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The Night of Forbidden Steps
The moon hovered like a blade above Zenith Academy, cleaving light into the shadows of the campus.
Harvey moved unseen.
His cloak shimmered with darkened runes, absorbing sound and light alike. Every step was calculated, every corner memorized. Beneath his calm exterior, the system pulsed softly—active, alert, and wary.
> "Entry Route: 73. Success Probability: 61%."
He ignored the odds.
He wasn't here to play safe.
He was here to unlock the past.
---
The Forgotten Wing
Harvey approached the western spire of Zenith, a tower so ancient most students assumed it was off-limits due to structural decay. But beneath it, hidden behind false walls and cursed illusions, stood the Sealed Archive—the place where the empire buried truths they didn't want remembered.
Twelve divine locks. Five ancestral seals. One blood-coded memory gate.
And yet, Harvey didn't need any of it.
He wasn't bound by laws that the gods themselves had crafted. His existence, his very soul, was already a violation.
He extended his hand and whispered the language of the First Spell:
> "Nullis. Itero. Fractum."
The gate shimmered, resisted—then fractured with a pained groan.
Magic screamed in protest. The air thickened.
And then—
Silence.
He stepped inside.
---
The Archive of the Damned
The room beyond was vast—larger than the entire academy itself.
Ceilingless, dimensionless.
Books floated midair, chained by golden ink. Scrolls burned and reformed themselves infinitely. Statues wept violet tears. The floor was not stone, but a writhing sea of shattered reflections, as though timelines were trapped beneath his feet.
And at the center of it all—
A black mirror.
Carved from Divinite, a crystal said to contain memories from every erased soul in history.
Harvey approached it.
His hand trembled.
> "This is it," he murmured. "The origin."
He placed his palm on the mirror.
And the world split.
---
Memory Sync: Prime Timeline #000001
Suddenly, Harvey wasn't in Zenith.
He stood on a battlefield drenched in blood.
Mountains shattered in the distance. The sky was aflame. Divine corpses littered the ground—winged beings and horned titans alike.
And at the center of the massacre—
Himself.
A younger version, eyes blazing with fury and heartbreak.
Standing above them all.
Surrounded by traitors.
His former allies—mages, warriors, gods, and disciples—all turning their weapons on him.
> "You were never meant to reach this far," said a man in gold robes.
> "You weren't supposed to awaken that system," whispered a woman with celestial chains.
> "You broke fate, Harvey."
And he had.
He remembered it now.
He had found something beyond divine magic—something older.
Something that devoured the gods' authority.
> "I didn't break fate," Prime-Harvey had whispered. "I rewrote it."
Then came the divine spears. The trial. The burning. The silence.
> "We erase your existence."
And in his last breath—
> "You can erase me. But I already wrote the next version of me into the code."
---
Back to the Present
Harvey gasped, collapsing to one knee in front of the mirror.
The system buzzed wildly.
[Timeline Sync: 47.2% Completed.]
[Cognitive Limit Warning: Memory Overflow Detected.]
> "Not yet…" Harvey muttered, gripping the edge of the platform. "I need more."
And from the void, a voice answered him.
"Then take more."
A burst of power surged into him. Not from the system—but from within.
Old power. Forgotten spells. A language only spoken by Worldbreakers.
And for the first time, his system updated:
[Skill Acquired: Spell Protocol 'Infractura Veritas' – Truth Fracture]
[Note: This spell breaks illusions within divine constructs.]
Harvey smiled, blood trickling from his nose.
> "So even time bleeds if you cut deep enough."
---
Celestia's Arrival
Outside the Archive, Celestia waited.
Her eyes were closed, her body perfectly still, but her presence was like a blade against the air. When Harvey stepped out, pale and trembling, she turned instantly.
> "You went inside," she said. "The system confirms your breach."
> "And?" Harvey said calmly.
> "That place holds sealed records from erased timelines," she said. "You're not even supposed to know it exists."
Harvey looked at her, eyes glowing faintly.
> "I don't follow the rules of this world."
He took one step forward—and the runes beneath Celestia's feet cracked.
Just slightly.
Enough to make her look down.
Enough to make her doubt.
> "If I were you," Harvey whispered, "I'd start wondering whether I'm the anomaly you were sent to eliminate…"
> "Or the one who created the anomaly in the first place."
---
Far Away, a Judgment Awakens
In the Celestial Court, high above all dimensions, the Arbiter opened its eye.
A single, golden orb that could see across timelines.
> "Subject Harvey has accessed forbidden data."
> "Decree Initiated: Emergency Intervention."
And from the void—
A new enemy began to stir.
---
Closing Scene
That night, Aira's dreams were filled with fire and static.
She saw herself standing beside Harvey, facing a wall of stars collapsing into a single black sun.
His voice echoed beside her.
> "We have one chance."
> "I'm going to break reality."
---