Chapter 47

The moment the beacon touched the spire, the world *stopped*—but not like time freezing in a storybook spell.

It was messier.

Uglier.

More… *personal.*

People didn't just halt mid-step.

They glitched.

Twitched.

Some blinked and forgot what year it was.

Some forgot what *they* were.

And those with the deepest cracks in their memory?

They collapsed like puppets with cut strings.

---

Renna didn't collapse.

Not fully.

But her knees gave out.

She hit the stone with both hands, gasping—eyes wide, pupils dilating unevenly. She saw flashes.

*Kye bleeding.*

*Kye laughing.*

*Kye dying—*

No, no.

That last one didn't happen. Not yet.

She grabbed the side of her face and screamed through gritted teeth, forcing herself to remember the sound of his voice.

"Come on, come on—don't take this—*don't you dare take this from me!*"

Beside her, Veika stood trembling.

One eye was bleeding slightly.

The boy had fallen completely, face down in the dust, unmoving.

"Renna," Veika said hoarsely, "it's pulling him under—he doesn't remember why he exists—"

Renna crawled to the boy and gripped his shoulders.

"Hey. Look at me."

Nothing.

She slapped him.

Hard.

"Look at me, dammit!"

His eyes fluttered.

"Who's Kye?" he whispered.

Renna froze.

Then, without hesitation, she gripped both sides of his face and leaned in until their foreheads touched.

"He's the idiot we followed through hell. The boy who made me laugh even when my ribs were broken. The one who got lost in the vault just to find a memory we didn't know we were missing."

She blinked fast.

Fury shaking her bones.

"I'm *not* letting you forget him."

The boy shuddered.

And something flickered in his eyes.

Recognition.

He gasped and jolted upright.

"Renna…?"

She laughed, more from relief than anything else.

"Yeah. Welcome back, nerd."

Veika wiped her eye. "We need to move. The beacon's not done."

---

Below, in the Citadel's heart, Kye ran with Kaelion.

Not because they had a plan.

Because they had *seconds.*

The walls around them were *unraveling.*

Not physically—but conceptually.

Whole corridors folded in on themselves like pages being rewritten mid-sentence. Paintings on the walls vanished. Names etched in stone melted.

Kaelion shouted over the chaos, "It's reloading the version of the world before we were born!"

Kye shouted back, "Then why are we still here!?"

"Because we're tethered to something stronger than the beacon!"

They turned a corner—

And there it was.

**The core.**

A room unlike the others.

No stone.

No obsidian.

Just raw light.

The ceiling arched into stars that shouldn't exist. The floor pulsed with memories—little glowing orbs rising like embers from invisible braziers.

Kye slowed.

Kaelion didn't.

He ran straight to the center.

"Here! This is where the beacon roots itself!"

Kye approached carefully, sword still in hand.

The core of the Citadel.

It wasn't a place.

It was a *choice.*

All around them, the orbs began to fade.

Kaelion shouted, "If it finishes purging these… there won't be anything left of you. Or me. Or Sena."

Kye stepped forward, chest tight.

"And if I stop it?"

Kaelion looked at him.

"Then you become the Overlord again."

Kye flinched.

Not because of the title.

But because deep down—

He didn't know what that *meant* anymore.

A monster?

A tyrant?

A guardian?

Or just… a boy who remembered too much?

He walked to the platform.

It rose to meet him.

At the center—hovering above a glass pedestal—was a single violet orb.

The anchor of the beacon.

Still humming. Still rewriting.

He reached toward it.

His fingers hovered—

And he hesitated.

---

Above, Renna and Veika emerged into the tower's final floor.

What they saw made them both freeze.

The star—the beacon—had bloomed into a massive tree of light, its branches digging into the Citadel's ruins like veins. At the center of it all, suspended midair, was a vision of Kye.

Not his real body.

A *possibility.*

It was being pulled apart—layer by layer—his memories scattered like petals into the air.

Veika growled. "This thing is erasing him!"

Renna drew her blade.

"What are you doing?" Veika asked.

Renna looked up.

"He gave me a piece of himself once. A memory that wasn't mine."

She lifted the blade.

"Time to give it back."

And then—

She *stabbed herself* through the palm.

Veika screamed.

The blood hit the light.

And for one split second—

The entire tower *glitched.*

---

Down below—

Kye gasped.

The violet orb shook in its pedestal.

Kaelion looked up. "Someone touched the memory thread!"

Kye stared at the orb.

Saw flashes of Renna.

Veika.

The boy.

Laughter.

Anger.

Hope.

He clenched his fist.

And grabbed the orb.

Pain shot through his entire body.

But he held on.

---

The Citadel *shuddered.*

The tree of light cracked.

Renna fell to her knees, laughing and sobbing at the same time.

Veika caught her before she hit the floor.

The boy—now fully awake—looked around in awe.

"It worked," he whispered. "He's fighting it."

---

Deep in the core, Kaelion watched as the violet orb cracked in Kye's hand.

Then shattered.

And with it—

The room stopped fading.

The orbs floated back into place.

The ceiling collapsed into stars again.

And Kye…

Stood there.

Burning.

Not with fire.

But with memory.

With **presence.**

The beacon's influence stuttered.

And then—

For the first time since it landed—

It *screamed.*