Light. Then darkness. Then silence.
When Kade opened his eyes, he was back in his apartment.
Or… it looked like his apartment.
The ceiling fan spun overhead. The window glowed with neon life outside. The same cracked mirror, the same dusty shelf. But something was off—an eerie stillness, like the world was holding its breath.
He stood, muscles taut, instincts screaming.
System Status: Unknown.
Memory Integration: Incomplete.
Warning: Timeline now in divergence state.
Footsteps echoed from the hallway.
Kade turned fast—but it was Marei. Except… not. Her eyes flickered with shifting colors, like residual code hadn't finished rendering. Her voice came out layered.
"You forced the convergence. The Architect is gone."
He blinked. "You remember?"
"I am remembering," she replied. "So are you."
Kade reached toward the wall console. It didn't respond. The whole apartment shimmered—like a simulation stuttering on the verge of collapse.
The system's voice returned, but quieter now.
New Directive Available: Restore Integrity or Rebuild Entirely.
Kade shook his head. "What the hell does that even mean?"
Marei approached the window. Outside, the city was... different. Buildings rearranged. The sky was fractured with thin golden lines like broken glass. People moved on the streets—but some flickered. Others looped. A few stood completely still, staring into nothing.
"We're in a half-written world," she whispered.
"Between versions," Kade muttered.
He looked at his hands. They were changing too—new scars, new memories surfacing. Some not his. Some he hadn't lived, but now remembered.
"Is this what becoming the Forgotten King means?" Marei asked.
He didn't answer right away.
Then he turned to her and said, "It means I write what they tried to erase."
Behind them, the air shimmered.
Another door appeared—an elevator that had never existed in the original apartment.
System Prompt: Enter Node Eos. Begin World Reformation.
Kade looked at Marei. She nodded.
Together, they stepped through.
As the door slid shut behind them, Kade spoke one last truth:
"No more resets."
Just forward.