SWNOVELXO Chapter 45: Awakened Edge
Location: Ruined Outskirts → Burned District 9 Time: July 17th, 6:00 AM – 2:00 PM
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6:00 AM – Routine Rebuilt
Kael exhaled slowly, steam curling from his mouth. The sky above the ruins was bruised-purple with dawn. Behind him, the cracked ground still held faint scars from the dinosaur ambush the day before.
He moved through his daily routine: push-ups, squats, sit-ups—thirty-three of each, twice. Not out of vanity or discipline. Out of necessity. Habit was armor now.
> [Daily Task Completed] Physical Buff: Active Echo Sync: Stable
He wiped sweat from his brow. The Primordial Mimic, now mostly manifesting as a skeletal figure in his peripheral vision, observed him silently. It didn't speak unless necessary. Today, it did.
> "There is a pulse. Familiar. Foul."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Where?"
The mimic pointed—not with a gesture, but a pressure. A location etched into Kael's thoughts like instinct.
> "You must reach it before it spreads. Before it devours."
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7:15 AM – Urban Crawl
Kael packed up alone and slipped past the scattered camps where the others still slept. Elle, Armin, Dain—they needed rest. His footsteps were light, strategic. Ghost Veil flickered in his blood as he moved across the broken landscape.
The mimic hovered like a shadow across buildings, whispering directions only he could hear. Through fallen bridges, collapsed highways, and twisted skeletal remains of buildings long swallowed by the outbreak.
As Kael moved, so did the presence.
And then he felt it.
Pressure.
A presence like his mimic—but not his.
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11:30 AM – Burned District 9
Kael stopped at the edge of a scorched city. Burned husks of buildings leaned like tombstones. Roads were littered with long-dead bones, melted signs, and strange scorch marks.
> "This is where the copy hides," the mimic said.
The ground shook faintly.
Then he saw them.
Twelve figures—twisted. Human once, maybe. Now? They were tall, gaunt, with bones protruding from flesh like exoskeletons. Spiral burns coiled across their arms. Their eyes bled faint red light.
Mimic-infused.
Kael watched as they marched—patrolling the ruins with unnatural synchronization.
Behind them stood the creature.
A mimic nearly identical to his own. The same skeletal body. The same stitched eyes. But something was different. Its aura was sharp, predatory.
It spoke—but not aloud. A voice broke into Kael's mind.
> "You are not the only soulbound." "But you are the strongest."
Kael's jaw tightened. He pulled his mask back on his face. Drew his dagger.
> "Let's see."
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12:00 PM – The Fight Begins
Kael approached strategically. He watched the patrol pattern of the twelve twisted humans—each one responding to faint gestures from the false mimic.
He triggered Routine Serge and Ghost Veil. In a blink, he was behind the first hybrid. His dagger found its neck, fast and silent.
> One down.
But the rest reacted immediately.
> [Shared Signal Detected – Hive Reaction Initiated]
Kael ducked just as a spear of bone missed his shoulder by inches. The hybrid soldiers swarmed, fast and mindless. But he wasn't unprepared.
He struck the ground.
> [Injury Heal – Active] [Ghost Veil – Reapplied]
He baited them into a narrow alley between two collapsed buildings. The confined space limited their coordination.
He fought methodically—crippling, not killing. Using footwork to redirect and delay. When they began flanking, he tossed a mimic shard from his pouch—stolen tech from his last fight. The resulting explosion blasted two hybrids backward.
> Eight remaining.
Kael's breath was sharp. His heartbeat slow. The Primordial Mimic spoke softly.
> "They are fractured echoes. Not complete."
Kael stabbed upward, impaling one hybrid through the mouth as it lunged. Another tried to trap him from behind—but he rolled, slicing its hamstring before finishing it with a downward slash.
> Five.
The false mimic stepped forward finally, watching. Its face shimmered like a cracked mirror.
> "You don't understand what you've bound yourself to."
Kael spat blood. "I understand enough to survive."
The final wave came fast—two flanking, one directly above leaping from a half-ruined balcony.
Kael didn't retreat. He stepped into the chaos.
He ducked low, tripping one and forcing it into the path of another. He twisted mid-roll, bringing his elbow into a hybrid's temple. Bones cracked. Screams echoed.
> [Soulbound: Partial Summon – 1 Minute Duration]
The Primordial Mimic flickered into form beside him, mirroring his stance. Together, they struck—Kael slashing, the humanoid monster dragging another into shadow.
The battlefield stilled.
All twelve were down.
Kael exhaled.
But the false mimic remained.
> "We are not enemies," it said. "Not yet."
> "But soon, you will be hunted by more than dinosaurs."
It stepped backward into a fissure and vanished.
Kael stood alone among the ruined corpses of things that used to be human.
And the sun kept rising.
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2:00 PM – Cliffhanger
Kael sat beneath the shell of an old train car, catching his breath. His mimic shimmered beside him, silent but humming with unease.
> "You did well," it finally said. "But others will come."
Kael nodded slowly.
Far off, toward Bastion 7, the sound of an explosion echoed across the sky.
He stood.
Another battle was already calling.
> TO BE CONTINUED...