The Archive trembled.
Not from time.
Not from decay.
But from something waking.
Aiden stood with his back to the shattered mirror, hands still hot from casting Glass Requiem, Torran at his side. The energy that surged from the broken reflection hadn't faded—it had nested in the stone, in the books, in the very air.
And then the walls began to bleed.
---
> [Boss Encounter: Archive Warden – Echo-Class Guardian]
Thread Classification: Memory Wraith / Threadbound Entity
Status: Hostile | Stability: Inverted
Primary Ability: Pulse of the Void – Causes Sync Recoil in unanchored system hosts
---
The air thickened. Pages rose from the floor like feathers caught in a storm.
And then it stepped forward.
The Warden was not a thing of flesh.
It was a humanoid outline, composed entirely of ink and drifting sigils, armor etched from mirror shards and threads of unraveling time. Where a face should be, there was only a hollow clockwork mask—its hands spinning wildly.
Each step it took rewrote the floor beneath it.
Aiden felt his own timeline stutter.
---
> [System Warning: Reality Pulse Incoming]
Effect: Sync Recoil – Chance of skill disruption, memory loop
Recommendation: Anchor with will or soulbound artifact
---
"Torran," Aiden snapped. "Don't look it in the eyes."
"Does it even have—"
The Warden moved.
Faster than it should.
Torran vanished in a flicker of distortion—teleported five feet to the side and slammed into a pillar.
> [Ally Status: Stunned – Minor Temporal Displacement]
---
Aiden didn't hesitate.
Temporal Slip.
Flame Pulse.
Frostburn Conflux.
He hit the Warden with all three in sequence.
Fire clashed with frost and exploded into steam—but the Warden absorbed it, body warping to mimic the spell pattern.
It repeated Frostburn Conflux back at him—twice as strong.
> [Skill Echoed – High Sync Entity Detected]
Damage mitigated: 52%
Legacy Instability: Minor
---
Aiden cast Glass Requiem.
The spell rebounded, shattering the Warden's echo spell mid-air. Cracks ran through its mask.
It reeled back.
> [Opening Created – 6 Seconds]
[Echo Thread Active: Mirror Seed Response Possible]
Activate: Y/N?
Aiden hesitated.
He knew this wasn't a spell he had earned. It came from Timeline 0295-C. From the Crowned Ember. From the version of him that burned cities to rewrite fate.
And yet...
> Y.
---
A second Aiden stepped forward—half-transparent, glowing with shardlight.
Not quite him. Not quite other.
The Mirror Echo cast a hybrid spell: Ashglass Spiral—a mirrored cyclone of molten fire and frozen slivers.
It tore through the Warden.
The sigil-masked entity collapsed, howling in a sound that was not a sound, but a pressure on the bones of the world.
And then it was gone.
---
> [Boss Defeated: Archive Warden]
Rewards:
– +320 XP
– +2 Attribute Points
– +4 Legacy Sync
Artifact Claimed: Threadcore of Vel'Serin
Total Sync: 24%
---
Afterward
Torran limped to his feet, eyes wide.
"Was that… was that you? That other thing?"
"No," Aiden said, breathing hard. "That was a version of me I don't want to become."
"But you used it."
"I had to."
He turned to the Threadcore now pulsing on the dais.
> [Threadcore Absorption Available – Class Designation Trigger: YES]
Unlock Requirement Met: 25% Sync Threshold Approaching
Aiden reached for it.
And felt the System begin to shift.