The courtyard split open like a wound.
Light — not the kind that comforted, but the kind that revealed — poured from the fissure.
Lyra staggered back, shielding her eyes as heat and cold warred in the same breath.
Kaelith didn't flinch. His shadow rose behind him like a living thing, threads of midnight weaving into armor. The skeletal hand clawed its way out of the ground, followed by a figure shrouded in cracked obsidian and silver veins that pulsed like dying stars.
"Who dares disturb the cycle?" Kaelith's voice was calm, but the air around him trembled.
The entity tilted its head, voice broken and layered, as if several echoes spoke at once.
> "You carry the mark of Nyxion… the traitor god. The fragment returns to its origin."
Kaelith's eyes narrowed. "You're not of this age are you."
> "No," it hissed. "I am what remains of the first system — the one your god tried to erase from existence."
The words struck deeper than any blow. Kaelith felt the system flicker inside him, as if even it feared what stood before them.
> [System Error: Origin Conflict Detected]
[Warning: Unknown Protocol Attempting to Override Core Authority]
"Brother…" Lyra's voice trembled. "It's trying to overwrite you."
Kaelith lifted his hand, summoning the Shadow Dagger. "Then let it try."
---
A Clash of Eras
The entity moved first. Time itself seemed to stutter.
Buildings warped, stars flickered out, and for a brief moment, Kaelith saw the world as it once had been — a place of glass skies and oceans that whispered.
The dagger met the creature's claw, and the sound was like thunder striking bone. Sparks of light and shadow erupted, slicing through the courtyard. Lyra's scream barely reached him through the storm.
> [System Override Attempt 71%]
[Countermeasure: Abyssal Reformation – Active]
Kaelith forced his energy outward, the shadows curling protectively around Lyra as he pushed the intruding presence back. Each movement burned — as if two realities fought for the same space inside his veins.
The entity's voice twisted, half in rage, half in sorrow.
> "You wield power stolen from gods and mortals alike. Tell me, boy — does your soul still remember who you are?"
Kaelith's answer came through gritted teeth.
"Every scar. Every scream. Every loss. That's who I am."
He drove the dagger through its chest.
For a heartbeat, everything went silent.
Then — the world broke.
---
The Archive Beneath Time
The courtyard was gone. Kaelith and Lyra stood in a place without color or horizon — a realm built from broken symbols and shattered runes floating in midair. Each fragment glowed faintly, whispering memories.
Lyra looked around in awe. "Where are we?"
"The Archive," Kaelith said quietly. "The true memory of the world."
> [System Sync Established – Temporal Layer 0]
[Access Level: Restricted / Fragmentary]
Whispers filled the air — laughter, pain, battle cries, prayers.
Lyra pressed her hands to her ears. "It's too loud—"
Kaelith steadied her, shadows forming a shell of silence around them.
Then he saw it: a massive door at the end of the void, carved from time itself. Chains wrapped around it, glowing with words that even he couldn't read.
> [SEAL PROTOCOL: GENESIS LOCK]
[Keyholder: ???]
A faint glow stirred beneath Kaelith's collarbone — his system's mark responding.
And then a voice echoed from the door.
> "You should not have come here, inheritor. Every step you take erases a thousand memories."
Kaelith's hand clenched around the dagger. "Then maybe it's time someone rewrote them."
---
Lyra's Vision
As Kaelith approached, Lyra froze. Her eyes unfocused — and the world around her flickered again. She saw Kaelith not as he was, but as a silhouette standing before a burning world, surrounded by countless stars falling into darkness.
> "Brother…" she whispered, tears forming. "You're going to become the thing you're fighting."
Kaelith paused. For a moment, his silver eyes softened. "Then you'll stop me if that day comes."
Lyra shook her head. "I won't. I'll save you."
He almost smiled. "That's what I'm afraid of."
---
The Door Opens
The chains began to tremble.
One by one, they shattered, sending ripples through the Archive.
The voice behind the door grew clearer — layered, ancient, and strangely familiar.
> "Welcome back, Kaelith Veyr. We've been waiting."
A blinding white light engulfed them both.