> [Status: Chronicle of the Silent Core – Bound]
[Trait: "Unforgotten Flame" Active]
[Realm Stability: 43%]
[New Thread Interference Detected]
Tracking... Subject: "Red Huntress"]
---
Elsewhere, Beyond the Realms
A colossal crimson moon hovered over the twisted land of Argrent Shade, where reality bent like melted glass.
At its peak stood a tower forged of black bone and runes pulsating with rage. Inside, the woman who traced Dain's thread stirred from her meditation, her cloak whispering across the air like a stormcloud.
She was known in whispers and death notes as the Red Huntress, a name buried by time but feared in every reality that dared cross the threshold of forbidden power.
She turned to a glowing mirror, where Dain's image flickered — still clutching the Chronicle.
"Another chronicle wielder… tsk," she said with disdain. "And this one thinks he's rewriting fate."
She reached toward the mirror, and it bled red.
"I will teach him the cost of remembering."
---
Back at The Clockless Library
Dain's fingertips still tingled from the Chronicle's fusion. The air around him shimmered with unstable time fragments. Rin hovered near, her soul-core now partially syncing with his after the shared trial.
The Keeper bowed once more.
"You must leave now," it said. "The library will soon fold into sleep. But beware—your memory flame has been seen."
Dain narrowed his eyes. "By who?"
But the Keeper had already dissolved into ink.
Moments later, the system window flared again.
> [Chronicle Wave Echo Detected]
[Opposing Wielder Identified: ???]
Codename: RED HUNTRESS. Threat Level: ASCENDANT.]
[You are being tracked.]
"She's coming…" Rin said, her voice quieter than usual.
Dain looked up, jaw firm.
"Then we don't stop. We finish what we started."
---
The Soul-Tethered Map
Outside the library's realm, the Chronicle opened a celestial map—threads of lost locations, realms erased from history. Each spark represented a soul fragment, a mystery, or a dormant truth.
The system highlighted a new target:
> Next Location: The Prism Tomb
Function: Memory Fracture Archive
Objective: Recover [Soul Fragment: "Origin Memory"]
"Origin memory?" Rin echoed, stepping closer. "You think it's—?"
"Yes. The truth about where all this began. Me. The Silent Core. Why I survived the collapse when others didn't."
He turned to her.
"Time to find the real me."
---
Within the Prism Tomb – Sector 1: Glass Vein
The Prism Tomb was unlike any place they'd seen. It wasn't buried in stone or death, but in refraction — a labyrinth of mirrored corridors and floating shards of people's worst regrets.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
Every step echoed like thunder, their reflections whispering twisted truths.
Rin looked uneasy. "This place reflects your thoughts. Try not to think of anything dark."
Too late.
One of the mirrors near Dain shattered, revealing a distorted version of his father—his real one—chained and screaming.
"You chose to live while we burned," the vision howled.
> [Cognitive Integrity: 87%]
[Warning: False memories attempting override.]
"No," Dain growled. "I didn't choose to survive… I fought to."
He stepped forward, slicing the vision in half with the Chronicle's memory blade. The tomb groaned.
Another mirror cracked—this time showing Rin bleeding out in Dain's arms, whispering, "You were too late."
He faltered.
But Rin herself grabbed his shoulder.
"I'm alive, idiot."
She shoved him forward, smiling faintly.
---
Mini-Boss: The Memory Leech
A low hiss filled the tomb as the ground shifted.
A creature emerged, part shadow, part mirror — the Memory Leech, a guardian of forbidden soul fragments. It crawled along reflections, striking from impossible angles.
> [Enemy Identified: Memory Leech – Level ???]
[Chronicle Reaction: Active]
Dain activated the Rewrite ability from his Chronicle.
He whispered: "This is no longer my regret."
Reality bent. The leech screamed, losing form.
Rin launched her blade through its weakened core. The leech burst into static.
---
Fragment Acquired: Origin Memory (Locked)
A glowing sphere hovered above the ruins, pulsing slowly.
But before Dain could reach it, a new window cracked open.
> [Interference Detected]
[Signal: RED HUNTRESS HAS ENTERED THE TOMB]
[Engagement Time: T-Minus 4 Minutes]
Rin's eyes widened. "She's here."
Dain grabbed the sphere anyway. It fused with his chest—burning white-hot.
> [Origin Memory Absorbed: 7%]
[Status: Incomplete, requires three more shards]
He looked up.
"Then we finish fast."
---
Elsewhere, Watching
The Red Huntress hovered at the tomb's gate, her crimson weapon humming like a sle
eping dragon. Around her, the realm cracked at the edges from her pressure alone.
She smirked.
"Run, little flame. I want to see how bright you burn before I snuff you out."
[Chronicle Warning: Anomaly Approaching]
[Chronicle Sync Rate: 53%]
[Soul Thread Integrity: 91%]
[Threat Level: Ascendant-Class — Engaged in 3:22]
---
Within the Prism Tomb
The Prism Tomb was no longer silent. The ground trembled beneath Dain's boots as crimson flashes danced across the mirrored walls. From the edges of the horizon, a presence pushed its way into this forgotten space—uninvited, unchallenged, and unmistakably hostile.
The Red Huntress had entered the realm.
Dain turned back from the fading light of the memory sphere embedded in his chest. Though the fragment pulsed faintly—only 7% synced—he could feel it reshaping something inside him. Pieces of truth that had been scattered… now shifting into focus.
But time was against them.
"Rin," he said, voice taut, "status?"
She tapped the ethereal control glyph above her left wrist. "The core's memory grid is collapsing. We've got maybe ten minutes before this whole tomb folds in on itself. And she's coming straight through the upper mirrored gate."
Dain didn't hesitate. "Then we meet her before she corners us. Divide her focus."
Rin's eyes narrowed. "You mean split up?"
"Just long enough for me to draw her in. You go find the second fragment. It's here somewhere. I'll delay the huntress."
Rin grabbed his sleeve. "She's not just some mid-boss, Dain. She's legendary. Entire memory realms fell because of her."
He gave her a look—calm, but resolute.
"So did I. But I got back up."
---
Upper Mirrored Gate – Moments Later
The gate exploded inward in a storm of red particles, each one slicing the air like razors. From the smoke, the Huntress emerged—tall, radiant, cloaked in fury and layered ancient tech. Her armor hissed with time-distortion, her blade pulsing like it was alive and starving.
And in the center of the tomb chamber, waiting in the shattered reflection of his own face, was Dain.
He didn't flinch.
She paused, amused.
"So… you're the one the Chronicle chose?" she asked, her voice like velvet laced with acid. "I expected someone taller."
Dain's eyes flickered with focused energy. "And I expected someone with a better opening line."
He raised the Chronicle.
It answered.
A translucent armor of energy flickered around him, stitched together from the memories of countless fallen souls. Their strength, their regrets, their love. They had become his shield.
> [Chronicle Combat Protocol: "Soul Flame Aegis" Activated]
The Huntress lunged.
---
Battle – Soulfire vs. Crimson Vein
Their clash was unlike anything the Prism Tomb had witnessed in centuries.
Every slash of the Huntress's blade bent the light around her, each swing distorting time by milliseconds. Dain ducked low, using his Chronicle to rewrite physics in bursts—freezing shards of time and hurling them like daggers.
She was fast. Terrifyingly fast.
But Dain wasn't trying to win.
He was trying to stall.
"You're wasting potential," she growled mid-slash. "The Chronicle doesn't belong to you. It was forged for hunters like me."
Dain grinned through a parried strike. "Funny. It didn't seem to agree."
A second later, he slammed the Chronicle into the ground.
> [Skill Unlocked: "Memory Collapse"]
[Effect: Fragment the Tomb Layer Temporarily – Force Terrain Shift]
The floor cracked. The entire battlefield twisted, throwing both of them across floating reflective platforms above a massive void.
---
Elsewhere in the Tomb – Rin's Mission
Rin navigated through shifting reflections and traps that played on emotion and doubt.
Each mirror whispered lies—"He'll betray you," "You're just a sidekick," "You're not strong enough."
But she silenced them with steel. Her blade tore through the illusions as her will focused on the sphere pulsing in the distance—the Second Origin Fragment.
The moment she touched it, her HUD lit up.
> [Soul Fragment: "Origin Memory II – The Collapse" Acquired]
[Dain's Sync Rate: 63%]
She smiled.
Then her breath caught.
In the reflection next to the sphere, she saw Dain falling—the Huntress standing over him.
---
Back in the Collapse Chamber
Dain coughed, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. The Huntress had managed a clean hit. His Aegis flickered, barely holding.
She stood over him, red eyes narrowed.
"You're not a flame. You're just smoke."
But before she could strike again—
> [Sync Update: Memory II Transferred]
A flash of light erupted from Dain's chest. The Chronicle roared.
Truth Awakened:
A memory not yet his… but always buried deep.
He remembered the lab. The experiments. The moment he wasn't chosen—but he survived anyway, because the others shielded him.
Rin. His real name. The voice of someone calling him brother.
And the final echo: "Your flame is the last. Don't let it go out."
> [Trait Evolved: Unforgotten Flame → "Awakened Core"]
Power exploded from within him.
He grabbed the Huntress's arm mid-strike and, for the first time—overpowered her.