activation.
Something old.
Something dangerous.
Something that smelled faintly of… himself.
Like the smallest trace of Nothingness, buried deep inside a forgotten corner of the world.
Max put a hand on Leo's shoulder.
"Bro… you feel that?"
Leo nodded. "Yes."
"What is it?"
Leo didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked toward the far horizon where a pillar of swirling black mist was rising.
"A seed," Leo said softly. "Not mine… but connected to me."
Max frowned. "Is it another threat?"
Leo's voice turned low. "It's not a threat. It's something that shouldn't exist yet."
---
The Echo Stirs
Deep inside the rising black column, something pulsed like a heartbeat.
A tiny spark.
A fragment of a fragment.
Not alive…
Not dead…
But waiting.
The Gate of Echoes cracked open, revealing a swirling void where dozens of timelines overlapped like shattered mirrors.
And inside it…
A silhouette.
Small.
Unformed.
But radiating a thin, impossible pressure — the kind only Leo should have.
The realm trembled.
It whispered a single name:
"Echo…"
Not Rasel.
Not yet.
This was the pre-birth—the first resonance of the future Void God, forming like an afterimage created by the presence of Leo's overwhelming Nothingness.
A phantom of what would one day become Rasel.
The Broken Realm wasn't just reacting to Leo…
It was creating something because of him.
---
Leo Understands the Risk
Leo stepped forward, brows tightening slightly.
"So that's why this realm called me."
Max looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"This realm is incomplete," Leo explained. "Its future depends on someone who doesn't exist yet. Someone who will be born only after the timeline is healed. But my presence… awakened his echo prematurely."
"So that thing inside the Gate—"
"—is a future fragment," Leo finished. "A reflection of someone extraordinary."
His eyes sharpened with interest—rare interest.
Max swallowed. "Is that… dangerous?"
"It could be," Leo said. "If someone else reaches it first."
---
Null Reaver Strikes First
Null Reaver's laughter echoed across the realm as he ripped open a corridor of dark law.
"Leo, you came too early."
He stepped through the shadows, heading straight toward the Gate of Echoes.
"That future fragment belongs to me."
His form blurred into black lightning.
He was fast — unbelievably fast.
But not faster than Leo.
Not even close.
---
Leo Moves
Leo raised his hand.
The realm froze.
Wind stopped.
Clouds stopped.
Even the broken laws hovering in the sky paused mid-shiver.
Max blinked. "Y–You froze the realm?"
"No," Leo said. "It froze out of respect."
Leo simply walked forward, calm, unhurried, each step restoring stability in the unstable world. The cliff reformed under his feet. The air cleared.
And the Gate of Echoes began glowing brighter.
The Echo inside responded to Leo's presence — like a child sensing a parent.
---
The Confrontation Begins
Null Reaver burst from the shadows, black blades swirling around him like hungry beasts.
"Step aside, Leo. The future isn't yours."
Leo didn't raise his hand.
Didn't summon power.
Didn't even shift his stance.
He just said one quiet sentence:
"You are standing in the wrong place."
And for the first time, Null Reaver felt his confidence falter.
Because Leo wasn't threatening him.
Leo was warning him.