Chapter 9 Return of the Threaded Fang
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Power never arrives gently.
It shatters.
Then whispers.
Yun Che walked the broken ridge where memory first awakened. Beneath his feet, the ground was dry—too dry for anything to live, yet alive with energy that trembled when he stepped.
It was not nature's fear.
It was the world's resistance.
"It's coming," Aestra murmured beside him, one hand behind her back.
"Something sent to test whether you're truly back… or just a myth echoing."
He closed his eyes.
He could already feel it—a ripple in the Thread. Not a memory. Not even a soul.
A test.
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From the south sky, black clouds split apart.
From the fracture fell a creature.
Fanged.
Winged.
Built of chains and law, with scripture instead of skin.
The Threaded Fang.
A celestial construct—once used by the God Realm to destroy "unstable stories." It devoured fragments of identity, consumed pasts, erased names.
"It doesn't kill," Aestra said quietly.
"It makes it so you were never born."
Yun Che smiled.
"Then it's the perfect thing for me to break."
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The Fang landed with a shriek that folded the wind in half.
It stood three stories tall, its mouth moving without breath.
"Yun Che."
"The name does not belong."
"The thread will be unmade."
Its claws etched glowing runes into the earth—barriers to separate this space from the rest of reality.
Yun Che cracked his neck.
"You've got scripture."
"I've got silence."
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The Fang lunged.
Too fast. Too sudden.
But Truthless Step activated instinctively.
Yun Che was already gone.
The beast looked confused.
Then pain bloomed in its side—
Yun Che had reappeared mid-air, knee already in motion, crashing into the Fang's temple.
The earth cracked.
But not enough.
The Fang's chains lashed outward, wrapping around Yun Che's arms.
It pulled him in—
—and bit him.
But instead of blood—
The Fang paused.
Its body began forgetting its own form.
The moment it bit into him, it tasted erasure.
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"My power doesn't end things," Yun Che whispered.
"It makes them forget they began."
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[New Technique: "Unname the World"]
Yun Che strikes not the body—but the name within.
When he activates this technique, the enemy forgets how to be what it is.
Claws become flesh. Wings become air. Defense becomes absence.
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The Fang shrieked, unraveling in front of him.
Its wings turned to words, which then turned to ashes.
But before it died—it smiled.
"Now we know."
"He is real."
Then it was gone.
Not slain.
Erased.
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Far above—
The White Warden turned away from the viewing pool.
"Deploy the decree."
"Kill the girl."
"Unmake the memory."
"Erase the name."
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And in a silent archive—
Lyra collapsed again, clutching her chest.
Jasmine knelt beside her, trembling.
"He's fighting."
"He's bleeding the world back into place."
"And now… they want us both gone."
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Yun Che stood alone in the aftermath.
Aestra watched him quietly, the silence between them now filled with something heavier than tension.
"You created something with that last strike."
"A second truth," she said.
He turned.
"Then they'll come faster now."
"Good," he whispered.
"Let them all come."
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