The land changed the moment Elian crossed the invisible threshold.
It wasn't the sky.
Not the earth.
Not even the threadlines.
It was the idea of the world itself.
One moment, he was walking across cracked rotlight-soaked soil.
The next?
Nothing.
No ground beneath his feet.
No sky above his head.
No horizon.
Just endless grey.
Like walking through the ash of forgotten memories.
And yet, somehow—he kept moving.
[Zone Entered: The Fracture's Edge]
[Warning: This place is not a place.]
[Note: Movement here is measured by thought, not distance.]
[Side Effect: Expect identity distortion.]
The glyph on Elian's forearm burned, bright but unstable. His grip on Griefblade tightened, every instinct telling him this wasn't a battlefield.
It was a wound.
A tear in reality so deep the system hadn't just abandoned it—it had deleted its own memory of it.
But something had survived.
Something was calling him.
The whisper returned.
Sharper this time.
"Soulfrail… do you remember?"
"Do you know what you are?"
Elian's breath slowed.
Not out of fear.
Out of focus.
"I know what I've made myself," he said aloud, voice echoing strangely in the emptiness.
"And that's all that matters."
A flicker in the distance.
A shape.
Vague.
Shifting.
A monument of broken glyphs—half-buried, half-floating—spinning slowly around a core of black light.
Elian moved toward it.
Each step twisted his thoughts.
Memories flickered—brief flashes of things that weren't his.
A boy running from something unseen.
A city cracking open like a wound.
A name whispered too quietly to hear.
He clenched his jaw and kept moving.
[Signal Locked: Origin Point Located]
[Classification: Forbidden Memory Anchor]
[Warning: This thread does not belong to the system.]
He reached the monument.
Closer now, he could see the truth of it.
The black core pulsed with intent.
Not hostile.
Not welcoming.
Simply… waiting.
Above it, words shimmered into being, burning across the void:
"THE FIRST FAILURE."
Elian stepped closer, heart pounding—not from fear, but from recognition.
"What are you?" he whispered.
The black core pulsed.
And then, impossibly—
It spoke.
"The memory… of what was broken first."
"The proof… that the system was never flawless."
"And the reason… you exist."
Elian's eyes narrowed.
"Explain."
A low hum, like bones grinding against a threadline.
"You think you are a mistake."
"You are not."
"You are a continuation."
"We are… what they tried to erase."
The glyph on his arm flared bright, burning his skin.
Griefblade hissed, threads of dark light spiraling outward as if hungry for the truth.
Elian stood firm.
"Show me."
The monument cracked—splitting open down the center.
Inside?
A shard.
Black.
Veined with rotlight.
Pulsing faintly.
Waiting.
[Item Acquired: Core Shard – The First Failure]
[Effect: Unknown]
[Tag: Pre-System Artifact]
[Warning: Holding this shard may lead to catastrophic divergence.]
Elian held it up, watching the dark light flicker across his fingers.
He smiled.
Not because he understood.
But because he was about to.
"Let's see what your gods forgot to tell me."
Far above—beyond the Fracture, beyond the ruined sky—something ancient stirred.
And whispered:
"The devil has found his root."
"And now… nothing will be the same."