The Null Fragment pulsed between Root's fingers.
Not brightly. Not warmly. It didn't glow—it resisted the idea of light. It sat there in his palm like a shard of something the world had tried to forget.
[ Null Fragment Acquired. ]
Absorb to unlock Veinbind Trait: Gravity Affinity – Level 1
Warning: Null Traits may alter Hollow Vein stability.
Root looked up at Veyr, who stood beside the ruined spire like a shadow made to wear a suit.
"Can I absorb it?"
Veyr didn't answer.
He just extended one pale hand, and with a soft twist of his fingers, the Null Fragment floated from Root's palm and hovered an inch above his chest.
Then the pressure hit.
Root gasped as his feet lifted slightly off the ground—not from weightlessness, but from directionlessness. The world spun sideways. Down folded in on itself. His stomach tried to leap and fall at the same time.
The fragment phased into his chest.
And suddenly…
[ Null Trait Absorbed: Gravity Affinity – Level 1 ]
✦ Passive Effect: Root's presence now passively distorts local gravity by 1.2%.
✦ Root gains the ability to "Pull" or "Press" in a 3-meter radius for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 30s.
He dropped to his knees.
The chamber groaned around him. Not the Rift itself—but memories embedded in its walls.
The sigils began to twitch.
Then flicker.
Then burn.
"Don't resist it," Veyr said calmly. "The first memory fragment is never gentle."
Root opened his mouth to ask—then stopped.
Because the walls were gone.
He was somewhere else.
The Rift had changed.
Or maybe… Root had.
He now stood in a place without walls—an endless, gray expanse with shredded banners flapping in a wind that didn't exist. Statues of faceless beings lined the path ahead, their hands outstretched—not in welcome, but in warning.
In the center of it all was a crater.
And in that crater…
Another Root.
Or something that had once been him. Kneeling. Face buried in his hands. Body wrapped in black glyph-wounds that pulsed every few seconds with violent Hollow light.
Root staggered forward, heart pounding. "What is this?"
"The last one who tried."
Veyr's voice echoed softly, but Root didn't see him anymore. He was alone.
Except for the figure in the crater.
It raised its head.
No face. No eyes. Just a bleeding sigil burned where a mouth should've been.
And then it spoke.
"You should have stayed asleep."
The entire scene shattered.
Root collapsed backward—gasping—back in the Rift chamber.
He was sweating.
Bleeding slightly from the nose.
Veyr stood over him, still mask-faced, still glowing.
"Welcome to Null Memory."
"Next time, try not to scream."
Root's palms were still slick with sweat when he stood.
The memory lingered—not as a vision, but as a sensation. Like a bruise inside his mind. The image of the crater. The broken version of himself. That burning sigil where a mouth should've been.
You should have stayed asleep.
He shook it off. Mostly.
Veyr watched him from across the chamber, arms behind his back like a well-dressed executioner waiting for orders.
Root flexed his hand.
"What exactly did I absorb?"
"A fragment of a collapsed truth," Veyr replied. "The Rift isn't built to contain things like us. That memory wasn't shown to you—it escaped."
Root didn't like the phrasing. "You're saying I didn't unlock something. I… triggered it?"
Veyr tilted his head.
"You disturbed it."
Root turned away and focused on his breath. One step at a time. The system had said the Null Fragment granted him the power to Pull or Press.
Let's see if it works.
He raised his hand and pointed toward a loose slab of stone across the chamber.
[ Gravity Pull – Activated ]
The effect wasn't flashy.
The stone simply slid toward him—fast and flat, as if dragged by a chain made of silence. It struck his boot with a quiet thunk.
Root exhaled. "Okay. That felt…"
Then the stone twitched.
Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface—not from impact, but from stress. Like the Rift itself didn't like what just happened.
Root stepped back.
[ Gravity Pull: Cooldown – 30s ]
Next, he turned toward a ceiling glyph still glowing faintly with residual light. He focused again.
[ Gravity Press – Activated ]
This time, the pressure reversed.
The glyph didn't shatter. It compressed—folded inward like a tin plate crushed by a thumb. Dust hissed down from above as the stone groaned.
[ Gravity Press: Cooldown – 30s ]
Root took another step back, slower now.
That familiar hum behind his ribs returned.
Something's watching.
Veyr confirmed it without being asked.
"You've changed your weight in the system. You'll be felt now. The Rift can ignore hollow threats. But gravity…"
"…leaves a dent."
Root turned slowly toward the chamber's far edge.
A new door had opened. It hadn't been there before. Black stone. No sigils. No glow. Just open—like a mouth that hadn't decided whether it wanted to bite or speak.
From within, a hand gripped the threshold.
Thin. Metal bones. Flesh draped like wax.
Root didn't move.
Veyr stepped behind him, whisper-calm.
"You pulled something you weren't meant to."
"Let's see if you can press it back."
The thing that entered wasn't Echoborn.
It wasn't alive—but it remembered what life felt like. Its body was a mess of metal joints and sagging skin, its chest cavity open like a ribcage had been cracked wide and filled with wires. Its mouth clicked sideways. No eyes. Just sensors—some lit, others dimming and relighting like failing stars.
Root stayed low behind a fallen arch of bone. His breath slowed automatically. The Veil of Stillness kicked in, coating his presence like oil over glass.
The creature twitched—then snapped toward the spot where Root had used Gravity Pull. It stumbled, then glided with sudden speed, dragging half a leg.
It's tracking the dent I left, Root realized.
The Rift didn't log it as an enemy.
But he had dragged it here.
"That's no spawn," Veyr whispered from somewhere above. "It's a failed response. A patch."
Root didn't reply. His fingers tensed against the stone.
The thing moved erratically, scanning. Sniffing. The red lens in its center pulsed in jagged rhythm, faster each time it turned toward where Root had used Gravity Press.
[ Passive Alert: Null Signature Detected ]
[ Proximity Trigger: 12 Seconds to Lock ]
Twelve seconds.
The creature's limbs began to extend—lengthening, reshaping. The red core in its chest shifted to mimic a Hollow sigil. It had no mouth, yet a rasping hum echoed from it, low and crackling.
Root's hand hovered over the ground.
Then—
[ Gravity Press – Ready ]
He slammed his palm to the stone. No spell circle. No cast time.
The air caved inward.
Not enough to crush. Just enough to tilt the world beneath the creature's malformed feet.
It stumbled—but didn't fall.
Instead, it screeched. Loud. Directionless.
The sigils around the room began to flicker—responding to it.
[ Null Disruption Threshold Reached ]
[ Rift Stability: Compromised ]
[ Intervention: Pending… ]
Root didn't wait.
He ran.
Veil of Stillness coated him in near-silence, but the gravity echoes he'd created distorted the Rift's spatial rules. The corridor ahead extended—then shrank—then doubled again. The air thickened with unstable inertia.
[ Gravity Pull – Ready ]
Root didn't use it on the enemy.
He used it on himself.
He reached toward the far side of the collapsing corridor and pulled his own weight forward—a slingshot effect that ripped him through space faster than the Rift could adjust.
The creature lunged.
Too slow.
Root crashed through a half-formed wall of symbols, rolling hard across a stone platform—then came to a dead stop.
A door slammed behind him. No sound.
Just sealed.
No sign of pursuit.
No breath left in his lungs.
He lay there in the dark, heartbeat slow, sweat cold. Then he looked down at his chest—and saw it:
[ New Trait Forming… ]
✦ Veinbind Mutation Detected.
✦ "The Rift remembers you now."
A faint hum echoed through his bones.
The Rift wasn't just watching anymore.
It had started to remember his shape.