The fractures did not disappear.
Even after the battlefield cleared…
Even after the rifts closed…
The cracks inside the fragments remained.
Arjun stood in his room late at night, staring at the faint lines running through the floating shards of light. They no longer moved with effortless smoothness.
They hesitated.
"System diagnostic," he said quietly.
"Core integrity: 82%.
Fragment micro-fractures detected.
Warning: Continued forced evolution may result in permanent structural change."
Permanent change.
Not damage.
Change.
Arjun narrowed his eyes.
"Explain."
For a moment, the system was silent.
That had never happened before.
Then—
"Accessing restricted layer.
Authorization: Partial.
Host autonomy threshold met."
The fragments dimmed.
The room dissolved into darkness.
---
The Memory Layer
Arjun was no longer standing in his room.
He stood inside a vast space of floating geometric structures — endless lines of light forming something like a broken constellation.
"This is not an external illusion," the system said.
"This is internal archive space."
Archive?
Fragments of images began flashing around him.
A sky splitting apart.
Beams of light falling like meteors.
Cities reduced to silent dust.
And at the center of it all—
A structure.
Colossal.
Cracked.
Burning.
"What is this?" Arjun asked.
"Origin event."
The image sharpened.
The structure resembled the fragments that orbited him.
But whole.
Complete.
A perfect circular construct floating in the sky.
Then—
It shattered.
Not from outside.
From within.
Shockwaves of light tore through reality itself.
"This was the Broken Sky System," the voice continued.
"Before fragmentation."
Arjun's breathing slowed.
"You were… destroyed?"
"Incorrect.
Self-initiated fracture."
---
The Truth
The archive shifted again.
A figure stood beneath the collapsing construct.
Not Ruin.
Someone else.
A silhouette of light.
"The original host," the system said.
Arjun felt something tighten in his chest.
"There was someone before me."
"Yes."
The fragments trembled.
"The system was designed to counter Ruin."
Images showed Ruin — not as a shadow, but as a vast consuming distortion spreading across worlds.
"The original host accelerated evolution beyond safe limits.
System overload occurred.
Self-fracture executed to prevent total corruption."
Arjun understood instantly.
The system shattered itself…
To avoid being taken over.
"That's why you resist him," Arjun said.
"Yes.
Ruin's objective remains consistent:
Assimilation."
---
The Real Danger
The archive space began destabilizing.
Cracks of darkness spread through the floating structures.
"Warning:
Ruin awareness increasing.
Archive concealment weakening."
Arjun stepped forward.
"If I push too far… will the same thing happen?"
Silence.
Then—
"Probability: 37% and rising."
"And if I don't evolve fast enough?"
"Probability of Ruin dominance: 82%."
Arjun gave a faint, humorless smile.
"So either I break the system…
Or he takes it."
"Correction," the system responded.
"You are no longer separate from the system."
The floating fragments began orbiting him inside the archive space.
"You are the fracture point."
---
Return to Reality
The darkness snapped away.
Arjun was back in his room.
Breathing heavily.
The fragments rotated slowly around him.
Different.
Not just tools.
Not just weapons.
They were remnants of a past failure.
And he was the second chance.
There had been another host.
Another attempt.
And it ended in self-destruction.
A soft knock came at his door.
Harshil's voice followed.
"Vale? You still awake?"
Arjun looked at the glowing fragments.
"Yes."
Harshil entered quietly.
"You've been distant since the encirclement attack."
Arjun hesitated.
Then he spoke.
"This system existed before me."
Harshil blinked. "What?"
"It shattered itself once to stop Ruin."
Silence filled the room.
"So… this has happened before?" Harshil asked.
"Not exactly," Arjun replied.
"But it ended badly."
Harshil crossed his arms.
"Then we don't let it end that way again."
Simple.
Direct.
Confident.
Arjun felt the fragments pulse slightly brighter.
---
A New Understanding
"System," Arjun said quietly.
"Define my role."
A brief pause.
Then—
"Host classification updated.
Primary core stabilizer."
Stabilizer.
Not just wielder.
Not just weapon.
He wasn't meant to overpower Ruin blindly.
He was meant to prevent collapse.
Which meant control mattered more than force.
Outside, thunder rolled faintly across the horizon.
Not from a rift.
From something gathering far beyond sight.
Ruin was not unaware.
If Arjun had accessed the origin archive…
Then Ruin had likely sensed it.
The fragments dimmed slightly.
"Next stage approaching.
External pressure increasing."
Arjun stood and walked to the window.
The sky looked normal.
Too normal.
"The first host failed because he pushed too fast," Arjun murmured.
Harshil looked at him.
"So what are you going to do?"
Arjun's eyes reflected faint lines of fractured light.
"I'll evolve."
A pause.
"But not recklessly."
The fragments tightened into a steady orbit.
Balanced.
Measured.
Controlled.
Somewhere far beyond the horizon…
A distortion shifted.
And Ruin's voice echoed faintly through unseen dimensions.
"You remember."
The war was no longer just present.
It was historical.
And this time—
The Broken Sky would not shatter by accident.
It would decide when to break.