The Breathing Walls
The dust had barely settled.
Aziya clung to Kai's hand, Junshin leaned against a broken column to stay upright, and Aria stood guard with a glowing blade drawn — even though the Hunter had vanished.
Kai's heart hammered unevenly.
There was something inside him.
Something moving.
Something alive.
Aria stepped toward him.
"Kai. Focus on my voice. What exactly do you feel?"
He exhaled shakily.
"It…
It's like a heartbeat. But not mine.
Like someone else's pulse is inside my chest."
Aziya's breath hitched.
Junshin frowned.
"Is it reacting to the Hunter? Or is it always there?"
Kai didn't answer.
Because the answer scared him.
It had been there for days — a faint throb he had ignored.
But after fighting the Hunter…
It was no longer faint.
The cavern shifted.
Aria immediately turned.
"Everyone stay alert."
But something was wrong.
The walls… were pulsing.
Not metaphorically.
Literally pulsing — like the stone itself had veins beneath it.
Aziya whispered, horrified: "K-Kai… the whole place feels like… it's breathing…"
Junshin drew his cracked sword.
"…Fantastic. Living walls. As if the monster wasn't enough."
Aria approached the wall and pressed a hand to it.
It trembled under her touch.
"This isn't the Hunter's doing.
This is… a memory echo."
Kai blinked.
"A what?"
"A place caught between existence and erasure," Aria explained.
"It reacts to strong disturbances — like your battle… or your awakening."
Kai swallowed.
"My awakening?"
She turned to him slowly.
"Yes. Something inside you broke open."
Aziya squeezed his arm protectively.
"Then we help him keep it together. Right?"
Before Kai could answer, the walls inhaled.
Wind rushed toward the cavern center — dragging dust, sand, and debris in spiraling patterns.
Kai felt the heartbeat inside him syncing with the breath of the cavern.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
Then—
The cavern spoke.
Not in words.
Not in sound.
In memory.
A flood of visions slammed into Kai's mind.
---
The Forbidden Echo
He was somewhere else.
A burning world.
Skies torn open.
Mountains collapsing into swirling black storms.
And in the center —
A massive shape, like a planet-sized centipede made of broken timelines.
The Devourer.
Its body was stitched together from dead universes — fragments of destroyed worlds clinging like barnacles. Its thousands of eyes were broken clocks, distorted moons, and inverted stars.
And standing before it—
A man.
Tall.
Worn armor.
Black hair streaked silver.
Eyes like Kai's.
Kai choked.
"Dad…?"
His father stood alone before the cosmic horror, holding a blade made of memories.
The Devourer spoke with a million voices.
> "Why do you resist?
You are already erased."
His father pointed the blade at its heart.
> "Then I'll carve my existence into your throat."
He charged.
Kai reached for him —
"DAD! WAIT—!"
But he couldn't move.
He was only a witness.
The Devourer's claws fell like eclipses.
The world shattered.
Time ripped apart.
Kai saw his father's final moment.
Not killed.
Absorbed.
Eaten.
Fused into the Devourer's being.
His father's last scream echoed—
> "KAIIII—!"
Everything went white.
---
The Cavern Rejects Him
Kai collapsed to the ground as the vision tore away from him.
His friends rushed to him immediately.
Aziya cupped his face in panic.
"Kai! Stay with us! Please—"
Aria grabbed his hand.
"Breathe. What did you see?"
Kai's voice cracked.
"My father…
He… he fought the Devourer. Alone.
He wasn't killed — he was absorbed."
Junshin's expression fell.
"…Shit."
But the worst part wasn't that.
The worst part was the whisper he heard from the Devourer as the vision ended:
> "You carry his echo.
You carry his hunger."
Kai trembled violently.
Aria leaned closer.
"Kai… what else did you see?"
He hesitated.
He didn't want to scare them.
But he wouldn't lie.
"I think…
my father's essence… is inside the Devourer.
And the Devourer… put something inside me."
Aziya's eyes widened, terrified.
"Kai… does that mean—"
Kai finished the sentence for her.
"I might be the Devourer's vessel."
Silence.
The cavern pulsed again — faster, as if reacting to his confession.
Aria stepped back, eyes analyzing him.
"…Kai. Look at your arm."
He looked.
His veins were glowing faint white.
Memory-light.
But beneath that glow — something darker pulsed with it.
Aziya shook her head violently.
"No. No! This is not happening—"
Junshin grabbed her shoulders.
"Aziya. He needs your strength, not panic."
Kai forced himself to breathe.
"I'm still me. I'm not turning into anything."
But the cavern disagreed.
The walls shuddered.
A rip in reality formed above them — a tear of black static.
The same static the Hunter used.
Aria cursed.
"It's tracking the Devourer's seed. Kai, the more you panic, the stronger it gets!"
Kai's pulse spiked.
He felt something inside him crawling beneath his ribs — like a second heartbeat trying to sync with his own.
Aziya grabbed his hand firmly.
"Kai. Listen to me.
You're stronger than anything inside you.
I know that.
We all know that."
Junshin nodded.
"I'll drag you back to reality myself if I have to."
Aria raised her weapon at the growing tear.
"We need to move. Now. Before the Hunter returns."
Kai forced himself to his feet.
"Where do we go?"
The cavern answered.
The ground cracked open beneath them — revealing a spiraling descent into glowing memory-light.
A voice echoed from the depths.
Not the Devourer.
Not the Hunter.
A woman's voice.
Soft.
Warm.
Familiar.
"Kai… come to me."
Kai's eyes widened.
"Mom…?"
Aziya tensed.
"Kai—no—wait—!"
But Kai had already taken a step toward the opening.
Aziya grabbed his arm.
Aria seized the other.
Junshin braced behind them.
"Kai! That's not your mother — it's manipulating you!" Aria warned.
Kai shook his head.
"No… I know her voice. I remember it now.
I think she's alive."
The cavern pulsed once.
Hard.
The floor gave way.
All four of them fell screaming into the spiraling abyss of memory-light.