Dawn broke with a silver mist curling through the mountain pass.
Yui adjusted the straps on her light armor, the cold biting her fingers as she checked her supplies one last time. Beside her, Vera knelt, sharpening a curved dagger with casual, predatory grace.
"Stay low, follow my lead, and if I say run—you don't argue," Vera muttered, her eyes scanning the pale horizon.
Yui swallowed her nerves and nodded. This was her first mission outside the camp since awakening Resonant Reversal. A scouting assignment, supposedly simple—locate the Rift Markers near the Ruins of Hirineth. In and out.
But nothing in this world ever stayed that simple.
Azarion wasn't coming. He had said it was time she learned to fight without leaning on him. "If you rely on me forever," he told her, "you'll never become a threat to those who think they own your story."
Yui understood. But she hated how empty the space beside her felt.
They moved quickly through the frost-wrapped ravines. Vera was a ghost in motion—every step calculated, every glance a quiet threat. Yui followed, reading the terrain as best she could, whispering system commands under her breath.
> [Scan Field: Active]
Status: Rift Energy—High.
Presence: Anomaly Detected. 3 Hostiles. Rank: C+/B.
She tapped Vera's shoulder. "Three ahead. Moderate class."
Vera didn't respond. Just grinned.
Then moved.
They crept toward the ruins—ancient marble bones tangled in roots and broken time. A flicker of motion—a ripple of shadows—and three creatures emerged.
Voidhounds.
Lithe, low-bodied beasts of swirling ink and glass teeth. Born from corrupted narrative residue. Yui remembered writing them as minor enemies. Easy fodder.
These were not fodder.
The first lunged with a distorted screech.
Vera was already gone.
She vanished in a blur, reappearing behind the creature mid-leap, dagger slicing through its neck in a spray of black mist. Another Voidhound lunged from the left—Yui dodged, barely, then turned her panic into instinct.
> [Resonant Reversal: Ready]
The beast slashed—
She caught its paw, timing the tremor in its fury—
FLASH.
The strike redirected. The hound yelped, slammed sideways into a crumbling wall, then vaporized into ink and memory.
Yui's chest heaved. Her arms trembled. But she was standing.
"Nice trick," Vera called, spinning to stab the third Voidhound in its eye. "You're starting to look less like deadweight."
Yui stumbled to her side, grinning despite herself. "You're surprisingly encouraging."
"I'm not. You're just surprising."
> [Mission Update]
Rift Marker: Located.
Scanning…
Warning: Interference detected.
Incoming Presence: Tier A. Reaver-Class Entity.
The ground trembled.
The air shivered.
From the heart of the ruin, something rose.
A figure—twisted, armored in broken chains and ink-dripping blades. A Reaver—a former guardian of the original story, now corrupted by the Rift's hunger. Its voice was a hiss of narrative fragments:
"You should not exist. The draft was closed. Deleted. Forgotten."
Yui's breath caught.
Vera's smirk faded.
"We're not ready for this," Vera said lowly, stepping in front of Yui. "Run back. I'll stall it."
"No," Yui whispered. "I'm staying."
The Reaver stepped forward, and with it, the world bent slightly—like the rules of the story warped around it.
Yui reached for her skill again. Resonant Reversal flared, but flickered. Not enough emotion. Not enough charge.
"System," she whispered, "give me something—anything."
> Error: Skill Charge Low. Emotional resonance required.
The Reaver raised its sword.
Vera cursed. "MOVE!"
Yui looked up.
And spoke.
Not words of power. Words of memory.
"This world isn't just your prison. It's mine too. I created you. But I'm not bound by your chains anymore."
She raised her hand.
Something in the Reaver paused.
Recognition?
Her system chimed.
> [New Skill Fragment Unlocked: Draftkeeper's Will]
Passive effect: You may halt corrupted remnants of your narrative for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 12 hours.
"Three seconds," Yui muttered.
But three seconds was enough.
Vera lunged forward, dagger glowing, and struck the Reaver through the heart.
It screamed—then shattered—into shards of broken text.
The silence that followed was thick.
Yui collapsed to one knee, trembling, as the system chirped one last time:
> Combat Log Complete. Mission Success. Allies Gained: Vera (Stable). Skill Resonance Level: Increased.
Vera knelt beside her, panting.
"You did good, rookie."
Yui smiled weakly. "I didn't run."
"No," Vera said. "You rewrote the ending."