Chapter 236: Fractures in Time

The memory wave surged forward like a living storm, threatening to engulf Kael, Lysara, and Corven. But Kael braced himself, calling upon the ancient shield taught to him by the Guardians of the Veil. The shimmering barrier rippled as the onslaught struck it, fracturing but holding firm.

Lysara darted to Kael's side, summoning her own power. Her hands glowed with silver light as she wove spells of binding, aiming to contain the Archivist's chaotic energy. Yet the Archivist laughed, the sound twisting and fracturing reality itself.

"Your efforts are futile," she hissed. "Time is not a river to be dammed, but a tempest to be embraced."

Corven moved with lethal grace, drawing his dagger and lunging toward the Archivist. But her form blurred, a ripple of shifting memories, and he found himself slashing through empty air.

Kael's mind raced. The Archivist's power was born of forgotten histories, secrets buried in time's shadows. To defeat her, they would need to unearth those secrets first.

"Remember," Kael shouted to his companions. "The Archive is both her prison and her weapon. We must turn it against her."

Lysara nodded, her eyes fierce. "Then let's rewrite the past before she destroys the future."

Together, they channeled their combined will, reaching deep into the Archive's core. The walls hummed, the very fabric of time bending as ancient scripts and lost memories streamed toward them like a tide.

With a final, desperate cry, the trio unleashed a burst of pure remembrance—a beacon to tether the Archivist back to her prison.

The storm slowed. The Archivist's form wavered, caught in the flood of reclaimed memory. With a scream that echoed across the ages, she was drawn back into the Vault, sealed once again behind the shimmering walls.

Exhausted but victorious, Kael, Lysara, and Corven collapsed, knowing the battle had only just begun.