WARRIOR OF LIBERATION

"What if the things you remember were never yours to begin with?"

— Unknown, Sourcefire Fragment 017A

📍 Emberfield – Recovery Sector, Nightfall

The ember flickered on Sei's palm like a heartbeat he couldn't control.

Not because it was wild.

Because it was not his.

He sat on the edge of the clinic bed, flame-burned armor resting against the wall, while Mina silently scanned the energy coming off him.

"Still no reaction to soulfire frequencies," she muttered. "Still not reading as Echo-based. This is something else."

Sei didn't answer right away.

He wasn't even sure he was really here anymore.

Finally, he broke the silence.

"I felt something while I was inside that vault."

He turned to face her.

"I didn't just see the Source Protocol. I think it… saw me back."

Mina tilted her head. "You said it gave you something."

Sei nodded.

He held out the ember.

"It's not a weapon. Not a command. It's a… key."

She looked closer, frowning. "That's not a flame."

"No," he agreed. "It's a memory. One that doesn't belong to me."

🔓 TRUTH KEY: SAGE 01 ACTIVATED

External Memory Sequence Opening: Temporal Thread Located

Stabilizing environment…

Warning: Viewer consciousness may entangle with preserved subject.

📍 [External Memory View] – Eden Prime Research Vault | Cycle -0001

The world turned white-blue.

Clean, unnatural light bathed everything.

Sei felt himself pulled from his body, mind submerged in someone else's recorded reality.

He stood in a massive underground hall.

Dozens of technicians moved without words, connected to glowing stream-lines of Lightcode — pure structured logic flowing like data-rivers.

None of them burned.

None of them felt.

In the center of the room — a child.

Barely ten years old.

Strapped upright to a ring of shimmering glyphs.

No fire in his eyes.

Only raw, unfinished data.

SUBJECT ID: K-0

Project Tag: "Emotion-Flame Catalyst Test"

Status: Stability Failure at 19% Core Retention

Sei stepped forward, unsure if he was meant to be observing, or becoming.

A nearby technician spoke into a shimmering console:

"If the spark persists longer than expected, terminate immediately."

Another responded:

"We're seeing second-order memory development. Unscripted reaction."

"Then it's too late," said a third voice, colder. "Burn the subject file before it burns back."

Suddenly, the boy's head lifted.

And without warning —

He looked directly at Sei.

Through time.

Through code.

Through memory.

And spoke, in a whisper that bent the memory-space:

"I see you."

"Do you see me?"

🚨 Paradox Alert: Subject Awareness Exceeds Memory Barrier

TRUTH KEY OVERLOAD

Immediate Exit Required

But before Sei could react, another voice echoed from deep within the system:

"You shouldn't be here, Flamebearer."

"This thread was sealed before your world ever began."

The environment shattered.

Like glass, the Lightcode ruptured, tearing the memory apart from the inside.

And then —

Darkness.

📍 Emberfield – Recovery Clinic (Minutes Later)

Sei bolted upright, gasping for breath.

The ember had vanished.

But something had been left behind in its place — a glowing scar across his wrist, shaped like the K-0 ring glyphs.

Mina rushed to his side. "Sei, what happened?"

He didn't answer right away.

Then, softly:

"The first flame wasn't created."

"It was tested."

Mina's voice dropped to a whisper. "Tested… on a kid?"

He nodded. "K-0. The prototype. They didn't teach it how to feel. They just lit it and waited to see if it would break."

"And did it?"

Sei looked toward the darkened sky.

"No."

"It's still alive."

🔔 World Update: Memory Distortions Reported in 17 Flame Settlements

Symptoms: Time skips, identity blur, vanishing records, false memories of peace

Cause: Unstable Anchor – Designation: "K-0"

Origin: UNKNOWN

Containment: FAILED

📍 Location: Sub-Core Archive – Depth Level 7 ("The White Forgotten")

A figure walked barefoot through a hallway of suspended memory-coffins.

Each one stored echoes of rebellions that had been wiped, rewritten, or deemed too dangerous to remember.

The figure stopped at a panel glowing with ancient light.

Inside floated a boy's image — eyes open. Watching.

From the shadows, two humanoid shapes appeared. Robed in white. Faces blank. Each marked with a glyph that pulsed in anti-flame frequency.

Source Coders.

They bowed.

"He's awake."

"The Flamebearer touched the thread."

"Then we begin."

The boy's image in the memory-coffin flickered.

And smiled.

NAME: KAI-0

Status: Reconstructing shell…

Emotional Firewall Offline. Memory Access Active.

Command: Seek the one who remembered me.

"Sei."

TO BE CONTINUED…