The child raised its hand
The space around Aya buckled
Not pressure
Not gravity
Something deeper
A force pulling at her thoughts rewriting her memories as if they never happened
She stumbled
Visions flashing
Her brother never dying
Her never picking up the blade
Her never stepping into the tower
It was erasing her truth
Her soul
Aya screamed
But no sound came out
Her body began to flicker pieces turning into code and scattering like dust
Reiss shouted from the edge of the collapsing space
Aya
But he was already gone
This was her trial alone
The Origin Key floated forward tilting its head like a curious god
Testing
Aya clenched her fists
No blade
No system
Only her
Then she remembered
The pain
The fight
The reason
She wasn't born powerful
She chose power
Every time she broke
She got up again
Not because of fate
Because of will
And now
She chose again
Aya reached into the void inside her
And pulled
Not from data
Not from system
From memory
Her blade reformed
Not the Rewrite Edge
Something new
Raw black light laced with her scars
The Key flinched
Aya dashed forward
A slash
Reality screamed
She missed
The Key rewound space
Time snapped backward
She grinned
So that's the game
They fought
Not with speed
But meaning
Every move was a question
Every parry a rejection
Aya struck with every memory she refused to lose
Every pain she earned
Every truth she bled for
She hit the Key
A crack
Small
But real
Its eyes widened
First time it showed emotion
Aya whispered
You wanna rewrite me
Then read this
She drove the blade forward
Right into its chest
Light exploded
Not bright
Not holy
Just pure
Silent
Unstoppable
The Key shattered into data fragments
Aya fell to one knee breathing hard
Zerach stepped from the dark his eyes wide
You did it
Aya stood
Not done
Not yet