The aftermath of the Mirror Trial left the Undone's base eerily silent.
The dust hadn't settled—it had been absorbed. Even reality itself seemed hesitant to fully reassert itself after what Root had done.
No system correction.
No rollback.
No purge order.
Just… stillness.
Which scared Root more than any punishment.
Veyr floated beside him, mask slightly reformed, his cloak trailing strange glitch-lines at the hem. His presence felt heavier now—anchored. Less like a summon, more like a… second self.
"You really went full heretic," Veyr muttered. "Rooting my summon tag into the Hollow Vein like that? You'll have the Elders foaming."
Root didn't answer right away. He was staring at his palm.
The sigil there had changed.
It wasn't just pulsing—it was layered.
Like something beneath it had been waiting.
"I think something's happening," he said quietly.
"Understatement of the year."
Lyra and Klem entered from the side room, both tense.
"The system hasn't flagged us," Lyra said. "That's not good. That's unnatural. It means we're off the path completely."
"I told you," Veyr said, stretching mid-air like a cat. "We're not on the rails anymore. This meatstick just hijacked the locomotive."
Suddenly, Root staggered.
His knees buckled.
The sigil on his hand burned cold—cold enough to numb his nerves.
[ HOLLOW SYSTEM: EVOLUTION PATH ACKNOWLEDGED ]
[ ROOT RECOGNIZED AS PRIMARY ANCHOR ]
[ SECOND VEINBIND UNLOCKED ]
[ Ability: VOID ANCHOR (PASSIVE) – Your presence distorts system pathing. Summons, NPCs, and world events may become unstable or unscripted around you. Chaos breeds opportunity. And threat. ]
[ Warning: This ability cannot be disabled. ]
Root gasped.
"I… I didn't spend Hollow Points for that."
Veyr's eye-sockets glowed faintly.
"You didn't have to. The system just reacted to what you became."
Klem took a step back.
"You're saying… Root's turning into a variable?"
"Not just a variable," Veyr whispered. "A paradox."
And as Root looked up, the world around him felt thinner.
Like the veil between scripted and possible had been punctured.
He wasn't just resisting the system now.
He was starting to rewrite it.
The next anomaly appeared within an hour.
They were scouting the outskirts of the Riftward ruins—Lyra scanning for drops, Klem dragging a cart of recycled modules—when Root felt it.
A glitch in the air.
Not visual.
Emotional.
Like someone had torn a page out of the world's logic and stuffed it back in upside down.
"Do you feel that?" Root asked.
Veyr floated slightly higher. "Yup. And I hate it already."
They moved toward the sensation instinctively, the sigil on Root's palm thrumming louder with each step.
Around the corner of a broken archway…
They saw it.
Not a summon.
Not a Rift beast.
Not even a humanoid system agent.
It was a child.
Or—the shape of one.
Hair like glitched feathers. Skin pale as static. One eye replaced by a turning, clicking gear. The child sat quietly in the dust, drawing circles with its finger in a loop.
It didn't look up.
[ ERROR: ENTITY 'IMPRINT_07' NOT FOUND IN WORLD SEED ]
[ WARNING: LOCAL NARRATIVE BRANCH UNSTABLE ]
[ VOICE LOG: "I wasn't born here. I wasn't born anywhere. But you… you pulled me in, didn't you?" ]
Root froze.
So did Veyr.
"That's not possible," Veyr whispered. "This… this thing isn't even coded. It's an echo of an unchosen future."
Lyra aimed her implant gun. "Shoot it?"
Klem raised his axe. "Eat it?"
"Don't touch it," Root said sharply. "It came because of me. Because of Void Anchor."
The child turned its face toward Root.
And smiled.
Not like a child.
Not like a monster.
But like something that had been waiting to be remembered.
Suddenly—
[ HOLLOW SYSTEM: ENTITY 'IMPRINT_07' SEEKS ATTUNEMENT ]
[ Accept: [Yes] | [No] ]
Attunement will overwrite a portion of narrative stability in exchange for unbound progression.
Root's hand trembled.
"Veyr…"
"Don't look at me," the summon muttered. "This one's above my pay grade."
Root stared at the prompt.
[ Accept: [Yes] | [No] ]
The button pulsed like it was breathing.
The child—Imprint_07—waited silently, still dragging its finger through the same crooked circle in the dirt. It didn't blink. It didn't even breathe.
Just… waited.
"This isn't a summon," Lyra said quietly.
"It's not even real," Klem added. "It doesn't eat, doesn't grow. This is—this is a system ghost."
Veyr hovered at Root's shoulder. His tone was unusually grave.
"You can't undo this kind of link. If you accept, it'll anchor itself to your Veinbind. Like a parasite. Or a shadow."
"Or a memory," the child said suddenly.
The air twitched.
Not shook. Not cracked. Just twitched—like a fabric seam tugged from underneath.
Root's fingers hovered over the air where the invisible button pulsed.
"What happens if I say no?" he asked.
Veyr shrugged. "Probably nothing. It'll fade. Like it never existed."
"And if I say yes?"
"Then you'll stop following the story."
"Good," Root said.
And pressed [Yes].
The effect was instant.
His sigil lit up—all of it—like the world was setting fire to his soul.
[ ATTUNEMENT CONFIRMED: ENTITY 'IMPRINT_07' NOW BOUND TO ROOT'S PARADOX TREE ]
[ Trait Acquired: UNWRITTEN ]
Description: You are now a fracture point in narrative space. World Events may glitch, invert, or refuse to follow normal logic in your presence.
Side Effect: ???
Side Effect: ???
Side Effect: ???
[ ENTITY 'IMPRINT_07' WILL FOLLOW UNTIL ERASED. ]
Root collapsed.
Imprint_07 walked up and touched his shoulder.
And vanished.
Not with a poof.
Not with a blink.
It simply faded into him—like a tattoo placed under his heartbeat.
When Root looked up, his vision had changed.
The world had layers now. Not just objects and walls, but faint ghost-images hovering over people. Possible versions. Unchosen outcomes.
And Veyr?
Veyr looked terrified.
"Root… that thing didn't just bind to your Veinbind…"
"It rewrote it."
Root stood slowly, dizzy but aware.
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine. You're unstable. You're becoming a hole in the system. You're—"
Root smiled.
"I'm Hollow."