The Root Chamber Beckons
The Academy was silent.
Silver moonlight washed over the spires and rooftops, casting long shadows across the ancient stone courtyards. Most students were asleep, lost in dreams of power and purpose. Professors rested in their chambers, unaware of the quiet disturbance moving beneath their feet.
And yet, deep below the stone foundations, something had awakened.
Lira walked barefoot through a narrow, spiraling stairwell that led far beneath the known sections of the Academy. Her fingertips brushed the damp stone walls, feeling old energy humming in the silence. Each step echoed faintly, the air growing colder the deeper she descended.
She should've been terrified.
She wasn't.
She didn't know how she found this path. It wasn't marked on any map. No one had mentioned it, not even in the deepest archives. But her body moved with certainty, as if her blood remembered something her mind could not.
The stone passage ended in a wide archway, tangled with ancient, petrified roots. They moved slightly as she approached, curling away from her touch and forming a clear path. The moment she stepped through, the air shifted.
Before her stretched a massive underground chamber.
She gasped.
It was unlike anything she had ever seen.
The dome was impossibly vast, its ceiling lost in shadows. Hundreds of floating crystal shards drifted lazily in the air, casting soft violet and silver light across the space. And at the center of it all stood a dead tree—twisted, white as bone, and rooted into stone.
Its bark was covered in names. Thousands of them. Some flickered like fading stars. Others were slashed through, rewritten, or had been forcibly erased. The names glowed with pale gold light, dim as memory and just as fragile.
Lira walked forward slowly. Her small hand stretched out.
A single root lifted to meet her.
It pressed softly against her palm.
The moment they touched, her mind was ripped away.
Images assaulted her.
A battlefield scorched by magic and blood. Dragons wheeling overhead, scales peeling as fire devoured the sky. Riven stood at the center of the chaos—older, scarred, his sword shattered in his grip. Corpses of humans, demons, machines littered the earth like fallen leaves.
And at the center of it all stood a monument. A monolith of dark stone carved with her name.
Lira. Echo-Born. Prototype Zero.
[Memory Fragment Restored]
[Identity Lock Compromised]
[Awakening Root Class: Echo-Born Seer – Level 1]
[Skill Acquired: Future Glimpse]
She collapsed to her knees. Her breath came in sharp bursts. Golden lines blazed across her skin, forming runes along her arms and collarbones. They pulsed with strange energy—not painful, but heavy, like the weight of remembering something terrible.
A second vision followed. Clearer.
A shadow climbing the Academy's outer wall. Something tall and boneless. Its body shifted in and out of reality, its face featureless and smooth. Yet its purpose was sharp as a blade.
It was hunting her.
"It's coming," she whispered. "For me."
Far above, in his dormitory room, Riven sat by the window with his sword across his lap. His thoughts refused to quiet. He couldn't stop thinking about the Council's arrival, the way the Librarian had said Lira was a remnant of something the world had forgotten.
He tightened his grip on her cracked charm.
His system flickered.
[System Alert: Sleepless One detected within Academy perimeter.]
[Location: Sector G3 – Library Approach.]
[Recommended Action: Immediate Evacuation or Confrontation]
Riven bolted upright.
He knew that name. The Sleepless Ones were Codex-made enforcers—things not born but written into existence, made to erase what wasn't supposed to exist. They didn't eat, sleep, or breathe. They unmade.
He grabbed his cloak and sword, heart pounding, and raced through the darkened halls.
The creature had already reached the upper steps of the Academy's great library. Tall and grotesque, its limbs moved in broken angles, as if it wasn't meant to fit in this world. Its body bent unnaturally, and its head turned slowly toward Riven as he stepped into the open.
Riven drew his blade. "Back off."
The Sleepless One tilted its head.
A chorus of voices whispered in unison—hundreds of broken echoes all layered on top of one another, each one repeating his deepest fears, his hidden doubts, his memories.
He took a shaky breath and stepped forward.
"Nice trick," he said, tightening his grip. "Let's see if you bleed."
The creature lunged.
Riven dodged the first strike. Its arm extended like a whip, slicing through the stone arch beside him. He rolled, came up fast, and slashed. His sword cut through the thing's torso.
But it didn't fall.
Its body simply shifted—reforming like smoke around the wound.
[System Warning: Physical Damage Ineffective]
[Tip: Target requires conceptual disruption. Use Memory-Bound Skills]
"I don't have any of those!" he shouted.
[Incorrect. Emotional Core Trigger Engaged]
[Unlocking Echo Fragment: Blade of the Lost]
His sword shimmered.
Symbols burst along the blade, glowing with silver light. Not magic—but memory. The first time he taught Lira to fight. The warmth of holding her hand. The terror of watching her almost die during her Awakening. Every emotion surged into the blade.
The creature attacked again.
Riven didn't dodge this time.
He met it head-on.
The sword didn't slice flesh—it tore through presence, through concept. The blade vibrated with something ancient and real. The Sleepless One screamed—not aloud, but through every nearby shadow.
And it staggered.
Far below, the tree pulsed.
Lira's eyes opened wide as her body rose. Her feet hovered just above the ground. The tree responded to her will, its twisted branches moving. Symbols poured upward along the roots and stretched toward the chamber ceiling.
She didn't know what she was doing.
But the knowledge came from somewhere else. Somewhere deep.
"Protect him," she whispered.
The tree listened.
Above, as the Sleepless One prepared to strike again, the floor cracked beneath it. Golden roots shot through the marble, wrapping around its limbs. Ancient runes flared bright across its body.
Riven saw his opening.
He jumped.
His blade plunged straight through the creature's chest.
The whispering stopped.
A blinding light erupted—and then silence.
The Sleepless One was gone.
Ash drifted where it had stood.
Moments later, Lira stepped out from the hidden stairwell behind the library. Her feet were dirty. Her arms still glowed faintly. Her hair floated in the breeze like strands of starlight.
Riven turned toward her, breathing heavily.
She looked at him with wide, honest eyes.
"It's starting, isn't it?"
He nodded, wiping blood from his lip. "Yeah."
She stepped forward and took his hand.
"I'm scared," she whispered.
He knelt beside her and held her close.
"Good," he murmured. "That means you're still you."
But deep down, he wondered—
For how long?