[System Time: 10:03:58]
Status: Dominion Integrity: 91%
Trait "Fragmented Insight" – ACTIVE
Effects:
– Author Text cooldown accelerated by 30 minutes for each Chapter Anchor created.
– Echo selves may appear near high-pressure narrative points.
– Warning: Mental strain accumulates with each manifestation.
Noah awoke with a dull headache and an open window pane that he didn't remember opening.
The morning light in Danton looked calm—too calm.
And that's how he knew something was wrong.
He checked his system log.
[Anchor Point: Chapter 20 – Unlocked]
Result: -30 min to Author Text Cooldown
Remaining: 13:51:11
New Flag: Narrative Echo Detected
Noah closed the HUD and stepped outside his quarters.
Someone was already waiting for him.
Talia.
She leaned against the doorframe with two cups of bitterroot tea and her usual unreadable gaze.
"You saw the ghost?" she asked without looking at him.
"You mean the version of me chained to a burning shelf of books?" he replied.
She offered a cup.
"So yes."
Dominion West Barricade – Midday
The patrol team had picked up readings outside the mist border. It wasn't monster signatures—it wasn't even Reader activity.
It was something worse.
A structure.
Unscripted.
Unmarked.
Built overnight.
"I swear it wasn't there yesterday," said Lin (the new one—his Anchor was a restored copy, thanks to the Author Text).
Noah and Seraphine arrived at the outer perimeter to see it.
A spiral tower of pale stone, floating three inches above the dirt. Its base didn't touch the ground. Its walls flickered with residual data noise, as if not fully rendered by the system.
Noah checked his interface.
[Structure Detected: Echo Gate – Category: Temporal Residue]
Origin: Divergent Timeline
Risk: High
Passive Effect: Pulls alternate selves toward convergence.
"What happens if it finishes forming?" Seraphine asked.
"It becomes an open gate," Noah muttered. "And we get to meet every version of me that decided not to save anyone."
System View – Echo Signature Report
Echo Convergence Warning
Timeline Overlap Detected: D-Class Divergence
Estimated Echoes: 1 confirmed
Identity: Unknown Variant – "Crosser"
Traits:
– Author Text Override
– Reader Devour
– Reality Drift
Note: "Crosser" is not an alternate you. It is a remnant of a corrupted path that devoured its own narrative.
Inside the Core Hall, Noah gathered Talia, Seraphine, and the surviving command group.
He drew the Echo Gate on the board, circled in red.
"This is the next enemy. It's not a monster, and it's not Delta. It's something made from me, or… something that came from me failing."
"Can we destroy the gate?" Talia asked.
Noah shook his head. "I'd need full system control. And with my current classification, I'm locked out of direct narrative deletion."
"Then we seal it," Seraphine said.
He looked at her.
"I need time to prepare an Author Text that can stop a version of myself."
[System Update: You are preparing a Chapter Anchor]
Estimated Impact: High
If successful, new Author Text will unlock:
"No Echo may remain where the original has already made a choice."
Echo Gate – 02:13 PM
It opened.
Not with a bang—but a ripple, like a sentence being rewritten.
A man stepped out.
He looked like Noah.
Same coat. Same face.
But no eyes.
Only black script pouring endlessly from the sockets, words coiling around his arms and legs like living chains.
[IDENTITY: ECHO – "THE CROSSER"]
Chapter Path: Unknown
Survivors in Origin: 0
Anchor Points: Consumed
Classification: Echo Aberrant
Objective: Replace the original.
"Hello, me," he said.
His voice sounded like Noah's, but older. Broken. Hollow.
"You made too many choices."
Noah stepped forward, blade out, but not raised.
"I made the ones you couldn't."
Crosser tilted his head.
"I remember Danton. I erased it."
Noah's HUD flared.
[Emergency Combat Scenario: Initiated]
Battlefield: Echo Zone (Temporarily formed around the Gate)
Narrative Weight: 50% on Origin Self
Rule Set: Only one Noah may exist in the current timeline.
Crosser moved first, his arms unfolding into script-weapons—sickle-shaped blades made from pages of consumed timelines. He threw one.
Noah ducked, rolling behind the debris of a crushed signal tower.
Talia and Seraphine joined from the flank.
But this enemy wasn't like Delta_Zero.
This one knew how they fought. Because he remembered.
Because he had once made those same choices.
[Crosser Trait – Echo Prediction]
For 30 seconds, can mirror Origin Self's last 3 attacks with increased efficiency.
Noah switched strategies.
He stopped reacting.
He stood still, letting the Crosser circle him.
"I know what you are," Noah said.
"You're what's left when I forget why I keep fighting."
The Crosser paused.
And in that second of distraction, Noah hit Anchor Point: 20.
[Author Text: AVAILABLE]
"No Echo may remain where the original has already made a choice."
He activated it.
The script exploded around him.
Chains shattered.
The Crosser screamed, a thousand pages tearing at once.
[Echo Anchor Rejected]
"This story has already been written."
Echo eliminated.
[Structure Status: Dismantled]
New Trait Acquired:
– Echo Proofed (You cannot be replaced by future Echo manifestations unless timeline collapses)
Current Stability: 96%
Later, Noah stood over the last crumbling glyph of the Crosser.
He could still hear the voice faintly.
"Don't forget why…"
But he didn't finish.
Talia appeared beside him.
"You won."
"For now."
He checked the System Log.
[Warning: You've taken a step further from "Reader."]
Classification Update: Narrative Divergent