(Alt Title: "Congratulations, You've Leveled Up Into a Cosmic Mistake")
Darkness.
A kind of darkness so thick it felt like breathing in velvet made of regret.
I woke up lying on cold stone, my body aching, my mind buzzing like an old radio caught between stations.
[Fragment Inventory – Renji Kurogane]Current Fragments Acquired: 6/23Synchronization Rate: 28%Risk Level: Unstable Host StateHost Status: Compatible (Partial)Core Access: Locked
New Abilities Available:
Distortion Step (Active)
Mirror Shield (Failed)
Anchor Points (Prototype)
Next Evolution Threshold: 10 Fragments
Great.
I survived another catastrophic event, got forcibly upgraded like a cursed Pokémon, and still had no idea where I was.
The room around me was ancient.Not "old temple" ancient —"before language, before time" ancient.
The walls were carved with shifting patterns: symbols that moved when I wasn't looking, rearranging themselves into new warnings I couldn't fully understand.
The Eye pulsed faintly inside my chest.
"The Core is near," it whispered, with a reverence that made even my sarcasm stall for a second."Sealed before memory. Desired by many. Claimed by none."
The Core.
The thing I was collecting the Fragments for.
Somewhere ahead of me, pulsing quietly like a forbidden heartbeat.
I tried to stand.
Bad idea.
My legs wobbled like they were made of regret and bad decisions.I stumbled against a crumbling pillar, catching my breath.
That's when I noticed them:
Statues.
Dozens of them.
Figures cloaked in agony, frozen mid-scream, reaching toward something invisible.
Not saints.Not demons.Something... in between.
"This place remembers," the Eye murmured."It punishes those who forget."
Because that's not ominous at all.
A soft sound echoed through the tunnels.
Breathing.
But not mine.
No footsteps.No shuffling.
Just a slow, wet, horrible inhale that vibrated through the stone itself.
My spine stiffened.
I wasn't alone.
Ahead, between the broken statues and the cracked walls, something flickered.
Like a mirage made of grief and dust.
A figure.
No.
Figures.
Echo Wraiths.
Creatures formed from broken memories, hunting anything alive enough to still have fear.
"You must move," the Eye said urgently."Anchor the path.Or be trapped forever."
Anchor the path?
Oh right.
New power.
I reached into myself instinctively.
Reality around me shivered, and a faint mark appeared on the stone — a Distortion Anchor, ready to yank me back if things went to hell.
Spoiler: They would.
I took a step forward.
The breathing grew louder.
The statues wept blood from eyes that shouldn't have existed.
The Core pulsed, faint but undeniable, somewhere deeper inside this labyrinth.
Waiting.
Calling.
Promising salvation...or destruction.
Maybe both.
And me?
I'm the idiot walking straight into it.