The sky outside the Novaah compound cracked.
Not with thunder—there were no clouds—but with time.
Crimson lines laced across the firmament like veins. Day flickered into night. Stars reversed their positions, and one of the suns—the artificial one—blinked out for three seconds and returned spinning backwards.
Skyler stood at the outer railing, watching it unfold.
He hadn't touched anything. Hadn't cast a spell. Hadn't spoken a word.
But the multiverse had felt him.
"They're noticing," Saya said beside him, arms crossed, chalk burning with unstable flame.
"The systems are responding to your bloodline signature. That glyph on your chest? It's not just a seal—it's a beacon."
Skyler turned to her, his voice lower than usual.
"So I've become… traceable?"
She nodded solemnly. "Traceable. And inevitable."
Orias entered the control deck, carrying a flickering multiversal projector. He set it down and ignited it.
Twelve separate realities appeared, each showing anomalies in the fabric of their existence:
In Timeline 73, a Novaah Library burst into flame—without any fuel.
In Shardline Delta, Witness Hunters were seen gathering—for the first time in ten thousand years.
In Core System Zero, a name that had been banned for eternity appeared etched into the side of a god-pyramid:
VERITAS.
Skyler stared.
"I haven't been to any of these places."
"You don't need to," Orias replied.
"You're not walking through the multiverse anymore, Skyler. You're beginning to bend it."
Skyler's pulse accelerated.
Suddenly—his hand started glowing, and he felt something. A presence, like fingers brushing along the edge of his thoughts. Not malevolent… but vast.
Alien. Divine.
A memory trying to remember him.
"It's watching me," Skyler whispered.
"Something old."
Orias responded grimly:
"Because you are now Marked. One of the Seven Witnesses Reawakening."
"Every reality you come near will start to recall things it shouldn't. Forgotten truths. Suppressed gods. Dead timelines."
Skyler gritted his teeth.
"So I'm a walking truth virus."
Saya smirked. "You make it sound like a bad thing."
But it was no joke.
The Book of Recalled Flame flipped another page on its own.
A new chapter etched itself in burning glyphs:
"Seal Three Approaching: Memory Ignition Required. Host Blood at 28% Unlocked."
Skyler staggered back, dizzy. His breath fogged in the air—though it wasn't cold.
Behind him, the mirror at the end of the hall cracked… and a version of himself—one with black eyes and white fire for veins—stared back.
Just before vanishing.
Orias paled. "They're breaching the Mirror-Realms. They're trying to stop the Third Seal."
Skyler turned to him, fire dancing on his fingertips now, no longer afraid.
"Then let them try."