The final veil parted with a whisper.
Valen stepped into the Core Layer, boots echoing softly across parchment-stone.
Everything around him was quiet—
But not peaceful.
It was the quiet of words being erased.
The Thread pulsed in his grip.
No longer solid.
No longer still.
It moved now—slithering like it had a heartbeat of its own.
> [Codex Interface Corrupted]
User Role: Undefined Remnant
Reality Alignment: Shifting
Memory Drift Detected…
---
He tried to push forward.
But the floor changed.
Became grass.
Wet.
And it wasn't the Codex now.
It was a field.
Evening light.
And a boy running.
His boots weren't military issue anymore.
They were leather.
Worn.
He looked down and saw a small figure chasing a kite made of runes.
The boy stopped.
Turned.
Smiled.
"Brother!"
Valen froze.
> I don't have a brother.
But the boy ran up to him anyway, grabbed his hand.
"I made it stay up this time!"
The wind carried laughter from a house in the distance.
And a woman's voice—familiar in a way that split him open:
"Valen, don't let him run too far!"
---
The vision began to dissolve.
The Codex pulled it away, like ink lifted from old parchment.
The kite broke.
The boy faded.
The field folded back into spellscript.
And Valen was kneeling now.
Eyes wide.
Hands shaking.
> Who… was that?
He heard a voice—his own voice—but from a memory he didn't possess:
> "Promise you'll never forget me."
And another:
> "Even if they rewrite us… I'll find you again."
---
He gripped the Thread harder, forcing the emotions back.
No.
These weren't his memories.
They were leakage.
Rewrites caught in the Thread.
Polluting him.
Distracting him.
> "I don't need to remember," he growled.
"I just need to end this."
The Codex flared red.
> [Thread Rejection Detected]
System Override Initiated
Target: Greenbottle – Seal Anchor
Thread-Remnant Directive: Sever Bond / Silence Rewrite Candidates
His vision locked forward.
And in the distance—
Two figures.
Lyle and Juno.
Waiting.
The air rippled.
The Thread hissed.
And Valen began walking, one foot at a time, toward the Core.
His mind still echoing a name he didn't recognize—
> Ardyn.