The figure didn't move.
She stood on the edge of a floating shard, framed against the violet shimmer of collapsing space. Her white hair flowed unnaturally, like it belonged underwater. Wind didn't touch her. Time didn't press against her the way it pressed against everything else.
She was a still point in a churning sea of unreality.
The boy took a step forward—then paused.
The system flickered.
❖ Warning: Subject Resists Identification
❖ Scan Error: Consciousness Field Inverted
❖ Status: [???: Unknown — Designated "Keyholder"]
❖ Memory Fragment Sync In Progress…
❖ Authority Conflict Detected: [Entity Classification: Dreamless Crown]
The name triggered something in him. Not a memory—something deeper.
A pressure behind his eyes. A whisper under his skin. A tension that didn't belong to thought or feeling, but to destiny—as if his entire soul had been trained to recoil at that title.
He stepped closer.
And then she turned around.
Her face was familiar. Not entirely—but enough to hurt.
High cheekbones. A sharp nose. Lips parted in a small, unreadable smile. Her eyes were silver—not the gleam of metal, but the blankness of a starless night. And they saw everything.
"I was wondering when you'd catch up," she said. Her voice wasn't cold. It was calm, like a blade drawn too slowly.
The boy opened his mouth to speak, but the system interrupted.
❖ Alert: Cognitive Field Disruption Detected
❖ Suppression Attempt: Failed
❖ WARNING: You are in the presence of a [Crowned Being]
❖ Danger Level: Absolute / Fate-Void Aligned
❖ Memory Anchor Locked — Dialogue Permitted for 3:00 min window
She walked toward him across the shard's surface like gravity meant nothing.
Each step left behind a ripple of symbols he couldn't read—language too old for time.
"You don't remember me," she said. "That's good. If you did, you'd hesitate."
"You're part of the throne," he replied automatically. "Or you're trying to rebuild it."
She tilted her head. "You're wrong on both counts. I'm not trying to rebuild it. I'm trying to make sure you don't destroy the wrong one."
"There's more than one?"
She said nothing. The silence that followed wasn't empty—it was layered. Like echoes across multiple versions of the same conversation, all bleeding together.
She reached out.
He flinched.
But she didn't touch him. Her fingers hovered near his cheek, trembling faintly.
"You were always difficult," she whispered. "Even when we stood side by side. Even when the First Realm fell. You were too loyal to the wrong ideal."
The boy's pulse quickened.
"You knew me... before?"
She nodded once.
"Before the Fracture. Before the throne shattered. You were one of the Seven Bearers. The last one."
❖ Hidden Lore Unlocked: "The Seven Bearers – Prefracture Lineage"
❖ [Data Corrupted. Only 1 of 7 Valid Entries Recovered: Thronebearer - Codename: Ash Prime]
"You're not here to help me," he said, voice low. "You're here to influence me."
"Influence you?" she echoed. "No. That would be… beneath me. I'm here because the Dreamless Crown is rising, and you're still a broken shard of what you were. You don't even understand the war you're walking into."
The air cracked.
Not thunder.
A breach.
Reality behind her twisted—and another presence emerged.
Tall. Robed in flowing silver robes. No face—just a mask that shimmered like a mirror that couldn't hold your reflection.
It said nothing.
But the System screamed.
❖ Threat Detected: Dreamless Crown – Avatar Class
❖ Classification: Outerverse Conceptual Entity / Thronebound Opposition
❖ Warning: Flee or Submit. Combat Not Recommended.
❖ Survival Chance: 0.002%
The girl turned.
"You're early," she told the being. "He hasn't chosen yet."
The being said nothing. But pressure filled the space—like the weight of an entire forgotten realm pressing down. The boy's knees buckled.
"He will break the wrong throne if you push him too hard," the girl continued, stepping in front of him. "Back off."
The mask shimmered. A sound like static thunder followed. The entity withdrew. But not before leaving behind a symbol—burned into the sky like graffiti from a dying god.
It was a crown.
But broken.
And open-eyed.
The girl turned back toward the boy.
"You have three tasks, Thronebreaker," she said.
She raised a hand, and a glowing triangle appeared between them. Each point burned with a different symbol:
An Eye Wreathed in Flame
A Chain Wrapped Around a Star
A Child Holding the Remains of a Throne
"Find these. Each holds a piece of what you were. And what you'll become. Only then can you make a real choice."
"What choice?" he asked, but she was already fading—reality pulling her backward.
"To destroy the throne…"
She vanished.
"Or to become what it fears."
Silence returned.
The shard cracked beneath his feet, dissolving into dust.
The boy landed in a new section of Virelith's lower district—a labyrinth of shifting corridors lit by dying stars and echoing footsteps not his own.
The System re-stabilized.
❖ Objective Updated: Trace the Three Shards of Memory
• Echo I: The Eye of Flame – Located in Outer Tombscape "Ashen Veil"
• Echo II: The Chained Star – Driftlocked in Lost Orbit: "Gravemind's Cradle"
• Echo III: The Child of the Throne – Hidden Within Inverse Earth: "The Forgotten Yesterday"
❖ New Faction Unlocked: Dreamless Crown
❖ Alignment: Conceptual Opposition / Reality Preservation Extremist
❖ Status: Hostile (Tentative)
❖ Warning: Memory Intrusions Expected Going Forward
The boy stood in the dark.
One moment he had nothing.
Now, he had... too much.
A girl he once trusted. An enemy who spoke without words. A title that kept evolving. And the creeping fear that he was being shaped—not by destiny, but by design.
Still, one path lay open:
Ashen Veil.
The Eye of Flame awaited.
He clenched his fists.
Whatever he had to remember—whatever the throne had hidden—he would find it.
Even if the cost was his own soul.