The dungeon collapsed behind them in a storm of light and stone.
Elias stepped into the night air first, the Codex floating silently at his shoulder. His body ached with every step, his broken glasses slipping down his nose, but his stride was steady. Beside him, Lyra leaned on her staff, cloak torn, violet eyes still wide from what she had witnessed.
The hunters gathered near the gate froze when they saw them emerge. Whispers spread instantly.
"They lived…"
"The Devourer dungeon collapsed…"
"Impossible. No raid team could've done that."
Elias ignored them. His gaze was distant, his mind still echoing with the Codex's last Footnote.
The Devourers were failed guardians… abandoned prototypes.
If that was true, then dungeons weren't just threats. They were experiments. Fragments of an unfinished manuscript bleeding into reality.
And if the Authors could edit those fragments… then sooner or later, they would edit him too.
---
The council chamber roared again with outrage.
"This is out of control!" the Spirewatch master slammed his fist down. "He's destabilizing the entire system!"
Another leader spat, "First Hale fails to kill him, now an entire dungeon collapses under his interference. How long before he drags the rest of the world down with him?"
Eyes turned to Hale. The Crimson Fangs captain sat silent, arms crossed tightly over his chest. His scarred jaw was clenched, but not with anger — with fear.
He remembered the blade at his throat. The calm look in Elias's eyes. The Guardian that had risen from nothing and swatted aside the Devourer like an afterthought.
"Why are you quiet, Hale?" one leader pressed.
His teeth ground. "Because I've seen enough. If you want him dead, send someone else."
The chamber erupted.
"Coward!"
"He humiliated you, and now you'd run?"
"He'll destroy the guilds if we let him!"
Hale stood abruptly, his massive axe slamming against the table with a crack that silenced the room. His eyes burned with restrained fury.
"You didn't see him," Hale growled. "You didn't see what I saw." He turned, leaving the chamber without another word.
For the first time in his life, Captain Roderick Hale was hesitant.
---
The People's Eyes
Outside the halls of power, whispers spread like wildfire.
In taverns and marketplaces, in cramped apartments and shining guild towers, Elias's name was on every tongue.
Some called him a savior.
"If he can do what the guilds can't, maybe he'll protect us."
"They say he fights not for loot, not for glory, but because he has to."
Others called him a danger.
"No man should have that much power."
"If the Authors themselves moved against him… what will happen to us if he angers them further?"
Even ordinary children imitated him in the streets, folding scraps of parchment into fake floating pages, pretending to summon Guardians.
A librarian had become the world's new story.
---
Elias's Resolve
Later, in the quiet of the ruined Archive where he now spent most of his nights, Elias sat surrounded by stacks of parchment. Lyra stood nearby, her violet gaze soft but searching.
"You've been quiet," she said.
Elias didn't look up from his notes. His hand moved steadily, recording everything from the battle: the Devourer's runes, the Author's edits, the Guardian's emergence.
"I've been thinking."
Lyra tilted her head. "About what?"
Elias finally set the quill down, adjusting his cracked glasses. His eyes, though tired, burned with sharp clarity.
"The Codex isn't just giving me strength. It's giving me the truth. Dungeons, monsters, even the Editors and Authors — they're all fragments of a bigger manuscript."
"And?"
"And I want to find it," Elias said simply. His voice was calm, but it carried the weight of iron. "The Original Manuscript. The book of creation itself."
Lyra's breath caught.
"If I can read it," he continued, "I'll know why this world was written. Why it was abandoned. And maybe…" His hand brushed the Codex. "…I'll know how to finish it properly."
For the first time, Elias Crowe had a goal — not just to survive, not just to grow stronger, but to reach the heart of creation and confront the Authors themselves.
Lyra's lips curved into a faint smile. "That's not a small goal, librarian."
Elias adjusted his glasses. "Small goals don't change stories."
---
The Archive's heavy doors creaked open. Elias and Lyra turned.
A figure stood silhouetted against the torchlight — a man with ragged clothes, his face lined with exhaustion, but his eyes sharp with desperation. He carried no weapon, only a worn satchel strapped to his chest.
"I heard the rumors," he said hoarsely. "About the librarian who rewrites dungeons."
Elias studied him quietly.
The man stepped forward, pulling a bundle of parchment from his satchel. Old, yellowed notes covered in frantic scrawls. "I've been researching them for years. Dungeons. The Editors. The patterns in their appearances. Nobody believed me. The guilds called me mad." His eyes burned with intensity. "But you… you're proof I wasn't wrong."
Lyra raised a brow. "And you are?"
"Caleb Renhart," the man said. "Scholar. Outcast. And the only one who's been mapping the manuscript since the first gate appeared."
He dropped the parchment onto the table. Strange diagrams and runes sprawled across the pages, eerily similar to the Codex's footnotes.
"I can help you find it," Caleb said, his voice trembling with conviction. "The Original Manuscript. But if you want to get there… you'll need me."
Elias leaned back in his chair, studying the man. His Codex fluttered faintly, as though recognizing a familiar passage.
Finally, Elias gave a small nod. "Then welcome to the Archive."
Lyra folded her arms, watching Elias with a conflicted smile. Every page he turned seemed to pull more people into his story. And though she had once been certain she belonged to the guilds, that certainty was fading with every passing day.
---
The World Shifts
Far away, in places where mortals never walked, the Authors watched.
Their voices scratched across the void like quills against parchment.
> "The Archivist grows too quickly."
"He reads lines not meant for mortal eyes."
"Then we will write him an ending."
But Elias Crowe had already chosen his path.
And for the first time, the world had a new story.