The Null Gate pulsed like a bleeding wound in the sky.
From the torn edges of reality, voices whispered—not in any known language, but in intent, like the memory of a story once told and then erased.
Kael'Rax stood at its threshold.
Behind him, the Remnants waited—silent, obedient, broken. But not alone.
A new shape emerged from the rift. Slender. Pale. Dressed in a cloak of flowing parchment, with ink-black eyes and a face that shimmered between identities.
He bowed toward Kael'Rax.
> [Name: Ellion, The Original Rewrite]
[Status: Drafted Villain – Never Implemented]
[Power: Inversion Narrative – Converts protagonist roles into antagonist logic]
"The Author left me in the margins," Ellion said, his voice both elegant and cruel. "But in the margins… we learn to bleed ink."
Kael'Rax smiled. "Good. Then bleed the world dry."
---
Meanwhile, at Aetherhold
Raon trained in silence.
His Azure Wings folded tight behind him, his body surrounded by a thousand floating fragments of holographic opponents—replays of past battles, simulations of impossible scenarios, broken algorithms and paradox enemies crafted by Zhao Ru.
He had not slept in three days.
Yuna entered quietly, watching from the edge.
"You're punishing yourself," she said.
"I'm preparing," Raon answered.
"For what?"
"For enemies who don't follow rules. Kael'Rax rewrites what's real. And now he's bringing in characters we never even knew existed."
He turned to her, eyes cold with purpose.
"I have to become the kind of warrior even fiction can't predict."
Yuna stepped closer. "That kind of warrior doesn't survive. They vanish into myth."
"Then I'll drag myself back. Again and again."
---
A Tear in Reality: Daejeon Outbreak
The first sign of Ellion's power was subtle.
Daejeon—a city recently stabilized under the Fracture Accord—reported strange glitches. Awakened began speaking lines they didn't remember learning. Skill trees reversed. A hero-class protector started killing his own allies, weeping all the while.
Raon and his team arrived to find the city already fragmented.
Buildings had restructured themselves into impossible architecture. Roads looped back. Street signs bore phrases like "You were never meant to exist" and "Scene Deleted."
At the heart of it stood Ellion.
He greeted them with a smile. "Hello, protagonists. I'm here to remind you… that even the main character can be cut."
Raon stepped forward. "And I'm here to remind you that even forgotten villains bleed."
They fought.
---
The Inversion Mechanic
Ellion's ability was terrifying.
Each time Raon attacked, his power was reflected—not as a counter, but as a narrative inversion.
A strike meant to save became one that endangered.
A protective shield rewrote itself as a trap.
His own name began to flicker from "Raon" to "Antagonist-Class Error: 001."
"Stop trying to fight me with what you think is real," Ellion whispered as they clashed blade-to-blade. "You're a footnote in a story that's being overwritten."
But Raon grinned.
"Then I'll write a footnote so loud the whole story shatters."
He closed his eyes and activated something new.
> [Skill Fusion Activated: Azure Pulse + Fractured Will + Observer Residue]
[New Unique Skill: Plotbreaker]
[Effect: Ignores meta-manipulation. User asserts narrative authority within personal range for 30 seconds.]
The world around him snapped back.
Reality solidified. Time corrected. Ellion reeled.
Raon struck, his fist blazing with storylight.
The impact didn't kill Ellion—but it marked him.
"You shouldn't be able to do that," Ellion rasped, clutching his chest.
"I shouldn't have survived Level 5," Raon said. "Shouldn't have unlocked Observer code. Shouldn't have built a resistance. But here I am."
Ellion's eyes narrowed. "You're not just a character. You're… an error."
And then he vanished.
---
An Unexpected Reunion
Back at Aetherhold, Kira handed Raon a strange report.
"This came from the AI-sensor grid near the Westwall," she said. "A signal signature we haven't seen since Spire Tower."
Raon read the report. Then again. His heart froze.
Yuna saw his expression. "What is it?"
He looked up.
"It's someone I watched die."
---
The Old Flame
They followed the trail through broken lands, through time pockets and spatial folds until they found her:
Jisoo.
The girl who had been Raon's first friend—his first real ally during the earliest Awakenings. She had died protecting him during the Black Gate collapse in Chapter 3.
But here she stood. Alive.
"Jisoo?" Raon whispered.
She turned. Smiled.
"I don't know that name," she said. "But… it feels like mine."
> [Identity: Jisoo – Reconstructed Entity]
[Status: Narrative Echo – Memory Class Soulframe]
[Core Integrity: 78%]
[Last Logged Scene: 'Raon, I'll hold the gate—RUN!']
Yuna frowned. "This isn't resurrection. It's… reconstruction."
Raon stepped closer. "You died saving me. But if this world has changed—if forgotten paths are being rewritten—you don't have to vanish again."
Jisoo looked confused. "Why do I remember burning?"
Raon placed a hand on her shoulder. "Because that was real. But so is this. If you want to come back, the Fracture Accord accepts all echoes who choose to live again."
She nodded slowly.
And for the first time in a long while, Raon smiled.
---
Preparing for Collapse
The fractures deepened.
Kael'Rax now opened Null Gates across the continent—each one summoning draft villains, scrapped monster designs, entire cities from unused timelines.
He was constructing a New Canon.
A world where only his narrative survived.
Raon called a final meeting of the Aetherhold Command.
"We have to stop him before he finalizes his rewrite."
Han Ji-Woo loaded her rail cannon. "So what's the plan? Blow up his pen?"
Raon smirked. "Close."
Zhao Ru activated a projection of the enemy core.
"We destroy the Final Draft Engine—the tool Kael'Rax uses to seal changes. Without it, he can rewrite all he wants, but none of it will stick."
Kira cracked her knuckles. "Then let's rip out the last page."
Yuna added, "And write a new ending."
Raon looked at all of them—his family, his allies, his broken yet unyielding army.
"This war isn't about survival anymore," he said. "It's about meaning. We fight not just for the world—but for what the world means."
And together, they moved out.