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Chapter 15: Beneath the Rules
The reward vault shattered.
Kaelen didn't touch it.
He looked at the chest, felt the magic woven into it—recognition triggers, mimic-tier reward logic, illusions laid over scraps—and dismissed it all with a simple step forward.
The system flared.
>
Unauthorized Descent Detected
Vault Security Overridden
Warning: Anomaly Thread - "Inkborn Presence" — ACTIVE
Stone vanished underfoot.
Kaelen fell.
---
He landed in silence.
No echo. No dust.
The chamber was… absent. A null-space of half-formed stone and looping staircases drawn in chalk-light. At the center, a pool of ink breathed like a lung.
Then it moved.
---
The Inkborn Hunter
From the pool rose a figure clothed in layered manuscripts—scrolls and parchments, writhing with moving text. Its face was wrapped in a library of laws, ink dripping from where its eyes should be.
It had no mouth.
But Kaelen heard it.
> "You do not belong in pages yet written…"
"You are a blank. A smudge. A corruption."
The temperature dropped.
Kaelen didn't flinch. The Hollow Fang pulsed softly in his hand.
> "Then write me out," Kaelen said.
---
Combat Initiated – Inkborn Hunter
>
Entity Class: ???
Threat Rating: Adaptive Meta-Entity
Weakness: Memory Anchors – UNKNOWN
Suggested Strategy: None Available
The Inkborn Hunter moved sideways through space, dodging the concept of forward. Scrolls unraveled from its back and coiled toward Kaelen like binding scripture.
Kaelen dashed forward.
Void Step.
His blade sang—
But the Hunter wasn't there.
> "Your blade relies on memory. I erase."
"Let us see what you are without your story."
Kaelen's HUD blinked. Entire entries began to vanish.
>
Skills: ???
Titles: ???
Status: Error ]
---
But Kaelen grinned.
He dropped the Hollow Fang.
Raised his hand.
And let something older rise through his veins.
The Eclipse Shard in his chest flared—burning through the ink like a star through parchment.
Kaelen spoke a name not found in any Archive.
His own.
> "My blade is memory.
But I am choice."
The Hollow Fang reappeared in his grip—not reclaimed, but called.
And he struck.
This time, he didn't sever the body.
He carved through the Hunter's origin.
A line of blankness opened in the air. The Inkborn shrieked—not in sound, but in vanishing code.
>
Effect: Unwrote one record of target's purpose. ]
Inkborn Hunter—Integrity Collapse: 73%
The chamber spiraled into chaos.
The Hunter flickered, now unmoored, unable to remember why it fought.
Kaelen pressed forward.
Each swing was a sentence.
Each strike, a correction.
And finally—
The Hollow Fang pierced the creature's center.
> "You are not my end," Kaelen whispered.
"You're my editor."
The Hunter fell apart into floating letters, which burned into ash.
---
>
Anomaly Erased. Domain Marked: Eclipseborne ]
Trait Gained: Memory Immunity (Level 1)
New Location Unlocked: Pale Annex – Rewritten Layer
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Kaelen stood alone in the silence.
Below the world.
Outside the rules.
And yet… finally, remembered.
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End of Chapter 15