The Aftermargin held no time. Only tension.
Following the dawnless awakening in Farsong Bastion, Rei found himself wandering through the outer rings of the realm—where fragments of discarded stories hung like frozen fireflies, pulsing with forgotten potential.
The Spiralheart Flame flickered low at his core. Not from weakness, but from restraint.
He had reached a point where flame alone would not suffice.
---
Codex Entry: Null Spiral Preliminary Assessment
> Entity Designation: Nullborn Status: Anti-Conceptual Apex Composition: Narrative Void Thread / Pre-Origin Schema Threat Level: Terminal Rewrite
"No beginning. No memory. No soul," Mireille whispered, analyzing the data.
Eirenne added, "It's trying to overwrite the act of existing."
Karasu hissed. "It's not just killing stories. It's erasing the idea that stories could ever exist."
---
The Witness Vaults
Guided by Azazel's map of forgotten ley-seeds, the team ventured to the outer rim—a crumbling coliseum of glass and bone known as the Vaults of Witness.
Here, Sovereigns who had faded not from defeat, but irrelevance, still lingered.
Among them was Seraxis, the Unnamed. A Sovereign who had never manifested fully, abandoned mid-creation.
"I never found my role," Seraxis rasped, wrapped in threads of incomplete lore.
Rei stepped forward. "Then let me give you one."
He offered Seraxis the Spiralheart Flame. Not to ignite—but to anchor.
A new thread formed.
> [Thread Acquired: Rolebound Fracture — Rei can grant purpose to broken fragments of story, binding them into the current narrative.]
Seraxis knelt. "I will remember you, and through me, you will never be forgotten."
From this, a legion stirred. Not soldiers. But echoes—those left unwritten.
And they began to follow.
---
Nullborn Stirring — A Glimpse Through Fracture Veil
The Codex pulsed with sudden light. A rift tore open near the Vaults. From within, whispers poured out—not in words, but in contradictions.
> "You are fire, therefore you must freeze." "You began, and so must never start."
The Nullborn was testing the boundary. Trying to undo paradox itself.
Rei reached out—and instead of resisting, he listened.
The flame within him did not burn the whisper. It translated it.
A vision came:
A child crying before a world that never loved them.
A city made of unfinished thoughts.
A girl who waited across lifetimes for someone to call her real.
"I see now," Rei murmured. "Nullborn isn't evil. It's the cry of every unrealized soul."
Mireille gasped. "You empathize with that?"
Rei shook his head. "I remember them."
---
Legacy Sync — Humanity's Forgotten Flame
That night, Rei connected with the Codex one final time—not as user, but as author.
He wrote a single line:
> "We were forgotten not because we failed. But because no one stayed to remember."
The Codex shimmered.
> [Codex Evolution Complete. Title Unlocked: Final Scribe. Trait: Flame of Continuity — Rei's presence now preserves the integrity of adjacent narratives within a collapsing multiverse.]
Around him, the team stood taller. Their spirits reinforced by Rei's narrative clarity.
Even the forgotten Sovereigns bent knee—not to a king, but to a scribe who remembered.
---
Azazel's Final Warning
From the shadows, Azazel appeared again, holding a cracked monocle and a relic box.
"This," he said, offering the box, "is the first written prayer humanity ever made. It wasn't to God. It was to hope."
He placed it in Rei's hands.
"It might be what the Nullborn fears most."
Rei nodded, eyes burning with quiet resolve.
"We face it tomorrow."
"Then write wisely," Azazel whispered. "Because this chapter decides whether there are any more left."
Rei looked toward the dark spiral beyond the veil.