The Atrium trembled as the Fragment rose higher, its body unfolding like an endless scroll. Its quill-arms scratched across the air, every stroke birthing new words that warped the world around them.
> [Erase: Flame.]
Seraphine gasped as her golden fire sputtered, vanishing from her hand.
> [Erase: Steel.]
Crimson Fang weapons dissolved, hunters left clutching broken hilts.
> [Erase: Hope.]
The air grew heavier, pressing on chests, crushing wills. Hunters dropped to their knees, trembling, their eyes going blank.
The guilds who once commanded cities now cowered, reduced to scribbles on someone else's page.
---
The Fragment's next stroke flared across the hall.
> [Erase: Support.]
Lyra screamed as her barrier shattered, violet shards scattering into the air. She fell to one knee, sweat pouring down her face.
Hunters cried out, fear surging — but Elias's voice cut through the storm.
"Lyra."
Her violet eyes flicked up. His gaze was steady, calm, filled with certainty.
"You are not erased."
Her chest surged with fire. She rose, staff blazing brighter than it ever had. A dome of violet light erupted outward, intercepting the Fragment's next stroke.
The word cracked against her barrier — and failed.
Hunters gasped, rallying behind her glow. For the first time, they saw not just Elias, but her, standing as their shield against the impossible.
---
Caleb's quill scratched furiously, ink smearing across parchment as he recorded every stroke. His hands shook, but his voice rang clear.
"It's not random! It's writing an editorial sequence — stripping us down layer by layer. Flame, steel, support, hope… it's dismantling the concepts we rely on!"
Elias adjusted his cracked glasses, Codex glowing at his side. "And what's next?"
Caleb's eyes widened as he traced the strokes. His breath hitched.
"It's preparing to erase command. If it does, we'll scatter. No unity. No direction."
Elias's voice sharpened. "Then we won't let it."
---
The Fragment's quills flared.
> [Erase: Command.]
Elias stepped forward, Codex bursting open.
> [Annotation: Erasure + Command + Null Draft → Reader's Script.]
Pages flared across the battlefield, glowing words burning into hunters' armor and skin. Not marks of control — but of certainty.
Every hunter felt it. Their breaths steadied. Their movements fell into rhythm. Fear dissolved.
Elias raised his hand, Codex blazing. His voice rang like iron.
"You cannot erase what was never yours to write."
The Author's Fragment recoiled, script flickering.
---
Seraphine watched, her golden eyes wide, her healed arm flexing as if in disbelief.
He had restored her. Defied the Fragment. Held the line where even guild masters failed.
For the first time in her life, her radiant smile was not performance but awe.
"You're not a reader," she whispered. "You're a rival author."
Her gaze lingered on him, sharper now — not just admiration, but desire. Power like his couldn't be ignored.
Lyra saw it. Her chest tightened, her violet light blazing higher as though to drown out Seraphine's glow. She stood closer to Elias, staff planted like a vow.
---
The Fragment shrieked, its body twisting, script flaring brighter. It wrote faster, words spilling across the air:
> [Erase: Sky.]
[Erase: Floor.]
[Erase: Names.]
Reality buckled. The parchment sky tore open. The marble floor dissolved into an endless void. Hunters gasped as their own names vanished from their lips, replaced with silence.
But Elias stepped forward, Codex blazing, rewriting each stroke as fast as the Fragment wrote.
> [Margin Draft.]
[Echo Archive.]
[Reversal Strike.]
Pages clashed with words, sparks of script and ink raining like a storm. The Atrium itself shook, collapsing under the weight of the duel.
Hunters could only watch, trembling, as Elias Crowe — bloodied, broken, yet unshaken — stood against an Author's will.
---
Caleb screamed above the storm, clutching his parchment. "Elias! It's not trying to erase the world — it's testing you! The Authors are watching through it!"
The parchment sky rippled. More faces formed in the clouds, eyeless and vast. Quills scratched louder, echoing in every mind:
> [The Reader writes margins.]
[But margins can be erased.]
The Fragment lunged, its quill-arms converging. Elias raised his Codex, pages burning like wings.
And the Atrium became a war of words.