The glow didn't move.
It hung on the horizon like a star fallen too low, pulsing faintly through the haze. Every step I took should have brought me closer, but the land bent like paper. Valleys folded into ridges, ridges collapsed into plains. Sometimes I swore I was walking in circles—except the fractures in the stone changed every time.
The Real Script didn't play by rules.
And it wanted me lost.
✦
The Inkblade pulsed in my hand, shadows coiling up my wrist.
"…follow it… claim it… the fire burns because it waits for you…"
I clenched my teeth and forced the whispers down. They never stopped. They only waited for weakness.
But without the blade, I wouldn't have lasted a step past the collapse.
That was the truth I hated most.
✦
Time flickered.
One moment the ground was dry and cracked. The next it was slick with blood, as if I was walking across the plaza's ruins again. Screams echoed, faint but clear, as though the siege never ended.
Kavya's sharp curse.Dev's roar.Arjun's scream.
I froze, chest tight, but the sounds bled away as quickly as they came. Only silence remained.
Not silence.
Waiting.
✦
The glow sharpened as I climbed a broken ridge. It wasn't a torch. It wasn't even fire.
It was a bonfire made of qi and flame, burning without wood or stone. Pale and crimson light twined together, licking upward into the void.
Around it sat figures.
Dozens.
They crouched in the ash, their forms flickering like shadows caught between existing and fading. Their faces blurred, but their mouths moved constantly, whispering fragments of words.
"The siege—""The cracks—""Don't let him—"
Their voices overlapped, too many, too broken.
They were survivors.
But not whole.
✦
I crept closer, blade tight in my grip.
One of them lifted its head.
And my heart stopped.
It was Dev.
Or it looked like him.
His sword lay across his knees, his chest rose and fell, his eyes burned steady. But his edges blurred like the others, as if he were only half real.
When he spoke, his voice came split, jagged.
"You… broke it… Reed."
✦
The Inkblade pulsed, eager, the whispers pressing sharp against my skull.
"…he's false… a fracture of the one you knew… cut him… devour him before he devours you…"
I swallowed hard, staring at the firelight on his face.
Was this the real Dev?A shard of him pulled through the collapse?Or just another ghost in a story that refused to end?
The glow crackled. The fractured survivors muttered louder, their voices rising into a storm of broken accusations.
And I knew—
This wasn't a bonfire.
It was a hunt.
Dev rose.
The glow of the bonfire cast his face in sharp lines, but his edges blurred like smoke. His sword slid from his lap with a metallic scrape that shouldn't have existed.
"You…" His voice split, overlapping itself. Calm and furious. Broken and steady. "…you ended it, Reed."
The other survivors stirred.
Kavya's silhouette. The mother's shape. Even Arjun's small form flickered among them. None were whole. None were real. Their mouths moved, spilling jagged whispers like glass cutting the air.
"The Zone cracked because of you.""You tore us apart.""You killed us."
Their words piled into a storm until the bonfire roared higher.
✦
I tightened my grip on the Inkblade.
"You're not real." My voice sounded weak even to me.
Dev's fractured form tilted his head. His eyes flickered, steady for a heartbeat, then jagged again. "What is real… when the script breaks?"
He stepped closer. The others followed, rising one by one, their bodies shuddering like puppets.
The bonfire hissed.
And the hunt began.
✦
The fractured Dev struck first.
His sword blurred, qi sparking across the air. I raised the Inkblade, shadows roaring outward. The clash split the ground, sparks raining across the ruin.
The fractured Kavya darted in, daggers flashing, but her body glitched mid-step, skipping like a broken recording. She struck from the wrong angle, steel slashing at my ribs.
I staggered back.
The mother lunged, her hands clawed, her face locked in a silent scream. Behind her, the boy's silhouette lifted a staff of splintered light, the glow cracked and dangerous.
It was all of them.
Twisted. Wrong.
And coming for me.
✦
The Inkblade screamed in my skull.
"…they are shadows… false… cut them… devour them… or they will devour you…"
Shadows lashed out, impaling two fractured figures at once. They shrieked, their bodies splitting into sparks before reforming again.
Not gone.
Never gone.
The fractured Dev pressed harder, his blade ringing against mine, sparks flying. His voice split into three, overlapping in fury. "We trusted you. We followed you. And you… broke us!"
His strike carved across my chest. Blood sprayed hot.
The Inkblade writhed, shrieking triumph even as pain seared through me.
✦
I roared and swung.
Shadows exploded outward, tearing through the fractured survivors. Their screams overlapped, high and low, too many voices at once.
The fractured Kavya collapsed into ash.The fractured mother dissolved mid-scream.The fractured boy shattered, sparks scattering like broken glass.
But Dev remained.
His blade burned brighter, his eyes steady for a single breath.
"Was it worth it, Reed?"
The question hit harder than his sword.
I lunged.
The Inkblade sank into his chest.
✦
The fractured Dev froze.
His sword slipped from his grip. His face flickered between rage and calm, broken and whole.
For a heartbeat, he looked real.
And he smiled.
"Then live, fracture."
His body split into sparks.
And was gone.
✦
Silence fell.
The bonfire hissed low, shrinking back to embers. The fractured survivors were gone, their whispers fading into the ruin.
Only the blade's voice remained.
"…false or true… they will all fall… only you remain real…"
My chest heaved. My hands shook.
Had I killed a shadow?Or the last piece of someone real?
I didn't know.
I didn't want to know.
✦
The system flickered faintly, its voice weak, almost swallowed by static.
[ Hidden Title condition continues. ]
[ Progress… 41%. ]
I stared at the dying bonfire until only ash remained.
Then I turned toward the void.
The glow was gone.
Only darkness waited.
And I kept walking.