She didn't remember his name.
Matt stood frozen outside the shattered chapel in what used to be Serenity District.
Mailane Minari—the girl who once held his hand in fire, who made him laugh when he wanted to scream—was looking straight through him.
"Do I… know you?" she whispered.
The wind didn't answer.
The townsfolk had started forgetting. Places. Faces. Words.
But for Mailane, it was worse. Her eyes were vacant, her voice hollow. Her aura dimmed like a fading star.
Grey had tried to stop it.
Sam had tried to reason with the monks guarding the Mind Spire.
Nothing worked.
Matt looked at her again, heart pounding.
"Mailane… it's me."
She blinked. Frowned. "…Matt?"
And then her eyes rolled back. She screamed.
Reality split.
A rift opened beneath her, swallowing her whole.
Matt dove in after her.
---
Location: Rift Zero – The Abyss Below Mercy
The realm had no shape. No floor. No sky. Just floating shards of memory—echoes of laughter, fragments of pain, shattered reflections of faces long dead.
Here, the Void fed not on hate… but love lost.
Matt floated, then fell. Fell into his own soul.
Voices whispered:
"You should've died."
"You let Amiya burn."
"You'll let her vanish too."
He landed in an impossible chapel—wood and stone shaped from his guilt.
Mailane stood at the altar.
Except it wasn't her.
It was a shadow wearing her face. Cold, unfeeling, perfect.
"You love me?" it asked. "Prove it."
Behind her, the real Mailane was locked in glass—her memories breaking apart like glass shards.
Matt raised his blade.
"I will."
---
The battle began.
He fought a memory-constructed mimic that knew every truth he denied. It moved like her. Spoke like her. Cut him with words.
Every swing of her false blade stole a moment:
Their first laugh.
The night she kissed his scar.
The way she whispered his name after battles.
His Corruption stayed low—but his heart was breaking.
Until he dropped the blade.
"I don't fight to forget," he said. "I fight to remember."
He reached into the mimic's chest.
And pulled out the real Mailane's light.
It burned him.
But he held on.
---
The mimic screamed.
The chapel shattered.
Matt and Mailane landed in each other's arms on a platform of golden light.
Her eyes flickered.
Then focused.
"Matt…?"
Tears fell. She remembered.
A golden glyph formed beneath them.
Soulflare Sigil Acquired.
Void Memory Lock Unsealed.
Emotional Rift Access: Secured.
---
Back in the real world, Grey saw them reappear in a burst of light.
Matt stood tall, holding Mailane like a vow.
And far above, in the Celestial Watchtower, the Paladin named Analice screamed.
"HE BREACHED THE ABYSS?! He remembered her?!"
Monshin only smiled.
"The Reincarnate is complete."
The Paladins now knew.
They could no longer erase him.
So they would try to destroy him instead.