Location: Deep Spire Archive – Forbidden Vault Tier
Time: [Core Proximity Sync – Anchor Signal Detected]
The wall that R/Null-REN stepped into pulsed once—
Then burst outward.
He returned.
Not as a projection. Not as an echo.
Fully real.
His cloak peeled back, revealing jagged glyph-burns along his forearms — symbols Ren recognized as Riftbreaker runes.
The type used to tear through time-locked zones.
R/NULL-REN (calm, stepping out):
"You really thought I'd leave?
You walked into the blueprint.
That makes you the perfect version to end."
REN (drawing Snarksteel):
"Yeah, well... I was hoping to delay our awkward family reunion."
BLAZE (lighting up):
"Okay this time, we BURN HIM."
FROST (prepping glyphs):
"No quips. Kill first. Explanation after we're not dead."
The parasite moved fast. Too fast.
He didn't run — he folded forward, teleporting in warped skips of shadow between drift fragments.
His hand reached straight for Ren's chest — right for the Aetherium Core.
R/NULL-REN (shouting):
"Give it to me!
You're just a beta version — a test branch.
I'm the update."
Ren threw up a gravity shield — too slow.
The parasite's fingers scraped across the Core surface.
The entire Archive screamed.
AETHERIUM CORE (flashing bright red):
> BREACH ATTEMPT DETECTED > CORE PROTECTION: FAILING > TRANSFER LOCK: 9%... 11%... 14%...
REN (gritting teeth):
"You're not getting anything except a punch to the ego, Version Scumbag 2.0!"
He shoved forward with raw gravitational force.
BOOM — the parasite was blasted back through a wall of broken memories — shards of past Ren-variants flying with him, screaming in static.
FROST:
"Ren, MOVE! The Anchor's calling! It's close!"
REN (panting):
"I see it. Light's bleeding through that door—bottom chamber."
BLAZE:
"I'll hold him—go!"
SNARKSTEEL (grumbling as he changes form into a double-bladed arc):
"Gods, I hate getting handled like a throwing toy—BUT FINE. STAB FIRST, QUESTIONS NEVER!"
Ren ran.
Down a staircase that wasn't there a second ago.
Memory hallways twisted around him.
Walls screamed the lives of forgotten people.
The Anchor was below.
He could feel it.
R/NULL-REN (voice echoing behind):
"You can run, Riftborn—
but the Core doesn't follow cowards.
It wants someone who commands it—not bleeds under it."
Ren kept running.
Faster.
He wasn't going to hand it over.
He wasn't going to be replaced.
AETHERIUM CORE (urgent whisper):
> ANCHOR LOCATION: 1 ROOM AHEAD > WARNING: HOSTILE SIGNATURE CLOSING > CORE COMPATIBILITY SHIFTING...
Ren burst through the final doorway—
Into a chamber of light and silence.
The Anchor hovered in the air—
A glowing, fractal sphere—
Pulsing.
Calling.
Ready to choose.
Behind him—
R/Null-REN teleported in mid-motion—
hand already reaching.