Chapter 46
Renna stood on the edge of the shattered spire, torchlight flickering against the fog.
She wasn't the kind of person who stared at the sky looking for signs.
But this?
This wasn't a star.
Stars didn't *move* like that.
They didn't pulse like a heartbeat.
And they didn't fall straight down—slowly—like they were choosing where to land.
Veika stepped up beside her, both hands on her weapon.
"You see it too?"
Renna nodded, slowly. "It's heading toward the center."
"The Vault?"
"Worse."
The boy behind them shifted uncomfortably. He had unrolled the map again, his fingers trembling slightly as he traced old routes. His lips moved silently, calculating something.
Renna turned to him. "What is it?"
"The star…" he said, "it's not a weapon."
"Then what?"
"It's a *reset beacon.*"
Veika frowned. "English, please."
The boy looked up, pale.
"If it lands—*if it connects*—it'll rewrite the last known anchor. All of it. Everyone who remembers will forget. Everyone who forgot will stay forgotten. And anyone *in between*…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Renna clenched her jaw.
"We've got to reach Kye."
Veika shook her head. "We don't even know if he's alive. He fell into the Vault, right? We don't know what's down there."
The boy said quietly, "It doesn't matter. If the beacon touches ground before he re-emerges… it won't matter if he's alive."
Renna stared at the descending light.
"I don't care what it is," she said, voice low. "We find him."
She turned to the boy.
"Is there another way down?"
He nodded slowly, pointing to a tunnel carved into the side of the ruins—half-covered by fallen debris.
"There's an older path. Not used since the Council sealed the foundations. But it might still reach the underlayers."
"Then we dig," Renna said.
---
Beneath them, Kye walked through the dark alone.
Kaelion had gone ahead to scout a break in the corridor. The glow from the Vault hadn't followed them. The crystal veins underfoot were dim now, like dying veins of light fading out of the body.
The only thing still clear in Kye's mind was the **sound** of the man's scream.
The one who waited.
The first version of himself.
Gone, maybe.
Maybe not.
He didn't know what it meant to be erased by a Nullform.
His thoughts drifted back to Sena.
Not the one Kaelion rebuilt.
The one in his memories now.
The one who had once laughed like sunlight and told him to stop pretending he was invincible.
The real her.
He closed his eyes and whispered her name into the dark.
Nothing answered.
No warmth.
No echo.
Just stone.
He opened his eyes again.
And felt something.
Not a vibration.
Not a sound.
Something in his bones.
A presence.
He turned slowly—
—and saw the hallway behind him *shifting.*
Not breaking.
Not collapsing.
*Changing.*
Like the world was trying to rewrite the corridor while he was still standing in it.
Kaelion returned seconds later, panting.
"You feel that too?"
Kye nodded. "The beacon."
Kaelion didn't deny it.
"It's like a pulse through memory itself. The system's rebooting. It doesn't care who's here. It just wants everything back in place."
"I'm not going back."
Kaelion raised an eyebrow. "Back to what?"
"To being a tool."
Kaelion grinned. "That's the first thing we've ever agreed on."
Suddenly, something shifted in the far end of the corridor.
A figure stepped out.
Cloaked.
Hunched.
Face hidden by a cowl.
Kaelion tensed. "Another Council agent?"
"No," Kye said slowly. "Something older."
The figure didn't speak.
It just walked closer, step by deliberate step.
When it stopped, Kye could finally see beneath the hood.
It was a *child.*
But its eyes were empty sockets.
Not wounded—just *never there.*
Its mouth opened—
—and spoke with a thousand voices at once.
> "Kairos... Kairos... Kairos..."
Kaelion took a step forward. "What the hell—"
> "The Overlord is not yours."
Kye's voice was cold. "Who are you?"
The child-thing smiled.
Its mouth was full of teeth that didn't belong in a human mouth. Too many. Too long. And all of them *whispered.*
> "I am what waits when memory breaks. I am the Reversion."
Kye raised his blade.
But the thing didn't attack.
It simply… *cracked.*
Its form split down the middle, like a puppet snapping its strings.
Inside, something shimmered.
A mirror.
Small. Fragile-looking.
Kaelion hissed. "It's a fragment."
Kye stared. "Of what?"
Kaelion looked sick. "Of you."
The mirror floated toward him.
He didn't move.
Didn't raise his weapon.
It hovered inches from his chest.
Then—
It *melted* into him.
And the world—
Snapped.
---
Renna gasped.
She dropped her torch.
Veika turned. "What—what is it?"
"I *felt* something," Renna said, hand clutching her chest.
"Where?"
She pointed ahead.
"*There.*"
They ran toward the stairwell.
---
Kye knelt on the floor.
Breathing hard.
Because he remembered now.
Not a scene.
Not a person.
A *feeling.*
What it was like to hold *all of himself.*
He stood slowly.
Kaelion stared.
"You're stabilizing."
Kye nodded once. "I have to."
Kaelion stepped back, almost smiling.
But it wasn't relief on his face.
It was… *respect.*
Kye turned toward the deeper corridor.
The ground was shaking.
The beacon was nearing.
And now, he could see it.
A pulsing orb of light slowly pushing through the Citadel's ceilings like a hand pressing through paper.
Kye looked to Kaelion.
"We stop it."
Kaelion's grin widened.
"Together?"
"For now."
They ran.
---
Above—
The beacon finally touched the spire.
And the moment it did—
Time *stopped.*
Not just for the Citadel.
Not just for the world.
But for everyone with a *fragmented memory.*
Across cities, across ruins, across dimensions—
People paused mid-sentence.
Eyes wide.
Some collapsed.
Some forgot where they were.
And others—
Like Renna—
Stood firm.
Because her memory wasn't broken.
It was *anchored.*
And she remembered **his name.**
She grabbed her dagger tighter and screamed—
"Kye!"