🌫️ The Descent
The sky above them still shimmered with the afterimage of The Archivist's vanishing.
Kai's breath was ragged. Ayra's healing touch flickered. Rei limped beside them.
But the portal below them had already begun to open — a spiraling staircase of ink leading deep into the earth.
> "This wasn't our choice," Kai muttered.
"The Labyrinth is pulling us somewhere."
> "Where?" Ayra whispered.
> "Wherever truth sleeps," said Rei, his eyes still haunted by his shattered double.
---
🏛️ The Burned Library
The stairwell ended in a blackened cathedral of stone and ash.
Once-majestic pillars now melted, bookshelves twisted into molten shapes, and a ceiling that bleeds ink like rain.
In the center: a sunken pit filled with floating tomes.
Above it floated a single placard:
> [☠️ WARNING: "Memories Stored Here Are Hostile."]
---
They stepped in.
Immediately, a screaming sound tore through the air.
One of the books flew open.
A voice cried out—
> "DON'T LET HIM FALL!"
"NOT AGAIN! TIE HIS ARMS!"
"NO, KAI, NO—"
Kai froze.
Ayra touched the book.
> "It's… your memory."
Kai didn't reply.
The voice was too familiar.
His mother's.
---
> "This place," Rei muttered, "stores dreams that were rejected. Memories too painful to process."
Ayra knelt beside another book.
It hissed.
A child's voice:
> "I'm sorry I was born…"
Kai's fists clenched.
> "These aren't just lost memories.
This is the root of the trauma system."
> "This place feeds the Dreambinds."
---
Then came the laugh.
Small. Hollow.
From deeper within the shelves.
A silhouette stepped out — a boy, maybe 11.
Pale. Dirty. Wearing a coat too big for him.
His eyes glowed a faint blue.
Not natural. Not human.
---
> "Another one?" the boy said. "Another liar?"
Ayra knelt. "Hey… are you okay?"
The boy tilted his head.
> "I'm the only one who remembers.
That dreams used to mean something good.
Before the Core shattered."
> "Before you all made them into a punishment."
---
Kai stepped forward.
> "Who are you?"
The boy smiled.
> "I'm Chapter Zero."
> "The dream before the first dream."
> "The piece the Labyrinth buried to protect you from the truth."
---
🧩 System Alert
> [⚠️ YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED A LOST ENTITY: "CHAPTER ZERO"]
Role: Keeper of Forbidden Memories
Passive: Immune to system-level tampering
Threat Level: Unknown
Condition to Proceed: Accept one lost memory as your own.
---
The boy reached into the pit and pulled out a single, charred book.
He offered it to Kai.
> "This was never yours."
> "But if you want to defeat your future self—
You'll need someone else's past."
Kai hesitated.
Ayra:
> "You don't have to—"
> "I do."
He took the book.
It pulsed in his hand.
Then it opened.
---
💥 MEMORY INJECTION
A scream.
A broken battlefield.
And a white-haired man holding a dying girl.
Her last words:
> "Kai… it wasn't your fault."
But the man wasn't Kai.
And yet—
Kai felt everything.
The guilt. The blood. The regret.
---
> [🧬 DREAMBIND MUTATION DETECTED]
Core Trait: Echo Blade
New Trait Added: "Borrowed Pain"
Effect: Can use others' regrets as temporary power.
Drawback: Emotional instability if overused.
---
Kai collapsed.
Sweating. Breathing hard.
The boy smiled.
> "Now you're a thief of the soul."
> "Next, you'll need to find the girl who never woke up."
Kai looked up, barely able to speak.
> "Who is she?"
> "She was the first dreamer," the boy whispered.
"And she's still stuck at the bottom of the Labyrinth."
---
🔮 Lore Drop: "The Sleeping Origin"
The Labyrinth was not a system.
Not at first.
It was built around a single girl — a child-dreamer who wished for a world where no one had to feel pain.
But as the dream expanded, the world responded.
Pain was removed — and so was death.
At first.
But then, dreams turned sour.
Corrupted by guilt, fear, war.
The girl couldn't wake up.
And her dream became the prison of millions.
---
Kai stood.
> "Then we find her."
Rei narrowed his eyes.
> "You sure?"
Kai looked at the mark on his hand — the page from the book burned into his skin.
> "I think… I already met her once."
> "She's the voice that stops me from breaking."
> "She's the reason I haven't forgotten who I am."
---
As they turned to leave, the boy called out:
> "Kai?"
He turned.
> "You'll have to kill her to wake her up."