NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 6: Born of the Signal
The silence inside The Hollow wasn't natural.
It wasn't the peaceful kind found in forests or the calm of midnight—it was the eerie, mechanical stillness of a system that had just reset itself. Since returning from the temple, the ring on Vir's hand had been quiet, its golden glint reduced to a soft flicker. But something about that silence felt… wrong.
Kyra hadn't spoken much either.
She sat alone most of the time, watching static dance across the monitors. Her mechanical eye blinked irregularly, and now and then, strange data would flash across it in an ancient language even Arin couldn't decode.
It had been two days since they deactivated the Echo Core.
Two days of stillness.
Two days before it began.
A Signal in the Static
Vir was halfway through a training sequence when the console lights flickered.
Arin looked up from his comms tablet. "Power's stable. That shouldn't happen."
Then static crackled through the radio.
"Born… of… the… signal…"
Vir stopped. "Did you hear that?"
Kyra froze.
Suddenly, every monitor glitched—flickering in rapid pulses. The same symbol that had once floated above the Echo Core appeared on all screens: a circle within a hexagon, lines twisting like circuits.
"Initialization… in progress."
A deep, distorted voice whispered through the air. Not through speakers. Through space itself.
Arin stood. "That's not a message. It's a presence."
Vir clutched his chest—the ring grew warm. Not glowing. Not pulsing. Burning.
Kyra suddenly screamed.
They turned—and saw her collapse.
Her eye flickered, then shone bright red. Her body convulsed, limbs stiff, as if something inside was rewriting her.
"KYRA!" Vir ran to her.
Her voice layered over itself, three tones at once.
"Signal… has found its host."
Then she collapsed—breathing but unconscious.
Arin's voice was grim. "We didn't shut Echo down. We woke something else."
The Signal-Born
That night, Vir sat beside Kyra, watching her sleep. Her skin had turned slightly pale, and her body glowed faintly under the skin—lines of red light tracing veins like circuits.
"Is she dying?" he asked.
Arin shook his head. "Worse. She's evolving."
Vir looked at him.
"I've seen this once before," Arin admitted. "In a test subject during Project Nyx. A failed carrier. The Echo tried to preserve them with code—but the code rewrote the host. A new being formed. Not human. Not machine."
"And what happened?"
"It became unstable. Then it vanished—into signal."
Vir stared at the ring. "So Kyra is turning into… what?"
Arin didn't answer.
Just then, the air shimmered.
A figure emerged from the corner—tall, cloaked in digital static. Its face was a mask of shifting symbols, its eyes hollow.
"I… am the born-signal. The one between memory and machine. You silenced the Echo… and so it sent me."
Vir stood.
"Stay back!"
The ring pulsed to life—finally awake.
The figure tilted its head. "You carry the Anchor. The ring of resistance. It must be severed."
It raised a hand.
The Hollow trembled. Wires snapped, walls cracked, and the air turned metallic. Red data-strings slithered from the ceiling, trying to bind Vir.
But he leapt—rolling to the side, activating Phase Echo mode mid-air.
His body blurred, moving between space.
He slammed his fist into the entity—only for it to split into fragments, reforming instantly.
"You cannot fight what has no form."
Arin drew a plasma blade. "Then I'll erase the form."
He sliced through the data-tendrils, clearing a path to Kyra.
"Get her out!" Arin yelled.
Vir nodded, hoisting Kyra in his arms. But the signal-entity reached forward—
Suddenly—Kyra's eyes opened.
Bright red. Glowing.
She stood up.
"No," she said—three voices in unison. "He stays."
The Split Mind
Kyra's body stood straight—rigid, powerful. Her mechanical eye spun rapidly, projecting symbols across the walls.
Vir backed away. "Kyra?"
"Part of me," she said. "But not all. The Signal speaks now. She watches. Learns."
Arin hissed, "The code infected her core."
Kyra looked down at her hands—surprised by her own strength.
"I remember things," she whispered. "Places I've never been. A world rewritten. I can feel the previous versions of me."
Vir stepped forward.
"You're still in there. I know it."
Her voice shook. "I… don't know who 'me' is anymore."
Suddenly, a sphere of red light formed in her palm.
She screamed—trying to contain it.
"GET BACK!" she cried.
The orb exploded—tearing through one side of The Hollow.
Escape and Truth
Hours later, they regrouped in the abandoned upper levels of the city metro—a safe house Arin had used years ago.
Kyra sat in silence, hugging her knees.
"I'm changing," she said. "Every minute."
Vir sat beside her. "You're not alone."
She looked at him. "You don't get it. The more I change, the more I want it. The power. The clarity. It's like being reborn… without pain. Just code."
"Then we fight it," he said. "Together."
She shook her head. "What if I don't want to?"
That question hung in the air like smoke.
Signal's Whisper
That night, Vir had a vision.
He stood inside the Echo Core chamber again—but this time, it was clean. Restored. Beautiful.
His father stood there.
"You did well, son. But it's not over."
"The Signal is not part of Echo. It is older. Deeper. A backup—meant to reboot reality if Echo failed."
"But it found a host. Now it seeks permanence."
"You must choose: Save Kyra, or sever the Signal."
"You cannot do both."
Vir shouted, "There has to be another way!"
His father vanished.
And in his place stood a future version of Kyra—eyes glowing red, body crackling with power.
"I am what she becomes."
The Awakening
Vir woke with a gasp.
Kyra was gone.
Arin burst in. "She left. Alone. Heading south."
Vir stood. "Then we follow."
But Arin held out a hand.
"You may have to face her. Not as an ally… but as a Signal-born."
Vir looked down at the ring—now glowing steadily.
"I'll bring her back. No matter what."
And far beneath the city, deep inside the abandoned code of the Signal, Kyra stood in front of a data gateway.
It opened.
A voice greeted her.
"Welcome, Heir of the Code."
And she stepped through.
End of Chapter 6: Born of the Signal