The air shimmered.
Not with heat—but with memory. As if every molecule around them remembered being something else—someone else—at a different time. The moment Leon stepped forward into Floor 303, the ground beneath him sang softly, responding not to his footsteps… but to his presence.
The forge behind them sealed itself shut.
Gone was the arena.
Gone was the sky of Floor 302.
Now they stood in a half-broken cathedral built into a floating gear the size of a mountain. Above, fragmented domes of glass reflected not light—but fractured seconds. Timepieces hovered midair, ticking with no rhythm.
And ahead…
A shattered bridge led deeper into the Fracture Gateworks.
"This place feels…" Liliana murmured, trailing off as her voice echoed in reverse for a moment—like the floor didn't agree with the way sound worked here.
"Unstable," Roselia finished. Her eyes scanned the horizon. "And yet… perfectly still. Like time's holding its breath."
Leon didn't answer right away. His hand rested gently on the hilt of his blade—Temporfang. The newly-forged weapon pulsed once, quietly, in sync with his heartbeat.
And then it turned—on its own. Pointing.
Not north. Not forward.
Just… toward something that once was.
"There," he said.
The team moved carefully through the remnants of what might once have been a training chamber.
Steel dolls hung suspended in broken time-stasis. Battlefields were frozen in air—sparks, impacts, spells locked mid-burst. Here and there, they found echo-fractures: slivers of light, barely visible, showing looped moments of long-past duels.
Naval reached out to touch one.
A whisper burst into the air:
"Advance, Sector Guardian—hold Floor 303 until override—"
Then silence.
The echo collapsed.
"These are combat recordings," Roman muttered. "But they're alive. Echoes of fallen champions."
"They're angry," Milim added. "I can feel it."
They didn't have to wait long to see why.
A pulse rippled through the ruin—followed by a metallic shriek.
From the far side of the chamber came a figure—seven feet tall, clad in broken armor of a long-dead faction. Its face was gone, replaced by a cracked visor pulsing with fragmented echo-data.
[ECHO CHAMPION: DRAEVOS THE FRAMELOCKED]
"Time betrayed me. You will not."
Leon stepped forward.
Temporfang pulsed.
Draevos moved like a skipping record—each step teleporting him a second forward. His sword blurred through air, fracturing space in twin slashes.
Leon didn't flinch. He let go of thought and let his rhythm take over.
One strike to test.
Two to adapt.
The third to claim the tempo.
He parried Draevos's next blow, spun under the follow-up, and delivered a sweeping counter infused with Fracture Requiem's Edge.
It didn't cut flesh. It cut the timeline the Echo Champion was using.
Draevos flickered—his afterimage stuttering as it tried to correct itself.
Too late.
Leon moved again, his form blurring with residual echoes. He struck once, twice, three times—and each impact sent Draevos backward through his own battle record.
The Echo Champion fell to one knee. Static hissed through its mouthpiece.
"Your rhythm…" it rasped, "...reminds me of the first Sovereign."
Leon tilted his head.
"You remember one?"
Draevos's eyes dimmed.
"No… I was one."
[TARGET DEFEATED – PULSE NODE SECURED]
One of Three Pulse Stabilizers Activated.
As Draevos disintegrated, a ripple spread through the broken arena.
A platform rose from the ground, humming with power. It unfolded like a flower—revealing a glowing core, shaped like an hourglass spilling light instead of sand.
Pulse Node – Gatework Sector Alpha – Reactivated.Remaining: Two.
Leon placed his palm against it. Sёarᴄh the NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Temporfang lit up.
He heard it again—not a voice, but a feeling. Something ancient. Proud. Waiting.
The other nodes would not be so… merciful.
Behind him, Roselia approached. "You okay?"
Leon nodded. "This floor was abandoned. But not empty."
Roman frowned. "And the deeper we go…"
"...the more echoes we'll find," Liliana finished.
Leon turned, eyes sharp.
"Then we listen. We learn. And we win."
They set out again—toward the second node.
Toward the next echo waiting to challenge him.
They followed the pulse readings deeper into the broken facility.
Corridors warped. Not physically—but temporally. Sometimes the light bent backwards. Sometimes Leon's footsteps echoed before he took them.
At one point, Roman turned a corner—and came back out the other side, coughing and looking mildly annoyed.
"Yep," he muttered. "This floor's drunk."
Then they heard it.
Not a roar.
Not a scream.
Just a slamming rhythm, like fists against a drum made of steel and sorrow.
And beneath it—three voices.
All overlapping.
All howling.
They arrived in what used to be an arena—an ancient training ring, half-sunken into broken gravity. Floating slabs of debris hovered in the air like landmines. Broken constructs twitched in the corners. On the far side, a glowing terminal pulsed with unstable red light.
And from its heart—
[ECHO ANOMALY DETECTED – DESIGNATION: CHIMERA FRAME]
"I… I was Tyrend, Floor 276…"
"No, I was the Screaming Fang, 312—let me OUT!"
"WE ARE ALIVE! KILL TO REMEMBER!"
It emerged like a beast of wire and pulse-matter—three upper torsos fused onto a central core, each wielding a weapon of a different tempo school: blade, spear, and chain. Its bodies moved independently. Its memories clashed. Its hatred unified them.
Roselia stepped back. "That's not just an Echo."
Roman's fists clenched. "That's a data war."
Leon drew Temporfang.
"Then let's make it hear one rhythm."
The thing didn't charge.
It exploded forward.
The spear head struck first, aiming for Milim—but Leon intercepted, Temporfang ringing out as it met the alloy shaft mid-air. He twisted the blade, redirecting the kinetic pulse, then slid low to avoid a sweeping chain strike from the left.
The blade-torso lashed out next—performing a spinning combo copied directly from Floor 312's battle recordings.
Leon's team split.
Roman engaged the chain side, deflecting its range with short, focused bursts of raw Body Force.
Roselia and Liliana covered the rear, using spatial field magic to disrupt the anomaly's timing.
Milim was everywhere—her speed allowing her to bait and harass the beast's confused minds.
Leon?
He was the tempo.
Each time the anomaly adjusted, he altered the rhythm—delaying a strike by a heartbeat, doubling a step, skipping a beat to throw off its sync.
"Tripart Echo—Collapsed Sequence."
He struck thrice in one instant. The anomaly screamed—all three heads reacting differently—one in fear, one in rage, one in agony.
"You don't remember who you are," Leon said quietly.
"So let me end the confusion."
Fracture Requiem activated.
The strike did not kill the Chimera instantly. It cut through its last memory.
Each head saw its past flash—its final moment of life, its final echo, the moment of being lost.
Then—
Silence.
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