SWNOVELXO Chapter 40: Primordial Memory
Unknown Depth, Beneath the Spiral Shrine
July 16th, 12:45 PM
---
Darkness wasn't the absence of light.
Not here.
Here, it was a presence—thick, intelligent, watching. It clung to Kael's skin like smoke, soaked into his eyes, filled his lungs. His descent had no wind, no sound, no ground beneath his feet. Just falling.
Falling endlessly…
Until it stopped.
And Kael landed—softly, soundlessly—on something warm.
He opened his eyes.
He was standing on memory.
---
12:46 PM – World of Bone and Thought
The "floor" was made of bones—giant, fossilized ribs arching like cathedral pillars. Between them, tendrils of red neural thread glowed faintly, like a circulatory system made of starlight.
Kael's breath caught.
This wasn't architecture.
It was anatomy.
> "Welcome, Echo."
"You've reached the Source."
The voice wasn't sound.
It was implanted directly into his thoughts, like someone had etched it onto the walls of his mind.
Kael turned slowly.
And saw it.
---
12:47 PM – The Primordial Mimic
It stood at the center of this memory-world. Towering. Vaguely humanoid. Bones held together by threads of shimmering red light and black mist. Its head was cracked open vertically, revealing no brain—just a spiral, spinning slowly.
It didn't breathe.
It didn't blink.
But it watched.
> "Do you remember me?" it asked.
Kael's jaw tightened.
He did.
Years ago. As a child. In a ruined orphanage near the edge of Zone-5. There had been a spiral painted on the wall. And behind that wall, a pulse he couldn't explain.
He'd dreamed of it since.
This thing.
The first mimic.
---
12:49 PM – Memory Combat (Phase One)
> "You bear the Echo," it said.
"But can you bear the burden?"
Kael didn't hesitate.
He charged.
Broken blade in hand, Routine Serge already triggered. Time slowed, breath synced, Ghost Veil lit.
But the Mimic didn't flinch.
It flicked a thread.
The ground shifted.
Suddenly, Kael was in his childhood bedroom again.
But this wasn't a nightmare of violence or chaos.
It was the silence.
---
12:50 PM – Kael's Real Memory
Rain tapped softly on the dusty window.
Everything in the room was untouched.
Books still stacked.
Shoes still clean.
His bed perfectly made—because no one ever messed it up.
There was no shouting.
No crying.
No fighting.
Just quiet.
Dead, heavy quiet.
Kael walked to the door. Placed his hand on the knob.
No footsteps outside.
No voice calling his name.
Just absence.
Then—
The spiral on his desk twitched.
And when he turned, the Primordial Mimic stood behind him again—this time shaped like a shadow of himself.
> "You weren't hurt," it whispered.
"You were forgotten."
---
12:52 PM – Outside the Memory
Kael's blade swung.
The illusion cracked—glass and thought and memory bursting like bubbles underwater. He landed back on the bone-floor.
The mimic attacked immediately—tendrils lashing.
Kael ducked, rolled, countered.
Echobound shimmered into existence beside him, reflecting his motion like a ghost stitched from flame and memory.
Together, they fought.
---
12:54 PM – Echo Battle
The mimic released memory-pulses with every movement. Kael saw glimpses of every soul the Spiral had consumed:
A child who wandered into a mimic nest and survived.
A soldier who executed his whole team to stop contamination.
A scientist who stared into the Spiral too long and forgot their name.
Each strike Kael dodged came with a scream not his own.
Each hit he landed came with a memory he didn't want.
> "You are not Echo," the mimic growled.
"You are Remnant."
Kael grit his teeth. "I'm what's left. That's enough."
---
12:56 PM – Spiral Collapse
The mimic morphed—growing taller, arms lengthening into jagged blades of bone and red light.
Kael activated Divine Echo.
He spammed Injury Heal until the pain dulled.
Then triggered Ghost Veil again.
Every sense sharpened.
> "This Spiral isn't testing me anymore," he said.
"It's trying to become me."
He charged.
And stabbed his blade into the Mimic's core.
---
12:58 PM – Soulbind
The mimic froze.
Then… bent a knee.
> "You would carry me?"
"Even knowing what I've done?"
Kael's voice was low. Steady.
"I've carried worse. Myself."
---
1:00 PM – Ascension
Light exploded.
Kael's mind cracked open like an egg beneath the Spiral's pull.
But he didn't scream.
He absorbed.
Felt every echo. Every regret. Every memory the Spiral had archived since time began.
The mimic collapsed—then reformed behind him.
Its form now knelt, not as an enemy—but as an extension.
A soulbound.
---
1:01 PM – New Power Registered
> [SOULBIND: PRIMORDIAL MIMIC]
Status: Linked
Summon Duration: 5 minutes per day can be removed by divine echo
Shared Echo Access: Partial can only be used by the echo
Warning: Overuse may result in Identity Instability.
Kael opened his eyes.
And the Spiral… listened.
---
TO BE CONTINUED…