The storm broke just after dusk.
Not rain. Not thunder.
Something worse.
Aiden felt it ripple through the air like a wound. A sound without sound. A word without voice.
The Herald had arrived.
---
> [System Alert: Pale Assembly Herald – Class Unknown]
Status: Deployed
Target: Aiden Varos
Origin: Threadblack Vector
Estimated Arrival: 00:43:17
Warning: Entity does not obey standard interface protocols
---
He stood atop the ridgeline outside Kaldrith Hollow, the wind screaming against his cloak. Below, the land shimmered like heat mirage—only colder.
Torran stepped beside him, blades ready, breath fogging.
"What are we waiting for?" he asked.
Aiden didn't blink.
"We're not waiting."
"We're preparing."
---
Elsewhere – The Name Forge
In a place not measured by maps, the Pale Assembly lit a name.
A real one.
His.
It burned on a slate of voidglass, letters reshaping with every flicker of his Sync.
> "He's resisting convergence."
> "Then unname him."
A pulse rang out.
A silence that screamed.
---
Back on the Ridge
Aiden dropped to one knee.
Blood ran from his nose, not from injury—but from erasure.
> [System Interference Detected – Name Core Distortion]
Warning: Identity Fragmentation Imminent
> Invoke Class Defense? Y/N
Y.
---
He pushed the System. Not just with power—but with memory.
He called up every moment since waking.
Every path he didn't walk.
Every name he could have taken.
---
> [Shardbinder Resonance – Emergency Cast: Namebound Lock]
Fragment Anchors:
– "The One Who Burned for Others"
– "The One Who Was Let Go"
– "The Boy Who Didn't Die"
Result: Core Identity Locked – Aiden Varos
Nameforce Restored. Pale Assembly Progress: Delayed
---
He gasped, knuckles white on stone.
Torran knelt beside him. "What the hell was that?"
"They tried to take my name."
"Your name?"
"Names are thread markers. Strip one, and the System forgets you. History forgets you."
"…That's messed up."
"It's also efficient."
---
Then the Herald Arrived
It stepped from nothing.
Not from shadow, not from light. Just... absence.
A cloaked figure in layered glass and bleeding thread, eyes veiled by a mask shaped like broken time.
It didn't speak.
It didn't need to.
---
> [BOSS FIGHT INITIATED – Pale Assembly Herald: "Unname"]
Class: Vector of Null Recall
Combat Type: Memory Erosion / Timeline Interference
Objective: Survive until breach event ends
Optional: Extract Identifier from the Herald's Mask
---
The world around Aiden began to dim—not from darkness, but from forgetting.
He gritted his teeth.
Torran wavered behind him.
The ground vanished under memory pressure.
And still—
Aiden stood.
Because no matter what came next—
He knew who he was.