There was no record of Glassend in any Guild archives.
No Gate logs. No system-tracked anomalies. No mention in post-Surge survivor maps.
But Kane the smuggler had mentioned it once—eyes wide, voice lowered, as if saying the name itself could bring it back.
"A city where memory goes to rot," he'd said. "Where the dead walk not because they're raised… but because they forgot how to rest."
Ezra didn't believe him then.
Now, standing at the edge of what used to be a towering metro skyline, he believed everything.
The city was intact, but wrong.
Buildings leaned inward like they were whispering to each other. Streetlights flickered in long-dead patterns. Billboards showed looping footage of people who didn't exist anymore. And there were no birds. No animals.
Just wind, and a silence that vibrated.
[Location Discovered: GLASSEND (Unrecorded)]World Designation: Phantom TierSystem Status: Disabled
WARNING: Memory degradation may occur beyond threshold exposure.Artifact Signature Detected: Anchor-Class Soul Focus (Dormant)
Rei stepped beside Ezra, her breath fogging despite the mild air.
"This place… hurts."
Ezra nodded.
"It's not undead," he said. "It's unremembered."
She turned to him. "Why are we here again?"
He didn't answer right away.
Instead, he pulled up the last system message from Hollow Mercy:
[Gem Resonance: Critical]Anchor Required to prevent Soul Fracture. Seek a Focus forged before the Surge.
This was the only lead.
An Anchor-Class Soul Focus—an ancient artifact once used to stabilize mental collapse in dual-class Awakened before the system fully formed.
He had to find it.
Because if Rei was right…
He was already starting to change.
Glassend – Entry Point
They crossed a cracked highway, where rusted cars had long since fused into the concrete.
The Bone Rat walked ahead like a scout, stopping every so often to hiss at shadows that weren't there.
Rei stayed close to Ezra, her hand never far from her blade.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing ahead.
A massive statue stood in the middle of a traffic roundabout.
It was a woman—eyes blindfolded, arms raised, holding a scale in one hand… and a shattered crown in the other.
Inscribed beneath her feet were words chiseled in an old language, half-eaten by time:
"She who forgets herself shall rule the forgotten."
Ezra stared at the statue.
He didn't know why, but his chest felt tight.
"I've seen her before," he muttered.
Rei blinked. "Where?"
He shook his head. "Not in memory. In… echoes."
Suddenly, the statue's head turned.
No sound. No movement. Just a change.
The blindfolded eyes now stared directly at him.
Rei drew her blade. "We need to move."
Ezra didn't argue.
Glassend – Inner Ring
The deeper they went, the less stable the world became.
At one point, the buildings began to repeat—the exact same shop, over and over again, copied down to the dust patterns on the floor. Signs read "ALTO'S GROCERY" ten, twenty, thirty times, looping endlessly along the block.
The Bone Rat vanished for thirty minutes.
Rei's reflection stopped matching her movements.
Ezra stopped seeing his own entirely.
[Soul Stability: 76%]System Buffer Engaged – Hollow Mercy suppressing cognitive decay.
They found the Anchor in an abandoned museum.
It sat at the center of a shattered exhibit, floating above a plinth made of white bone and obsidian glass.
It was not beautiful.
It looked like a cracked, black heart wrapped in chains, pulsing faintly in time with Ezra's soul.
[Anchor-Class Soul Focus – Condition: Dormant/Corrupted]Bind to Hollowborn to stabilize Gem influence.
He stepped forward.
But something moved behind the display.
A shape.Then another.And another.
Figures crawled out from the shadows—some missing limbs, some crawling, some weeping soundlessly.
[Entity Class: Forgotten Dead]Undead created not through death—but erasure. Victims of memory collapse.
Combat Difficulty: Variable. Unpredictable. Extremely contagious.
Rei backed up. "Ezra…"
"I see them."
He raised Hollow Mercy.
The undead didn't charge.
They cried.
A dozen of them fell to their knees. One clawed at its face. Another reached toward Ezra with trembling fingers.
He didn't understand.
Then one of them spoke.
"Ezra?"
He froze.
That voice—
It wasn't distorted.
It wasn't undead.
It was Milo.
The Voice of the Dead
Ezra stepped forward before Rei could stop him.
The figure closest to him—half-melted, face indistinct—tilted its head.
"Ezra… you said we'd survive…"
He staggered. "No. This isn't real. You died. I buried you."
The creature stepped closer. "But you kept waking up. You never let us rest."
Behind it, more shapes formed. Some wore faces from his childhood. Orphanage friends. Street thieves. Even Sister Miriam, who once snuck him stale bread and died to protect him from a rampaging Ghoul.
Ezra dropped to one knee.
"I didn't mean to forget you."
One of the figures raised a hand.
"Then remember."
[Anchor Initiation Sequence – Triggered]Binding Echo Detected: Personal. Direct.
Do you accept the weight of memory?
Ezra whispered, "Yes."
The Anchor leapt into his chest like a bolt of lightning.
Anchor Bound
[Soul Anchor Bound – Gem Influence Stabilized]Hollow Mercy: Soul Integrity now at 91%
New Passive Unlocked: Grave Memory(Each undead under your control carries a memory. Once per day, one can speak.)
Ezra gasped and fell backward as the world reeled around him.
The Forgotten Dead stared at him with empty eyes.
Then they nodded.
And vanished.
All except one.
A young boy, maybe twelve, with scruffy hair and bare feet.
He looked up at Ezra with calm eyes.
"Milo?" Ezra whispered.
The boy smiled. "It's not your fault."
Then he too faded.
Outside the Museum – One Hour Later
Rei had to drag him out.
He didn't speak for a long time.
Eventually, she sat him down beside an overturned bus and lit a mana flare to keep the fog back.
He finally whispered, "I saw them all."
Rei rested her hand over his.
"I know."
"I thought I buried them."
"You did."
"Then why do they still cry?"
Rei leaned her head against his shoulder.
"Because so do you."
System Notification – Midnight
[Gem Slot 4 – Signal Acquired]Location: The Garden of Pale SaintsStatus: Incomplete Dungeon | Origin: Veil Court Artifact Vault
Note: Final Trial Before Synthesis Phase
Gem Affinity: BALANCE
Ezra stared at the message.
Four down.
One more to go.
And beyond that…
Whatever came next.