Location: Deep Spire Archive – Inner Hall of Threads
Time: [Drift Noise: Suppressed / Core Sync: Stable]
The walls were dim now. No glowing glyphs. No humming crystals.
Just old stone and quiet.
Ren stepped slowly into the lower chamber of the Deep Spire Archive.
This place wasn't built like the upper floors.
There were no organized shelves or data keys here.
Only broken platforms. Floating memory shards. Silent driftlight, flickering like stars stuck between dimensions.
FROST (uneasy):
"This level isn't recorded.
It's been—cut out."
BLAZE (lighting a flame in her palm):
"And whatever did the cutting? It didn't want anyone coming back."
They moved deeper into the hall, guided by a faint blue glow from Ren's Aetherium Core.
But then—he stopped.
Mid-step.
Eyes locked forward.
There was a figure standing in the center of the chamber.
Hands behind his back.
Cloaked in long, dark layers stitched with fractured glyphs.
He wasn't hiding.
He was waiting.
REN (whispers):
"No way..."
He stepped forward.
Eyes narrowed.
REN (louder):
"You…"
The figure turned slightly — just enough for the light to catch the edge of his face.
Same jawline.
Same eyes.
Same everything.
It was him.
The same man who had spoken to him in the Clocktower.
The same one who had asked:
"So choose me."
REN (backing up slightly):
"You're the one from before.
You asked for the Core.
I almost gave it to you."
The figure smiled — calm, casual, and way too comfortable.
R/NULL-REN (softly):
"I didn't ask. I offered."
Ren's heart thudded once — hard.
The figure stepped forward now, arms still behind his back, walking slowly over the cracked stone floor.
R/NULL-REN:
"You weren't ready to understand.
But you will be.
Everything you carry — the Core, the glyphs, the fragments —
They're pieces of a system built to break itself.
I just want to fix it."
REN (stiffly):
"Fix it how?
By pretending to be me?"
R/NULL-REN (still calm):
"Not pretend.
Just… replace.
You weren't made to carry all this.
But I was."
FROST (moving beside Ren):
"You're not real.
You're some kind of parasite—"
R/NULL-REN (to Frost, smiling):
"I'm more real than any version that failed."
BLAZE (snarling):
"You've been here before, haven't you?
Messing with the Archive. Corrupting it."
He nodded. Once.
R/NULL-REN:
"This place holds the original design of the Core.
I've studied it.
Edited it.
I've erased versions of Ren that couldn't survive it.
You should be thanking me."
Ren stepped forward, fists clenched.
REN:
"You're erasing people.
Versions of me.
Stealing their fragments. Their memories."
R/NULL-REN (soft):
"Because the Core only accepts one host.
You know it, deep down.
Sooner or later... only one of us walks forward."
A beat of silence.
REN (quietly):
"I'm not giving you the Core."
The Echo's expression didn't change. But something darker flickered behind his eyes.
R/NULL-REN:
"Then I'll take it.
Not now.
Not here.
But eventually."
He turned, walking into the far wall of the Archive like it wasn't even solid — the stone folding around him like paper.
Gone.
AETHERIUM CORE (flickering with tension):
> ALERT: HOSTILE SIGNATURE CONFIRMED > SUBJECT = R/NULL (MIMIC IDENTITY / SYSTEM HACK CLASS) > OBJECTIVE: DIMENSIONAL CORE TAKEOVER > RECOMMENDATION: FIND THE ANCHOR BEFORE HE DOES
REN (whispers):
"He wants to become the only version of me the Core remembers."
FROST:
"Then we make sure the Core remembers you first."