Berlin never really slept. It pulsed — with neon, rain, and restless souls chasing their purpose through concrete streets. For Klevin, it wasn't just another city on the map. It was where everything had started — and where, he now knew, everything would change.
The train hissed as it slowed into Alexanderplatz Station. Klevin looked out the window at the rain-slick glass, his reflection half-swallowed by city lights. Emilia leaned against his shoulder, half-asleep, her pendant dimly glowing beneath her jacket. Across the aisle, Marcus and Lina argued softly about tactics, while Noah tinkered with a tablet filled with decrypted data.
"We're back where it began," Klevin murmured.
Emilia opened her eyes. "Back to finish what your father started."
He turned toward her, uncertain. "Or to uncover something he never meant to finish."
The Order's Berlin base wasn't what most would expect — not a high-tech compound or ancient temple, but a renovated library near the Spree River. Aetherlink sigils were hidden among the architectural flourishes, invisible to normal eyes.
As they entered, Elias, their field coordinator, waited near the grand staircase, arms crossed. His expression was grim.
"Good, you're back. Amsterdam's mission was... messy, but successful. The fragment you recovered — it's reacting to something here in Berlin."
Klevin frowned. "Reacting how?"
"Like it's calling to another piece." Elias gestured for them to follow. "Come. There's something you need to see."
Deep beneath the library, the group entered a long-abandoned lab — dust layered over sleek metal, cracked monitors flickering faint blue. Klevin froze the moment he stepped in.
A faint hum filled the air. The same rhythm he'd felt since Munich.
But this time, it wasn't just Aether energy.
It was familiar.
Emilia brushed her fingers over a console. "Whose lab was this?"
Elias hesitated, then sighed. "Your father's, Klevin. Dr. Aaron Klaus. He was one of the founding Aetherlink researchers before he vanished fifteen years ago."
Klevin's throat tightened. The air felt heavier, memories pressing at the edges of his mind — faint images of a man working late into the night, fragments of light spiraling around his hands.
He walked slowly to the center table.
There, under cracked glass, was a sealed case — labeled Project Solvain: Phase III.
Inside it rested a data shard, pulsing faintly with the same golden hue as his Divine Sword.
Noah powered up a terminal, his fingers moving fast. "I can unlock this… just give me a sec."
The screen flickered, revealing corrupted files — strings of code, diagrams, and one intact video feed.
It was his father.
Static hissed, then an older man's voice filled the room.
"If you're seeing this, the project failed. The Aetherlinks are unstable. The Divine Control... it wasn't meant for human hands. The fragments—"
He stopped, glancing off-screen as if someone had entered the room.
"If anyone finds this, destroy what remains. Especially the one bound to Solvain—"
The feed cut to black.
Klevin stood frozen, every muscle locked. "He was talking about me."
Emilia touched his arm. "Klevin, maybe—"
The lights went out.
A cold silence filled the lab, broken only by the faint drip of water from overhead pipes. Then came the sound — metallic footsteps echoing from the corridor.
Marcus drew his Aether gauntlets, blue energy humming. "We're not alone."
Lina's eyes glowed as her illusions flickered to life. "Multiple signatures. Five... no, six."
The shadows moved first. Six figures cloaked in black surged forward, masks shaped like broken angels. Their Aether crackled dark red — Obsidian Choir.
Elias barked, "Defensive formation! Protect the fragment!"
The chamber exploded into motion.
Marcus slammed a fist into the ground, kinetic shockwaves scattering debris and disorienting the first attackers. Lina's illusions split into three, confusing their aim. Emilia ducked behind a console, firing controlled bursts from her relic pistol, golden streaks slicing through the smoke.
Klevin reached for his pendant — it flared instantly, responding to the rising energy.
"Solvain!"
The Divine Sword materialized in a rush of light, golden arcs dancing along the blade. The air vibrated with power.
He moved. Faster than thought. His blade caught one attacker mid-strike, parrying with a crash of sparks. Another lunged from behind — Klevin spun, using Solvain's radiant edge to disarm him in a flash of blinding gold.
"Too slow," he muttered under his breath.
But then, one of the masked figures stepped forward — taller, calmer, his Aether pressure heavier than the rest. The others fell back instinctively.
He removed his mask.
Klevin froze.
The man's face was almost identical to his own. Slightly older, harder around the eyes — but unmistakably similar.
The stranger smiled faintly. "So it's true. Father's other experiment survived."
"What?" Klevin demanded. "Who are you?"
The man raised a blackened pendant identical in shape to Klevin's. "Name's Kael. Your brother... in a manner of speaking."
Before Klevin could respond, Kael lunged forward — faster than light. Their swords collided with a deafening clang, gold and shadow flaring as Divine energy met corrupted Aether.
Klevin gritted his teeth, every strike heavier than the last. "You're lying!"
Kael smirked. "Ask your precious Order what they did in Berlin. Ask them what 'Project Solvain' really was."
He twisted his blade, releasing a burst of black light that threw Klevin backward. The impact cracked the floor beneath him.
Emilia shouted, "Klevin!" and ran toward him, firing at Kael — but the bullets dissolved in midair as if swallowed by darkness.
Kael advanced, his blade drawn back. "You shouldn't exist. Father made sure only one of us would live.
Before he could strike, Marcus tackled him from the side, slamming both of them through a metal railing. "Go! Get out of here!"
Elias shouted, "Retreat! The lab's compromised!"
But Klevin wasn't moving. His pendant was pulsing violently — the fragment in Noah's hands resonating in sync.
Emilia's eyes widened. "They're reacting to each other— Klevin, it's unstable!"
He forced himself up, struggling to control the surging power. His Divine Control was spinning out of sync — light cracking across the blade. "I can't hold it—!"
The fragment burst.
A blinding wave of golden energy exploded outward, swallowing the lab in light.
When the smoke cleared, everything was chaos — consoles sparking, walls cracked, Aether symbols glowing like living veins. The air shimmered with unstable resonance.
Klevin gasped for breath, his vision blurred. The fragment lay shattered on the floor — and Kael was gone.
Elias staggered to his feet, clutching his arm. "Everyone still breathing?"
Marcus groaned. "Barely. That guy hits like a train."
Emilia knelt beside Klevin, brushing dust from his face. "Hey, stay with me."
He blinked up at her, voice low. "He looked like me, Emilia. He said he was my brother."
Emilia swallowed hard. "We'll figure it out. I promise."
Later that night, the team regrouped on the library rooftop. Berlin stretched out below — a sea of light beneath a rain-soaked sky.
Noah leaned against the railing, shaking his head. "That data shard's fried. Whatever your father stored, it's gone."
Lina added quietly, "But we've confirmed the signal pattern from the fragment. There's another — still active, somewhere in Prague."
Elias nodded grimly. "That's our next destination. But we move carefully. If the Choir's cloning Aetherlinks, we're in deeper than we thought."
Klevin stood apart from them, staring down at the streets. The rain traced silver lines across his jacket.
Emilia walked over, holding out a cup of steaming coffee. "You haven't said a word since the lab."
He took it silently, watching the steam curl upward. "When he looked at me… it felt like staring into something I wasn't supposed to see. Like the fragments aren't just power — they're memories. Lives. Pieces of something bigger."
Emilia hesitated, then touched his shoulder. "Maybe the answer isn't in the fragments. Maybe it's in you."
Klevin looked out over Berlin — the same city where his father had vanished, where it had all begun. His pendant pulsed once, faint but certain.
He clenched his fist. "Then I'll find out. No more running, no more guessing. If there's truth buried in these fragments…" He looked toward the distant horizon.
"Then I'll tear it out myself."
The city lights flickered below — and for an instant, his pendant glowed in perfect sync with them, as if something vast beneath Berlin had awakened and was watching.