The Herald moved without sound.
Its feet didn't touch the ground—its shadow bent the wind. And as it crossed the ridge, the world remembered less.
Grass wilted. Rocks lost definition. Even the fire Torran had built flickered into a confused smoke and vanished.
Aiden stood his ground.
He didn't try to summon flame or echo-weaponry. Not yet.
This fight wasn't about strength.
It was about staying real.
---
> [Boss Combat: Pale Assembly Herald – Unname]
Status: Active | Stability: Immune
Weakness: Identity Anchors | Duration-Based Victory
Objective: Survive for 10 minutes without Sync loss
Optional Objective: Extract the Herald's Mask
---
The Herald raised its hand.
Reality around Aiden rippled.
> [Warning: Namecore Vibration Detected]
> Skill Interference Risk – Moderate
Class Lockdown In Progress
Aiden gritted his teeth. The pressure wasn't physical. It wasn't even magical. It was conceptual—like gravity made of memory.
The longer he stood there, the more the System wanted to forget he existed.
And yet—he remained.
---
He activated Flicker, blinking behind the Herald mid-pulse. The pressure dropped instantly as the timeline skipped.
He cast Echoforge, shaping a mirrored shield of an Aiden who had been a Defender, not a killer.
The Herald's attack hit the shield.
It shattered—but so did the Herald's composure.
---
> [Fracture Memory Activated – Thread #044-B]
"The Time I Chose to Run"
For a split second, Aiden let go.
He let himself retreat. Not in shame. Not in failure.
But in strategy.
And the memory of that divergence countered the Herald's anchor drain.
The thing faltered. Its edges fuzzed.
It hissed—but there was no mouth.
Torran leapt in from the side, blade coated with anti-magic ash from Kaldrith's temple.
He slashed across the Herald's mask.
A crack formed.
---
> [Optional Objective Progress – Mask Integrity: 54%]
Echo Disruption Building…
Aiden pressed the advantage.
Flame.
Glass.
Frozen timeline echoes spun through the air like a storm of almosts.
And then—
The Herald shattered.
Not into flesh.
But into ideas.
It didn't die.
It was unwritten.
---
> [Herald Defeated – "Unname"]
Combat Record Sealed
Class Echo Preserved
+600 XP | +2 Attribute Points
Item Acquired: Broken Herald Mask
Effect: Allows temporary immunity to fate tracking
Duration: 3 minutes per day
---
Aiden stood in the silence afterward, holding the fractured mask in one hand. It shimmered with false reflections—his face, and others. Some smiling. Some screaming.
Torran dropped beside him, chest heaving.
"You still with me?" he asked.
Aiden nodded.
"Yeah."
"But part of me never came back."
---
> [Sync: 29%]
The System is quiet.
But something is watching.
Not the Pale Assembly.
Something deeper.