The staircase spiraled downward into an abyss that rejected light. Only the lantern guided Kiran, casting dull golden arcs that slid across stone walls etched with writhing glyphs. As he descended, the air thickened with something ancient, and foul. It reeked of wet fur, old blood, and breath that hadn't been exhaled in centuries.
The screams from earlier faded into silence. But not peace. The silence was listening.
The spiral ended in a massive antechamber, half-eaten by roots and fungal growths that pulsed like veins. At its center stood a circular platform, surrounded by totems of bone and rusted metal. On the platform stood two figures, waiting.
One was a young man with tangled white-blond hair and a coat that shimmered with embedded scales. His eyes were predator sharp, and his left arm was missing, replaced by a sheath of living silver.
Beside him was a girl with silver braids and a smile too soft for the carnage around her. Her presence was unsettling in its calmness. Something coiled around her shoulders like a cloak—not fabric, but fur. No, not fur. Feathers. Black and violet, shifting with a mind of their own.
"You must be the Edit," the man said. "Name's Leon. This is Aria."
Aria tilted her head, studying Kiran like one might study a wounded animal that had learned to walk upright.
"Selena sent me," Kiran said cautiously.
Leon snorted. "Of course she did. Come on, let's get this over with."
He turned, gesturing toward the center of the platform. The totems began to glow faintly.
"This is a Node Gate. First one. You can't reach it until you understand what guards it. And what guards it... is Beast."
Kiran blinked. "Like monsters?"
"No," Aria said softly. "Like truths that grew teeth."
Leon smiled, showing a hint of fang. "They used to be stories, Kiran. Archetypes. Roles. But stories rot like anything else. And when they decay, they become Beasts."
He pointed to a glowing sigil on the platform.
"They're classified by threat and resonance. Iron. Bronze. Silver. Gold. Platinum. Diamond. Each level means more sentience, more narrative power, and more damage if left unchecked. Diamond-Class Beasts can collapse whole arcs with a scream."
Kiran frowned. "They bond with people?"
Aria nodded. "Not always willingly. Some are drawn. Some are birthed. And some are forged through trauma."
Leon unbuttoned his coat and showed his side. A jagged rune was etched into his ribs, glowing faintly blue.
"This is Kethros," he said. "A Silver-Class Beast. Took three years off my life, cost me my arm. But he saved an entire village from being written out of existence."
Kiran stepped back slightly as the rune pulsed.
Aria raised her hand, and the cloak around her shoulders uncoiled. It stretched upward, unfurling into a massive winged creature of eyes and silence. It bowed to her like a priest to its god.
"Mine is Yllari," she whispered. "A Platinum-Class. Born from the silence between a mother and child who never met."
Kiran stared. "How do you survive bonding with something like that?"
"You don't," Leon said. "Not entirely. Part of you dies. The part that was blind."
Aria glanced at Kiran's chest. "Your glif-mark is still waking up. When it does, you might attract a Beast. Or create one."
He touched the mark unconsciously, and it throbbed in response.
Leon stepped forward. "Listen. We're here to test if you can survive contact with a Node. If you can't, your soul will collapse like wet paper. If you can... then you'll see what needs to be changed."
He held out a vial. The liquid inside shimmered red-black.
"Drink. It'll tether you to the gate. Aria and I will handle the Beast."
Kiran hesitated.
"Or don't," Leon added. "And let the world end like it always does."
Kiran drank.
The moment it touched his tongue, everything tilted. His skin felt transparent. The glyph on his chest lit up, then split into dozens of smaller symbols crawling across his ribs.
Aria screamed a word. Yllari unfolded into full form, wings scraping the ceiling, eyes blinking in unison. A portal opened at the center of the platform, crackling with narrative static.
From it came a howl.
Something was climbing out. Bones made of pages. Teeth crafted from sharp lines of forgotten dialogue. It reeked of stillbirth and denial.
Leon stepped forward, arm transforming into a blade of living edit-script.
"Welcome to the first rewrite," he muttered.
And then the Beast leapt.