CH. 47 THE UNWRITTEN PATH
The Canvas was pure white.
But not peaceful.
It ached with potential—like the moment before lightning strikes, or the second before a scream.
Kei stepped onto it, and it rippled underfoot.
Rin hesitated. "This isn't a memory."
"No," Kei said. "It's the future."
Or it could be.
If they dared to write it.
> [THREAD ZERO STABILIZED: TEMPORARY SANCTUARY] [AUTHOR PRIVILEGES EXPANDED: 98%] [DANGER: UNKNOWN VARIABLES DETECTED]
Kei ignored the alerts. He was done letting warnings dictate his actions.
The Pen felt heavier now. Not with power, but with consequence.
He looked at Rin.
"We're past the known."
She nodded. "Then we write something worth remembering."
They walked forward.
And the Canvas responded.
Each step revealed new fragments—a city made of clockwork towers, frozen mid-collapse. A sun that blinked like a dying thought. Whispers of people not yet born, calling Kei's name like a forgotten prophecy.
He could feel it: the echoes of stories that hadn't happened yet.
Not drafts.
Not simulations.
Realities that would only exist if he wrote them.
Rin stopped.
Ahead, something was waiting.
Not a creature.
A figure.
Cloaked in glitch-light. Wearing a mask made of static and shadow.
It didn't move.
Didn't speak.
But Kei felt it.
Like a mirror that hadn't been placed yet.
> [ENTITY CLASS: "THE NULL SCRIPT"] [AUTHOR SIGNATURE MATCH: 99.9% — UNCONFIRMED ORIGIN] [WARNING: IDENTITY COLLISION IMMINENT]
"Who is that?" Rin whispered.
Kei's throat dried.
"…Me."
Not a Warden.
Not a memory.
Not a version.
A possibility.
The Kei he could have become—if he'd made different choices.
If he'd never opened the Pen.
If he let the loop continue.
And it stepped forward.
Voice layered, stitched together with echoes and static.
"You broke the loop… but you haven't earned what comes next."
Kei raised the Pen.
The figure raised its hand.
And a second Pen appeared.
Black.
Flickering.
Unstable.
This was no enemy.
This was no ally.
This was a test.
> "One Author leaves this place," the Null Script said. "The other gets erased."
> "Let the final draft begin."