The Root Library fractured like a miscompiled manuscript, every rift spilling potential into splintered corridors. Plotlines, once unified, now diverged with violent intent.
The very walls exhaled prose fragments, the air thick with orphaned metaphors and the static hum of narrative latency. It wasn't just narrative chaos. It was narrative judgment.
> ALERT: PARALLEL INSTANCES ACTIVE NARRATIVE THREAD: BRANCHING —> [Subplot: Rafael / Bryn] [Subplot: Oren / Juno] [Subplot: Mira / Lira]
Each subplot was not simply a separate battle; it was a narrative shard, a reflection of unresolved character tension given form by the paradoxical structure of the Library itself.
The convergence of six systems had overloaded causality, causing the storyline to detonate outward into these microplots.
Each subgroup was trapped in its own pocket draft, forced to confront alternate aspects of themselves; errors, reversals, or unfinished arcs.
The Library, through subconscious meta-mechanics, summoned their unedited selves; versions lost to abandoned outlines, forgotten drafts, or discarded character sheets.
Now they fought not for survival, but for narrative clarity.
---
Subplot 1: Rafael / Bryn — "The Editor's Blade"
They tore through a collapsing hallway made of strained exposition and plot filler. Floor tiles flipped like rejected metaphors. The Mirror Daemon Rafael moved with editorial precision, each strike snipping unnecessary detail from reality.
> [RAFAEL HP: 270/480 | MP: 61/250 | STATUS: WOUNDED, FOCUSED]
> [BRYN HP: 312/360 | MP: 130/180 | STATUS: SNARK-CHARGED]
"Yours still has a jawline sculpted by angst," Bryn muttered, lobbing a semicolon grenade that splintered the ceiling into overused allegory.
"My tragic phase had high production value," Rafael retorted. —[Skill: Conditional Rewrite] flashed across his HUD. He restructured a section of wall into aggressive alliteration, impaling the Mirror Daemon in a flurry of consonants.
Bryn activated [Skill: Uppercase Shout], causing her voice to render as giant serif letters that crashed down with a thunderclap.
> [Critical Hit! [CLONE.BRYN] stunned by Cliché Impact]
The air rippled with conflict tags and burn-in exposition. "We need to destabilize the reflection's core metaphor," Rafael shouted, sword glowing with delete commands.
"Or just punch it until it stops being poetic," Bryn replied, and hurled a footnote spear dripping with unresolved sarcasm.
Lightning bolts formed from discarded plot coupons streaked overhead. The Mirror Rafael activated [Passive Skill: Passive Aggression] and countered with a scathing review. Rafael winced.
> [-42 HP: Criticism Damage]
Their doubles weren't just enemies. They were editorial critiques made flesh.
***
Subplot 2: Oren / Juno — "Deadpan Synchronicity"
Oren ducked behind a pile of mood whiplash, flinging snark-infused monologues like throwing knives. His double batted them aside with eye rolls so potent they triggered passive HP drain.
> [OREN HP: 198/340 | MP: 140/200 | STATUS: DEFLECTING WITH HUMOR]
> [JUNO HP: ???/??? | MP: ??? | STATUS: SYSTEM PENDING]
Juno's reflection continued to buffer like a cursed wiki page. It hiccupped through glitch-echoes of her voice, unable to stabilize. It murmured phrases she hadn't spoken yet.
"She looks like a metaphor that died halfway through puberty," Oren muttered.
"Blob Me is just anxious potential. Not evil. Just... badly edited," Juno said, before tossing a [Skill: Metaphysical Ping] that briefly outlined the thing's metadata. It was a tangle of contradictions, false starts, and half-formed genre tags.
Her interface finally blipped alive:
> [SYSTEM DETECTED: [REVERIE] — USER STATUS: PROBATIONARY AUTHOR]
The blob hissed and broke apart into glitch-moths, each one fluttering with broken prose. Juno screamed, hands glowing with zero-day creative spark. She activated [Skill: Author's Rebuttal] and delivered a counter-argument so sharp it parsed the glitch apart.
> [Skill Successful: [Syntax Realignment]]
"Your plot hole ends here."
Oren tossed a [Sarcasm Charge] at his clone's feet. "You're not even my most interesting self-loathing."
***
Subplot 3: Mira / Lira — "The Reflective Syntax"
The twin chambers were recursive mirrors—each explosion an echo, each step a ripple in shared grammar. Mira triggered [Skill: Frame Skip], moving in jagged bursts through stolen milliseconds. Her double matched her, missing by the slimmest of plot beats.
> [MIRA HP: 155/220 | MP: 60/140 | STATUS: FRACTURING TEMPORALLY]
> [LIRA HP: 188/230 | MP: 72/160 | STATUS: STABILIZED LOOP]
Lira lobbed Syntax Bombs, converting entire corridors into poetic verse; overwrought, indulgent, and unstable.
> [[Syntax Bomb - Meter Collapse] detonated — surroundings forced into iambic pentameter.]
[Thou canst not flee thy shadow's mirrored fate...]
"Okay, this is too Shakespearean," Mira muttered.
The Mirror Lira floated silently, directing typographic spears with an unreadable gaze. Mira summoned [Skill: Font Shift], briefly making the room unreadable by shifting everything to Wingdings.
> [ANOMALY DETECTED: UNAUTHORIZED ELEMENT —> [Error Class: Plot Interference: Q.E.D. Type 7]]
Above them, a serif blade formed midair, vibrating with narrative potential too powerful to exist. It cut diagonally through the space-time of subplot 3, leaving behind a trail of resolved contradictions and burning away recursive loops.
Mira blinked tears of static. "Did we just get saved by a formatting tool?"
Lira nodded. "God bless Helvetica."
***
System-wide Broadcast
> ["The draft has diverged. Restore control or risk recursion collapse."]
Each of them heard it, like a line half-read, half-remembered. Like a trope remembering it's a trope.
Juno blinked. "Okay, we've officially entered Final Draft mode."
Oren: "I miss when problems had health bars instead of allegorical weaponry."
In the center of the Library's chaos, the cracked dome yawned wider. A singular beam of editorial intent—neither light nor energy, but pure structural correction—descended upon the Anchor.
The Root itself shimmered.
> [REWRITE REQUEST PENDING SYSTEM ARCHITECT: UNKNOWN NEW BRANCH: UNDER CONSIDERATION]
The words scrawled overhead in shimmering em-dashes.
***