The Memory Reaper fell upon the robed Architect fragment like liquid shadow. Its crystalline form enveloped the kneeling figure in an instant, facets flashing as it absorbed the fragment into its impossible geometry. The air filled with a sound like shattering stained glass as the Reaper's form *shifted*—its edges becoming sharper, more defined, as if the stolen fragment had strengthened it.
Jax scrambled backward, his boots slipping on broken mosaic tiles. "What the hell just—"
*"It's learning,"* the Observer whispered, her tiny body trembling. *"Every fragment it consumes makes it more like us. More... human."*
As if to prove her point, the Reaper's surface rippled, forming something approximating a face—the hooded Architect's visage, frozen in a silent scream. Its new eyes, now pupil-less and silver, locked onto Jax.
*You.*
The voice wasn't auditory. It bypassed Jax's ears entirely, vibrating directly in his skull.
*You carry the map.*
The Reaper moved—not with the erratic lurching from before, but with terrible, predatory grace. Each step left the ground beneath it slightly *less real*, the tiles dissolving into abstract shapes where it passed.
Jax's wrist-console sparked violently, its screen flashing:
**[ARCHITECT FRAGMENT ABSORBED: 1 OF 13]**
**[REAPER ASSIMILATION: 7% COMPLETE]**
**[WARNING: COGNITIVE INTEGRITY COMPROMISED]**
The Observer floated between Jax and the advancing Reaper, her spiral eye blazing. *"You were made to harvest Echoes, not Architects."*
The Reaper paused. Its stolen face twisted into something almost... curious.
*We adapt.*
Then it *lunged*.
Jax barely had time to roll aside as crystalline tendrils speared through the space where he'd been standing. The Observer retaliated with a burst of golden light that sent the Reaper skittering back, its surface smoking where the energy struck.
*"The window!"* she cried. *"Now!"*
Jax didn't hesitate. He grabbed the nearest stained glass shard—a jagged piece depicting a spiral-eyed saint—and slammed it against his wrist-console. The moment the glass connected with the data chip still embedded in the device, reality *bent*.
The cathedral dissolved into a whirlwind of color and sound. Jax caught glimpses of other places, other times:
- A silver-haired woman (the Architect, but younger) weeping over a broken cradle
- Eiden standing before a council of hollow-eyed figures, pleading for more time
- The child from Sector 9 planting a seed in fresh soil, her hands glowing gold
Then—
Impact.
Jax found himself sprawled in what appeared to be an overgrown arboretum. The air hung heavy with the scent of decaying flowers and ozone. Vines thicker than his arm choked the shattered glass ceiling above, their surfaces pulsing with faint bioluminescence.
The Observer floated nearby, her form flickering like a dying hologram. *"We're in the first city,"* she whispered. *"Or what's left of it."*
Jax pushed himself upright, wincing as his ribs protested. "Did we lose the Reaper?"
*"Temporarily."* The Observer gestured to a massive structure at the arboretum's center—another cradle, identical to the ones they'd seen before, but colossal in scale. Its surface was covered in intricate carvings depicting countless figures bowing before a spiral. *"It will follow the resonance. We don't have much time."*
As they approached the cradle, Jax noticed the vines grew denser here, their tendrils fused with the structure itself. Strange fruits hung from the overgrowth—pale, fleshy orbs that pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
The Observer pressed her tiny hands against the cradle's surface. The carvings lit up in response, forming a sprawling map across the curved exterior. Twelve points glowed faintly across its surface, each marking a different city. The thirteenth pulsed directly beneath them.
*"The fragments are scattered,"* she said. *"Some still hide in their cities. Others..."* Her voice faltered. *"Others have been taken by the Spiral."*
Jax studied the map. One of the glowing points looked familiar—Veridia Prime. Another pulsed in what appeared to be a desert metropolis. A third in an underwater dome. Each connected by faint threads to the central cradle.
His wrist-console beeped weakly. The cracked display showed:
**[ARCHITECT FRAGMENTS REMAINING: 12]**
**[ESTIMATED TIME TO SPIRAL CONVERGENCE: 06:47:22]**
A new sound cut through the arboretum's stillness—a high-pitched wail that made the hanging fruits burst in showers of viscous fluid. The vines themselves recoiled, twisting away from the noise.
The Observer went rigid. *"It's here."*
The glass ceiling exploded inward as the Memory Reaper crashed through, its form now more humanoid than before—long limbs ending in too-many fingers, its stolen Architect face stretched across a shifting crystalline skull. Where it landed, the ground blackened and curled like burning paper.
*You cannot run forever.*
Its voice had changed. Less mechanical. More... hungry.
Jax backed toward the cradle, his mind racing. "There's got to be another way to—"
The Observer cut him off with a sudden gasp. Her spiral eye had locked onto something behind the Reaper—a shadow moving against the vines. A familiar silhouette.
*"Eiden?"*
The figure stepped into the light.
Not Eiden.
Not quite.
The man wore Eiden's face, but his eyes were all wrong—spiraling voids that drank the light around them. His skin cracked at the edges, revealing glimpses of something luminous beneath.
*"Hello, Jax,"* the figure said, and its voice was Eiden's layered with something vast and ancient. *"Did you really think you were the only one chasing fragments?"*
The Memory Reaper turned to face this new threat—and *screamed*.