The marble floor split open.
Runes blazed across the cracks, words too vast to comprehend. From them rose not a beast, nor a humanoid, but a shape made of text itself — shifting, folding, unraveling like an endless scroll.
It had no face, no eyes, no voice. Only words, glowing lines of script that twisted into a vague silhouette, quill-fingers scratching across the air as reality warped around it.
The air grew heavy, pressing down like a thousand books stacked upon every chest. Hunters collapsed to their knees, clutching their throats, choking on silence.
> [Fragment of Author Detected.]
[Narrative Integrity at Risk.]
---
Seraphine's golden eyes widened, her smile vanishing. Even she — who had paraded elegance through every disaster — staggered backward, clutching her chest. "This pressure… it's rewriting my breath…"
Hale coughed blood, collapsing fully to one knee. His axe slipped from his hands. "This… this isn't like the Sovereign…"
Spirewatch scribes screamed as their spells crumbled in their hands. Runes they drew were instantly overwritten, their incantations dissolving into blank sound.
Every guild banner burned, their symbols erased mid-fabric until only ashes remained.
---
Hunters cried out as the Fragment's quill scratched again. Words appeared across the floor, glowing with finality:
> [Erase Support.]
Lyra gasped, her barrier flickering. The spell unraveled beneath her hands, violet light sputtering. The weight crushed her to one knee.
"No… not like this," she whispered, sweat pouring down her face.
Then she felt it — Elias's presence behind her, steady as ever.
His voice cut through the storm, calm, absolute.
"Stand."
Her violet eyes burned. She screamed, forcing the barrier back into being, her staff blazing brighter than ever. The Author's script clashed against her light — and for the first time, faltered.
Hunters gasped, rallying behind her glow.
---
Caleb's quill scratched furiously, his ink-stained fingers flying across parchment. His voice cracked, but he shouted anyway:
"It's not erasing at random! It's following editorial commands — fragments of an Author's script! Look!"
He raised the parchment, showing the sequence of words. "First it erased guild symbols. Then support. Next it'll target… command structures. It's dismantling us piece by piece!"
Hunters froze in terror.
Elias adjusted his cracked glasses, the Codex burning at his side. His voice was quiet, sharp. "Then we won't let it finish."
---
The Fragment's quill slashed downward. Words bled across the air:
> [Erase: Elias Crowe.]
The hunters screamed.
But Elias raised a page, his voice steady.
> [Annotation: Erasure + Null Draft → Reader's Margin.]
The glowing word shattered, redirected into nothingness.
The Codex blazed, pages scattering into the air. Elias stepped forward, his bloodied coat trailing, his glasses cracked, but his gaze sharp.
"You write endings. I write margins."
The Fragment quivered, script flaring brighter, its quills multiplying.
The battle had only begun.
---
Seraphine clutched her healed arm, golden eyes fixed on Elias with awe and something sharper. "You're not just surviving. You're… rewriting them."
Lyra heard her tone, her jaw tightening, her violet glow blazing higher as if in answer.
Caleb trembled, eyes wide with terror and revelation. "If this is only a fragment… what will the full Author look like?"
The parchment sky rippled. More scrolls twisted, quills scratching louder, the whispers echoing through every mind:
> [The Reader must be erased.]
And Elias, steady in the storm, raised the Codex higher.
"Turn the page."