[System Hunter-Class: ARCHIVIST]
[Status: Manifested]
[Command: Initiate Full Memory Collapse on Targets: CAEL VOX + NIRA]
"Protocol: Burn the Broken."
He descended in silence.
The Archivist didn't walk — he hovered, cloak flickering in glitched frames. His eyes were sewn shut with black Veinwire.
He didn't need to see.
He could feel memories.
Cael felt it too — a crawling sensation under his skin, like something was rifling through pages of a book that was still being written.
[Warning: Echo Corruption Attempt Detected]
[Remnant Thread Stability: 62% → 41%]
"Hunter attempting forced memory erasure."
Cael fell to one knee, clutching his head. Visions spiraled — timelines collapsing like cards. Voices screamed and faded before he could hear them.
Nira raised her spear, eyes wide with panic.
"He's deleting you—from yourself!"
The Archivist's voice echoed through their bones.
"Cael Vox. Fragmented failure. You are not a person. You are an error that learned to bleed."
"Be grateful. I will make your death the one thing you finally remember."
---
The Fight Begins
Cael stood up slowly.
Not fully himself. Not fully his echoes.
But something between.
He activated the Remnant Thread.
[Thread Access: Echo_031 Unlocked]
[Memory Trait: "The Silent Duelist" — Temporal Reaction Boost + Instinctive Counter]
"You may not remember the blade. But it remembers you."
Veinlight erupted around his fists — and for a moment, a spectral sword formed from pure memory.
The Archivist moved.
No sound. No warning. Just — vanishing.
Cael parried mid-air, as if he knew. The blades didn't clang — they glitched. Sparks of raw data scattered through the ruin.
Nira joined the fray, weaving behind him like a memory she never forgot. Her spear sang with Vein runes, tracing sigils in mid-air, blocking erasure pulses mid-cast.
Together — they fought like they'd done this before.
Because they had.
---
But the Archivist adapted.
He began speaking again.
"You killed her once, Cael.
Shall I remind you of that version of yourself?"
Cael faltered.
[Echo Instability Spike]
[Involuntary Thread Pulse]
A flash — Nira dying in his arms.
Her whisper: "You chose them over me."
He staggered. The sword flickered.
"Cael—" Nira's voice cut through. "That's not this you! Focus!"
"But what if it could be?" the Archivist whispered into his mind.
---
Cael screamed — not in fear, but defiance.
He tore into the Remnant Thread — deeper than he ever had.
[Accessing Forbidden Echo: Cael_000]
[Core Stability: 9% → 4%]
[Warning: Personality Collapse Possible]
"Engage?"
[Y]
Light exploded from him — not holy, not divine. Just… raw memory.
Hundreds of discarded versions of Cael screaming back into him, clawing for a voice.
He struck the Archivist with a blow not made of power —
but of identity.
"I don't know who I was.
But I do know I'm not done becoming."
The Archivist recoiled — for the first time.
Nira charged in, Veinrunes blazing across her blade, and struck with everything the past gave her.
Together — the two erased the eraser.
The Archivist dissolved, screaming not in pain…
but in surprise.
"No… no timeline survives this…"
"Not you… not her… not again—"
And then — silence.
---