By: IMERPUS RELUR
--
Kai stood before her—half-drawn, half-silent.
The girl's body glowed faintly, her hair flowing like living ink caught in a breeze he couldn't feel. She blinked slowly, as if it took effort to exist in front of him.
> "You came back," she repeated. "Or maybe... you never left."
Her name appeared above her head in floating symbols. But they kept shifting—glitching between characters, flickering through languages, even reverting to brushstrokes.
He stepped closer.
> [UNSTABLE MEMORY ENTITY: NAME UNKNOWN]
Bond Level: Root
Status: Incomplete
> "What are you?" Kai asked, though part of him already knew.
> "Ink," she said. "You made me. Then forgot me."
She raised a hand, and the entire shrine pulsed outward—like a heart exhaling ink. The trees reshaped. The floor tiles shimmered. And beneath it all, glowing threadlines of memory stretched beneath every corner.
> [Shrine Layer: Drawn Layer, Emotional Depth 6]
Warning: Incomplete regions may collapse upon exit.
Kai felt a chill. He hadn't just drawn this place. He'd anchored it to a feeling. And feelings… didn't fade.
They waited.
---
> "You have to stabilize the background," the girl said. "Or this world will unravel."
Kai instinctively pulled his sketchpad from his bag—though he hadn't packed it.
His hand began to move before he gave it permission. A cliff. An ocean. A single tower in the sky made of vapor and shattered stars.
As he drew, the world changed around him. The tower rose behind the shrine. The horizon adjusted. Wind moved with new purpose.
> [WORLD STABILIZATION: 93%]
[Drawing Integration Confirmed]
[System Expanding...]
Kai exhaled. His head throbbed with strange echoes.
> "You remember pieces," the girl said, softer now. "But there's more. Beneath the shrine. Under the page."
She touched his chest lightly with one finger.
> "That's where I'm from."
The panel flickered once more.
> [Memory Fragment Located: Shrine of Lost Patterns, Layer 0]
Access: Authorized.
The ground shifted.
And a stairwell appeared beneath the altar.