The System's next directive was unlike any before.
> [System Quest: Reclaim the Seven Forgotten Artifacts]
These remnants were sealed before the world reset. Each holds a piece of the True Narrative.
Warning: Artifact #3 – [REDACTED] – contains a living echo.
Identity Match: 98.7% — Yui Amagami.
Yui blinked at the screen. "…What?"
Even Azarion looked shaken. "You're… an artifact?"
"No," she whispered. "A part of me is."
Selene frowned. "How's that possible?"
Kale checked his notes with wide eyes. "There was a time when the original story had no protagonist… right? What if the System couldn't stabilize until it stored part of your soul in a backup state?"
Azarion's eyes narrowed. "And now it's waking up."
---
The Search Begins
Following the threads of narrative left behind by the Editors, the group tracked the first two artifacts:
Artifact #1 – The Quill of Undoing
Hidden inside the remnants of the Library of Lost Lines, guarded by sentient ink creatures. Claimed by Selene after a duel against the rewritten Librarian.
Ability: Can erase false memories from corrupted beings.
Artifact #2 – The Mirror of Neverborn
Sealed beneath a frozen sea, guarded by regretful shades of characters never allowed to exist.
Ability: Shows not just the truth—but what was supposed to be.
But Artifact #3 was different.
It pulsed with warmth. It called to Yui.
And its location?
> [Echo Zone: Site Alpha – The Moment of Impact]
Azarion froze. "That's… where you died."
---
They returned to the first memory.
The crossroads. The truck. The rain.
But now it was wrapped in shadow and static, an unstable echo-space held together only by Yui's will.
And in its center stood a girl.
Another Yui.
She looked younger. Softer. A mirror of the Yui who once existed before all of this—before she bled into her story and became the Warden of Echoes.
This echo of herself tilted her head. "You finally came back."
"I… I don't understand," Yui said. "What are you?"
"I'm the piece you left behind when you rewrote your soul to fit this world," said the echo, smiling gently. "I held on to everything you forgot."
The world trembled.
> [Artifact Detected: Heartshard of the First Thread]
Warning: To claim this artifact, you must confront your lost self.
---
Inner Conflict
The echo raised her hand, and suddenly Yui was falling—through memories not her own, but hers all the same:
Crying alone after submitting her novel and watching it get rejected.
Smiling when she first imagined Azarion in the dark.
Screaming when the Editors deleted everything she loved.
Begging for someone to remember her.
"I wanted to stay forgotten," the echo said. "Because remembering hurts."
Yui stood tall, eyes full of tears but voice unbroken. "But forgetting hurts everyone else more."
She reached out, not to fight—but to merge.
The echo hesitated—then took her hand.
---
> [Artifact Claimed: Heartshard of the First Thread (SS)]
Effects: Restores full emotional memory integrity. Grants "Threadweaver's Soul" passive.
Bonus Skill Unlocked: Ink Resonance – Rewrite Pulse (S+)
Can rewrite the emotions of a corrupted target once per battle.
> Narrative Thread Updated: 3/7 Forgotten Artifacts Reclaimed
Yui opened her eyes—whole.
More than she had ever been.
Azarion knelt before her, not in worship—but in awe. "You've changed again."
"No," she whispered. "I just remembered who I was… and who I chose to become."
---
Far away, in the heart of a collapsing Editor's archive, the Echo King paused.
And for the first time in centuries—he looked afraid.
"She's coming back to herself," he murmured. "And that means… I can't hide behind her shadow anymore."