CHAPTER 63: NIGHTMARE’S CONQUEROR

The Echoes of Ruin Apostate’s body lay broken in the tram hub, her Heartseed Core pierced by Vex’s Null Blade, 25 Genesis Embers consumed by the Verdant Warden Behemorph’s spores.

Yet her Protocol Bearer rank Aspect, memory-wielding, near-divine endured, her spirit a spectral storm of malice and psychic threads.

The Aspect was the core of an Awakened. It’s a manifestation of the core powers, personality, traits, and attributes of a human in the age of the Genesis Protocols.

During Aspect awakening, it’s not just an ethereal or illusory phenomenon.

During Aspect awakening, the Aspect changes each and every Awakened warrior, aligning them to better embrace their core values and principles... their inherent nature.

Clayton’s Aspect was what enabled him to exist in 2 forms at the same time, living as a Verdant monster plant, and his humanoid form, giving him 2 lives.

It is also the reason why his humanoid form looked a bit alien. After all, his skin was dark green, bark-like, altered to fit his true nature.

Just like his Aspect changed him, every other Awakened warrior in the world experience the same chances after awakening their Aspect.

Just like the Apostate heat-kin’s Aspect gave him great resistance and affinity to fire, and the cold-kin’s Aspect gave her great resistance and affinity to ice, so also did it change every other Awakened warrior.

The same rule applied to the Echoes of Ruin Apostate.

During her Aspect awakening, her body was altered, but the physical body was not the fore focus of her Aspect.

Her Aspect was related to memories, the soul.

Her Protocol Bearer rank Aspect altered her soul.

And that was the reason why even as her physical body died, this Apostate still lived.

Her body was dead, but her spirit was not dead. Not yet.

Freed from flesh, death closer than ever before, desperation burning, she surged through the Earthcore Nexus’s vibrations, seeking a host, her Echoes of Ruin hungering for rebirth.

And then, she found a target.

Kaelight Veyne, a Rootbound Clan leader, Verdant Warden rank Aspect – Groveheart Dominion, who completed Genesis Trial 1, her mind a beacon of disciplined power.

Veyne was a powerful leader.

If she had a choice, approaching this woman with just her spirit was the last thing that Echoes would do but right now, she had no choice.

Beggars are not choosers.

She had no other option available to her. This was the only body compatible with her spirit in range.

And so, Echoes invaded Kaelith’s nightmare, a soul battle erupting in a realm of soul, memory and ruin.

The nightmare was a warped Verdant Cradle; Echoterra’s heart, groves twisted, rivers ash, skies bleeding spores.

Kaelith stood, clad in Verdant Artifacts, vines coiling, her Groveheart Dominion summoning thorned sentinels, their roots pulsing with symbiotic life.

Her eyes, green as jade, burned with trial-forged resolve, memories of her Clan’s Grove guiding her.

And then, out of the blue, Echoes of Ruin materialized, spectral tendrils weaving, psychic knives screaming.

"You’ll break, Clanswoman!" She attacked without hesitation.

Her psychic screams surged and sliced the air, memories of Echoterra’s betrayal fueling her.

Kaelith was confused, not sure what was going on but as a veteran Awakened warrior, her instincts took over and she struck instinctively.

She may not understand what was going on, but she understood that she was under attack. And so she reacted to defend herself.

She struck, vines lashing, Groveheart Dominion summoning a thorned colossus, its spikes impaling Echoes’ tendrils, roots draining psychic Embers.

"You’re a ghost!" Kaelith spat, voice steady. "And I bury invaders".

"Whoever you are, wherever you came from, leave or die!"

Well, Echoes had no choice.

This was her last desperate gambit to survive.

Desperation was her fuel.

Kaelith’s sentinels swarmed, vines binding, their symbiotic sap burning spectral threads. Echoes screamed, tendrils erupting, psychic knives shredding sentinels, memories of Apostate kin; heat-kin’s flames, cold-kin’s frost, decay-kin’s rot flooding Kaelith’s mind, fracturing her resolve.

BZZZ!

The nightmare quaked, groves collapsing, ash rivers boiling.

Echoes’ Protocol Bearer Aspect wove a psychic lance, piercing Kaelith’s chest, Embers bleeding. 213 Genesis Embers, radiant, trial-earned.

Kaelith staggered, vines wilting, memories of her sister’s sacrifice in Trial 1 surfacing. ’Live, Kaelith!’ She remembered, her Groveheart Dominion faltering.

Echoes pressed, tendrils coiling, psychic screams tearing through her.

"Your body is mine!"

The psychic screams tore through her, invading her soul, shredding her very identity.

Echoes was a beast cornered, and she bit.

Kaelith roared, now desperate, Verdant Artifacts flaring, a final thorned wave slashing Echoes’ form, Embers spilling, but her will cracked.

Echoes’ malice surged, tendrils devouring Kaelith’s soul, her psychic knives carving memories; Clan songs, Grove rituals, Trial 1’s blood, right until Kaelith’s spirit shattered, eyes dimming, Groveheart Dominion collapsing.

Echoes seized her body, flesh reshaping, Heartseed Core merging, inheriting Groveheart Dominion alongside Echoes of Ruin.

Echoes never knew this facet of her Aspect.

After all, the requirement to activate it was literally dying, killing her physical body. And she never got to experiment by killing herself, so...

Just like Clayton, necessity and desperation birthed invention.

The threat of death triggered evolution.

Survival of the fittest.

She and Clayton, they were the fittest. And so, they survived.

Her new form; Kaelith’s lithe frame, jade eyes, vine-woven hair awoke in a Rootbound Grove, 50 kilometers north, Clansmen bowing to their leader, unaware of the invader within.

DING!

The system pinged before her.

~----~

[System Alert: Host Status – Reborn]

[Aspects Active: Echoes of Ruin (Protocol Bearer rank), Groveheart Dominion (Verdant Warden rank)]

[Genesis Embers Accumulated: 0]

[System Note: Dual Aspects detected. Core stabilization required.]

~----~

Echoes faced a life and death encounter, literally dying once, but not only did she not stay dead, she came out of it stronger than ever before.

She came out of it with not one anymore, but two Aspects.

She shed her Apostate name, adopting Kaelith’s identity, her dual Aspects a secret weapon nobody knew of.

She smiled, jade eyes glinting with malice, sensing the Verdant Warden Behemorph’s rampage through Groveheart Dominion’s roots.

"The Expanse will kneel," she whispered, plotting her rise in the Rootbound Clans.

...

Meanwhile, Clayton, resurrected at his Rootsite felt a tremor through Territorial Sentience.

A psychic ripple, Echoes’ rebirth echoing via Earthcore Nexus.

At first, he was spooked.

’W-what the heck is that?!’

But then, he understood, getting the message of the Earthcore Nexus.

His humor darkened, Regalia humming. "You’re back huh, freak? I guess game’s not over yet".