The memory of the Avatar's defeat had not faded.
But something darker had taken its place.
Paranoia.
Not fear of outside enemies.
Fear of within.
---
Riven stood before his council.
Mira. Eron. Yra. Tobin. Two captains from the scout division.
They had all sworn loyalty.
They had all proven it in fire and blood.
And yet…
> [System Warning: Decision Thread Instability Detected]
Probability of Avatar Seed Contamination: 27%
Recommended Action: Initiate Memory Correction Scan.
---
Mira spoke first.
"We can't test them all."
"We must," Riven replied.
"Even if it breaks them?"
He nodded.
"Better a mind broken by truth than ruled by a lie."
---
They began with Eron.
Riven placed a Thread Anchor crystal against his temple.
Mira activated the Memory Correction Skill.
> [Thread Scan Initiated]
False Decision Threads: 0
Status: Clean.
Eron exhaled slowly.
"No offense, but let's not do that again."
Riven almost smiled.
---
Next was Yra.
She resisted the scan — not from guilt, but from fear.
"Whatever you find," she whispered, "I won't be controlled."
"You won't," Riven assured.
> [Thread Scan: Clean.]
---
Then the captains.
One passed.
One trembled.
> [Thread Scan: Minor False Thread Detected.]
A memory that never happened.
A moment where she had ordered a massacre Riven never authorized.
It was a seed.
Small. Dormant.
They corrected it. She wept.
And remained loyal.
---
Finally, Tobin.
The master of supplies.
The man who had kept the Eastern District fed during siege and famine.
The man Riven trusted.
---
The scan began.
And the System hesitated.
> [Thread Scan Interrupted.]
Identity Conflict Detected.
Avatar-Class Signature Present.
Tobin did not flinch.
He did not speak.
His eyes glazed silver.
And the voice that emerged was not his.
> "You should not have looked."
The council drew weapons.
Too late.
The room folded inward — walls rippling like water.
Reality became suggestion.
---
> [System Alert: Conceptual Convergence Triggered]
Environment: Decision Thread 5 – Silent Steward Path
Objective: Confront or Suppress Embedded Avatar.
---
The chamber transformed.
They stood in a grand hall.
Banners of Riven's crest hung pristine.
Soldiers moved in perfect formation.
Civilians smiled without fear or doubt.
It was utopia.
Or so it seemed.
---
The Avatar — wearing Tobin's face — stepped forward.
"You abandoned this."
"I never ruled like this," Riven countered.
"You could have."
---
The System flashed.
> [Memory Correction Skill Available – Cooldown: Active.]
No quick escape this time.
They would have to fight.
---
The Avatar summoned a blade of black light.
Its name etched along the edge:
"Compliance."
---
Riven summoned his will-forged bow.
Mira drew her dagger — its edge burning with refusal.
Yra knocked an arrow.
Eron readied his sword.
---
The Avatar attacked.
Its blade did not seek flesh.
It sought conviction.
---
Each strike forced Riven to question.
> "Was discipline not safer than chaos?"
"Were the people not happier under quiet rule?"
"Did your wars not cost more than they gained?"
---
Riven's defenses faltered.
The blade grazed his mind.
Doubt seeped in.
But Mira's voice anchored him.
"We chose struggle because it means freedom."
---
The battle raged.
Steel against memory.
Will against suggestion.
The Avatar pressed harder.
Every slash conjured visions.
Children safe behind walls.
Merchants thriving under fixed markets.
Mira standing beside Riven — not as partner, but as adviser to a peaceful, obedient regime.
The temptation was not power.
It was ease.
A world without struggle.
---
Riven faltered.
For a breath.
One heartbeat.
And the System sensed it.
---
> [Thread Anchor Weakening]
Moral Divergence Rising: 11%
---
The Avatar spoke.
"You fight for chaos."
"I fight for choice."
"Your people crave peace."
"They crave meaning."
---
The Avatar's blade became two.
"Compromise."
"Stability."
It struck faster. Harder.
Riven blocked the blows, but each impact seeded a sliver of doubt.
What if this was better?
---
Mira screamed.
Not in fear.
In defiance.
"Don't listen!"
She surged forward.
Her dagger sliced the air — carving a symbol of choice into the Avatar's cloak.
It recoiled.
The first wound.
---
> [System Notice: Avatar Vulnerability Detected]
Weakness: Contradiction between suggested peace and suppressed autonomy.
---
Yra and Eron moved in unison.
Arrows and blades struck the contradictions.
Memories of small rebellions.
Moments when even the most loyal had doubted the Avatar's path.
The utopia cracked.
---
But the Avatar summoned its final weapon.
Not a blade.
A mirror.
In its surface, Riven saw himself.
Tired.
Broken.
Desperate for peace.
---
"You will become this," the Avatar whispered.
"By choice. Or by exhaustion."
Riven stared into the mirror.
He saw not just himself.
He saw every decision that had worn him down.
Every compromise made for survival.
Every moment when surrender had seemed easier than another fight.
---
The Avatar smiled.
"You have already lost."
---
But then, Riven remembered something else.
Not the grand victories.
The small ones.
---
Mira's laughter after surviving Sector 3.
Yra's refusal to abandon him during the siege.
Eron's loyalty when no one else believed.
The child he had rescued from a cult's fire.
The elder he had saved despite political risk.
Moments that meant nothing in a world of control.
But everything in a world of choice.
---
He drew an arrow.
Forged not from anger.
From resolve.
He spoke:
"I choose struggle.
Because struggle means we are still free to choose."
---
He fired.
The arrow struck the mirror.
It shattered.
---
The Avatar screamed.
Not in rage.
In fear.
"Without order, you will drown."
"No," Riven replied. "We will live."
---
The utopian vision collapsed.
The council chamber returned.
The Avatar crumbled — not into dust, but into silvered threads that dissolved into the floor.
---
> [Avatar-Class Threat Neutralized]
Memory Correction Successful.
New Skill Unlocked: Thread Anchor – Memory Correction Lv.3
Effect: Group Memory Shielding and Detection of Multi-Thread Corruptions.
---
The System pulsed gently.
Not in warning.
In recognition.
---
But a final message appeared.
From Kael.
> "One choice resisted.
Many remain.
They will adapt.
And so must you."
---
Riven turned to his council.
"They sent one Avatar. There will be more."
Yra nodded.
"We'll be ready."
Mira smiled faintly.
"Because we choose to be."
---
> Synchronization: 95.9%
Current Status: Divergent Thread – Stabilized
Next Threat Level: Multi-Avatar Convergence (Three Seeds Detected)
---
Riven looked to the horizon.
"Let them come."