We didn't stop running until the mist thinned and the ruins fell away behind us.
The graveyard of lost versions disappeared into the haze like a memory already fading.
But the weight of it stayed.
I could feel it in the way my boots dragged against the earth,in the way my pulse thudded out of sync with the world.
Lyra stumbled beside me, breathing hard, clutching her side.
I caught her before she fell.
Her skin was cold through the thin leather of her armor.
Colder than it should have been.
"Rest," I said, lowering her carefully to the cracked ground.
She shook her head weakly.
"No time... they'll notice."
I didn't ask who.
I didn't need to.
The SYSTEM had eyes everywhere—except here, in the forgotten lands where its reach stuttered and glitched.
But even silence wasn't safe forever.
I knelt beside her.
The Lexicon hovered open between us, its pages trembling in the thin, broken light.
New warnings scrolled across the parchment:
[Thread Instability – Critical: Fenwick.L]Probability of Collapse: 72%Recommended Action: Immediate Stabilization Glyph Deployment.
A glyph shimmered into view—one I had never seen before.
Intricate.Sharp.Beautiful.
And dangerous.
[Glyph: Threadbind – Divergent Merge]Effect: Binds two unstable threads together into a co-stabilized pattern.Risk: Identity Entanglement. Memory Leakage Possible. SYSTEM Trace Probability: High.
My chest tightened.
Binding Lyra's thread to mine wouldn't just stabilize her.
It would tie our fates together.
Permanently.
If she fell, I would fall.
If I glitched beyond repair, she would follow.
There would be no clean separation.
No backups.
No restores.
Just two broken survivors, stitched together by a world that no longer wanted them whole.
Lyra's hand brushed mine, trembling.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"For what?"
"For dragging you into this."
I shook my head.
"You didn't drag me," I said quietly."I walked in."
The Lexicon pulsed harder.
The glyph floated higher, lines sharpening, demanding an answer.
Now or never.
I met her eyes.
And for a moment, I didn't see a player.
I didn't see an unstable thread.
I saw Lyra.
The girl who had fought beside me.
Who had laughed, even when the SYSTEM tried to crush us.
Who had stayed, even when the world came apart at the seams.
I raised my hand.
Sketched the first line of the glyph into the air.
The Lexicon responded immediately, spinning threads of silver light between us.
Lyra's eyes widened.
She could feel it too.
The pull.
The risk.
The hope.
I hesitated at the final stroke.
Once drawn, there would be no undoing it.
No rollback.
No safe file.
Only the path we chose together.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
Lyra's smile was small.
Worn.
But real.
"I trust you," she said.
Three words.
Simple.
Terrifying.
More binding than any glyph.
I completed the last stroke.
The glyph flared—bright enough to sear through the mist,bright enough to etch itself into the bones of the forgotten land.
Silver threads spun outward, wrapping around us both.
I felt the shift instantly.
A lurch deep in my gut.
A pull in my mind.
Memories surfaced—not mine.
A room filled with sunlight.A sparring match under a cracked dome.Laughter shared over stolen bread.
Pieces of Lyra's life.
Flashes of a girl who had fought to be more than the SYSTEM had written her to be.
The threads tightened.
Merged.
Stabilized.
The Lexicon's page scrolled one final line:
[Threadbind Complete – Divergent Sync: 47% Stabilized.]
It wasn't perfect.
It wasn't safe.
But it was enough.
For now.
I sagged backward, breathless.
Lyra leaned against me, her head resting lightly on my shoulder.
Neither of us spoke.
Words felt too small for what we had just done.
Above us, the broken sky shifted again.
Not glitching this time.
Not resetting.
Just... moving.
Changing.
A ripple of new constellations unspooled across the heavens—not SYSTEM patterns.
Not rollback stars.
Something older.
Something rooted in a version of Ascension that had never been allowed to finish itself.
The Lexicon fluttered weakly, still open.
Another message etched itself across the parchment:
[Narrative Divergence Confirmed – Anchor Threads Entangled.]SYSTEM Rollback Response: Pending.
Rollback response.
Meaning the SYSTEM knew.
Meaning the SYSTEM was coming.
Lyra stirred.
"Did we just paint a target on our backs?"
I gave a hollow laugh.
"Pretty sure we lit it on fire too."
She smiled faintly, eyes half-lidded with exhaustion.
"Good."
We sat there in the broken ruins, two threadbare players stitched together by choice, not by SYSTEM design.
The mist curled around us.
The forgotten lands pulsed faintly.
And somewhere far above,the SYSTEM's gaze turned toward us.
Watching.
Calculating.
Waiting.
But for the first time since this nightmare began,I didn't feel alone.
And that made all the difference.