We found the valley at dusk.
It wasn't on any map. Not that the system used maps. Just coordinates tied to permission flags and death counts. This place? It hid itself.
And it wanted to stay hidden.
The wind changed when we reached the edge — cold, dry, and full of static. The air buzzed like a cable ready to snap.
Below us stretched a basin of black stone and shattered pillars, scattered like broken teeth. In the center: a field of gravestones. Too many. And not one of them human.
"They say the Unbound don't die," Kael said behind me, voice tight. "They just… echo."
I stared down at the valley.
"They were wrong."
The descent was steep, the ground unnaturally smooth, like something large had cauterized its way through.
As soon as we crossed the threshold, a message chimed.
🧾 [You are entering: THE GRAVES OF THE BROKEN ONES]
Location Type: Memory Loop ZoneAccess Class: Unbound OnlySystem Warning: Interaction may cause mental distortion. Proceed? [Y/N]
I didn't hesitate.
Y.
The instant we stepped in, the world changed.
The light bent. Gravity stuttered. The sound of our footsteps lagged half a second behind.
Reality was desynced.
And all around us stood the graves.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
No names.
Just traits.
Just fates.
[He Who Split the Timeline][The One Who Refused the Call][They Who Answered the Wrong Question][User: ERROR][You.]
I froze at that last one.
Kael saw it too.
"…What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
I stepped closer.
The grave pulsed faintly. I reached out.
🪦 [You]
Class: UnboundTrait: [Pattern Divergence]Death Type: Predicted
A soft tone.
[Projection Available: Preview Death?]
Kael grabbed my wrist. "Itsuki. No. That's a trap."
"I know."
I tapped yes anyway.
The sky shattered.
And I saw myself die.
Not once.
A hundred times.
Buried under system error collapses. Dismembered by Reapers. Swallowed by flame. Deleted mid-thought. Burned alive in a Tower I'd never reached. Torn apart by allies I hadn't met yet.
Each death perfect. Precise.
Calculated.
And above it all, a single voice whispered on repeat:
"Checkmate in twenty moves."
I stumbled back, clutching my head.
Kael caught me. "What did you see?"
I didn't answer.
Because I hadn't just seen deaths.
I'd seen code paths.
Each death was a branch of logic.
And the system had prewritten every one.
Except one.
One path was blank.
Black.
Not even an error message.
[Anchor Point: Unlogged]
I zeroed in on that one.
Followed it with my mind.
And felt something pull back.
The center of the valley was marked by a monolith.
Obsidian, unbreakable, humming like it remembered what stars sounded like.
At its base: one grave.
Hiroshi Sato.
The Architect.
Kael read the inscription aloud.
"He bent the world until it cracked. He made his own class. And then he vanished."
Below it, another prompt blinked.
[Anchor Fragment Detected][Activate?]
"Are you sure?" Kael asked.
"I have to know."
I tapped it.
Reality snapped.
Suddenly I wasn't standing in the valley.
I was in a room.
Metal walls. Blue light. Screens everywhere. Code pouring across the ceiling like rain.
And in the middle: a boy, maybe eighteen, hooked up to a hundred wires.
Eyes open.
Unblinking.
Not breathing.
Watching me.
"...You're the new one," he rasped.
I didn't respond. Couldn't.
His mouth didn't move.
But the words poured into my head like they'd always been there.
"I wrote a backdoor into the system. That was my mistake."
"You… you are the backdoor now."
The lights turned red.
The room shook.
Alarms screamed.
The world pixelated.
[Connection Severed.][Anchor Memory Overload Imminent.]
One last message, as everything cracked around me:
"The Tower isn't the goal, Itsuki.It's the lock."
"You're the key."
I hit the ground hard.
Back in the valley.
Back in my body.
Kael was yelling.
I couldn't hear her.
My heartbeat was too loud.
Because something had just awakened inside me.
And the system?
Wasn't just scared anymore.
It was preparing for war.