The moon cracked.
Or at least, that's what it looked like through the fractured sky above the Forbidden Sector of the Academy—a place that had been sealed since the last Era Reset. Where timelines twisted, and systems failed to run properly.
That's where the creature had come from.
And now, that's where Riven was going.
Early Morning
He moved through the empty halls, hidden beneath his Eclipse Veil, the shadows strangely cooperative—like they wanted him to pass.
He didn't tell Lira. She was still asleep.
Or pretending to be.
[Objective: Investigate the residual trace of the Sleepless One. Advisory: Presence of world anomalies likely. Proceed with caution.]
The entrance to the Forbidden Sector was guarded by three layers of enchanted stone and a blood-sealed glyph.
He touched it.
It shattered like glass.
[Warning: Accessing a collapsed timeline thread. Stability: 11%. Error: Memory corruption imminent.]
Riven stepped through.
Meanwhile: Lira's Room
She wasn't asleep.
She was drawing.
Scribbled with crayon on old parchment, her fingers moved with calm precision—eyes distant, lost in something far older than her age.
A figure appeared on the page.
A man with two wings—one holy, one skeletal. Eyes like storms.
"He's almost ready," she whispered. "But the world isn't."
She turned the page.
Drew a door.
And something… looking out of it.
The Forbidden Sector
Riven descended crumbling stairs into a sublevel that shouldn't have existed. The walls pulsed with veins of broken mana—colors that didn't belong to any known element.
There were no sounds.
Only thoughts.
But they weren't his.
"Do you know why they fear us?"
Riven spun, blade half-drawn.
Nothing.
Then the hallway behind him shifted. Like a maze rearranging in response to his footsteps. The door ahead changed from wood, to stone, to metal, to something he couldn't name.
He stepped inside.
The Hall of Waking Things
It wasn't a room.
It was a looped memory—a scene playing on endless rewind.
A child, standing before a mirror, eyes glowing with the same mismatched light as Lira.
A voice boomed from nowhere: "Subject failed to align. Memory purge initiated."
The child screamed. Not from pain—but from being forgotten.
[Codex Echo Logged. Identity Match: Inconclusive. Related Subject: Lira Arkan.][Memory Fragment: "The Thing That Wakes Cannot Be Controlled."]
Then the mirror turned toward Riven.
And it spoke in his voice.
"You are a mistake."
He staggered back.
But then, the memory paused.
Unnatural.
A figure appeared in the mirror's frame—his reflection, but older… scarred… wings spread wide, one feathered, one made of bone.
The dragon-eye gleamed.
"Don't listen to the Systems.""When the stars fall, remember this place.""Because this is where you were born."
Then—
Black.
Back in the Real World
Riven awoke in the courtyard.
He didn't remember leaving.
Only one thing lingered in his mind:The memory wasn't his.And yet… it was.
Final Scene – Above the Abyss
High above the demon lands, beyond even the King's throne, in a prison made of dead time, something stirred.
An eye opened.
It was neither alive nor dead.
It had seen Riven.
"The Chaosborn has seen the Hall."
"Unseal the Vault."
"Let the Fallen Systems begin again."