Threadbound:System

The air inside the Threadfall Memory Nexus shimmered like broken glass held in sunlight.

Every step forward echoed—not in sound, but in memory. It was a place that didn't hum with life or death, but something between. Riven could feel it threading through his thoughts, sharp and uninvited, dragging up moments he hadn't agreed to remember.

Kaia's paws made no noise on the tile. Her golden eyes glowed faintly in the unnatural dark, tail swishing in time with her breathing. She stayed close. Closer than usual.

Kalix's voice broke the silence. "Smells like rusted time in here."

"It's a memory zone," Nilo murmured. "One of the deeper ones. Close to whatever the System doesn't want recalled."

Brenn raised his shield, which gave off a soft harmonic thrum. "Then we're in the right place."

The corridor ahead pulsed once—not in light, but in signal. A fraying heartbeat made of wire and thought.

The walls were layered with impossible architecture—rusted ribs of iron curved like bones, glass veins pulsing dimly with red memory. The glass twisted through the stone like organic circuitry, glimmering just enough to catch the edge of Riven's eye.

But he didn't look directly into them. Not again.

He already knew what they reflected.

Not history. Not truth.

Possibility. Regret.

Things he had failed to stop.

The corridor narrowed, then opened into a circular chamber. The ground here wasn't floor—it was fragments. Mirror shards fused into iron. Each one reflected something different. Something wrong.

In the center stood a monument.

Kara.

But not how she had been. This was Kara as she had died—impaled, hollow-eyed, blood frozen midair. A moment grotesquely preserved.

The memory coiled tighter in his chest.

"This place is warped," Brenn said, stepping up beside him. "It's feeding off something."

"An anchor," Nilo muttered. "A strong one. Too strong."

A thread shuddered.

And then the statue shattered.

From its broken pieces rose an echoform. Humanoid. Female.

Wearing Kara's face.

Not a projection. Not a memory.

A Class II.

> [Thread Phantom: Class II – Designation 'Memento Warden']

Phase Signature: Echo Fusion

Intent: Psychological Fracture / Memory Loop Entrapment

It tilted its head.

And smiled with her mouth.

"You shouldn't have come back."

Kaia stepped in front of Riven before he could move. Her fur bristled, shadows coiling low around her form. The chamber's air bent around the Warden. Reality didn't warp here like it did in normal ripples—this place rewrote memory directly. No warning. No time to anchor.

"Brace yourselves," Kalix warned, voice steady. "It's not going to hit hard. It's going to hit where it hurts."

It already had.

—

Riven blinked.

He was somewhere else.

Not the Nexus.

A rooftop. Drenched in crimson twilight.

Kara stood across from him, smiling. Whole. Alive.

She turned toward him—and something pierced her from behind. A spire of glass. Her mouth opened in a scream. But no sound came.

The scene shattered.

Now he was inside their old home. Kara, younger this time, asleep on the couch. He reached out.

A shard of memory lanced his palm. Blood dripped.

Another shift.

He stood again, watching her die. Again. Again. Again.

Each loop faster than the last. Each one more warped.

"You're too slow," her voice whispered, not cruel but inevitable. "You always were."

> [Warning: Cognitive Anchor Overload]

[Memory Loop Recursion Detected]

[Phasekin Override Available – Confirm?]

"Kaia," he whispered. "Override."

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then—

A streak of golden light slammed through the fractured memory. Kaia emerged from the rupture, her fur flared with starlit shadow. She tackled the memory, disintegrating it into vapor.

"You're here," she said, pressing against him. "Breathe."

Riven gasped. The memory released him like a snare pulled free. Cold air returned. Real. Grounded.

> [Phasekin Override Confirmed – Bond: Stable]

[Emotional Cascade Mitigated]

[Memory Lock Neutralized]

The Nexus returned.

Kalix was backed against the far wall, breathing hard. Brenn was bloodied but still moving. The echoforms they fought weren't physical enemies—they were twisted recreations of guilt and failure.

Kaia didn't wait. "It's mimicking her to trigger collapse," she said, staring at the Warden. "We have to end it before it rewrites the whole thread."

"No holding back, then," Riven muttered.

He rose, Hollow Flare igniting in his palm. Kaia shimmered beside him, her form stabilizing with threads of golden fire.

Together, they struck.

—

The battle wasn't linear. It was recursive.

Every time they landed a blow, the Warden responded with a memory. Brenn staggered under the image of his fallen squad. Kalix froze mid-step as he saw a child he couldn't save. Nilo collapsed for a moment, threadlines unraveling from his fingers before he reknit them with furious will.

But Riven didn't flinch anymore.

He knew the images. Knew the regrets. He wore them. But Kaia kept him grounded.

Hollow Flare erupted against the Warden's side. Echo Surge followed, destabilizing its mimicry. Kalix looped around and drove a null blade through its spine.

Still, it didn't fall.

"You're not enough," it whispered in Kara's voice.

Riven stepped closer.

"No," he said. "But I'm not alone."

Kaia flared with light. Golden and violet threads spiraled between them—then outward, latching onto the others. Brenn's shield surged. Kalix's blade ignited. Nilo rewove his threads with new force.

The Warden cracked.

Then—

Shattered.

Like glass.

> [Anchor Zone Cleared – Aya Vale Thread: 56% Stabilized]

[Class II Warden Neutralized]

[Thread Echo Contamination: Resolved]

[System Core – Temporary Clarity Restored]

[Threadfall Nexus: Phase Lock Reinforced]

The monument was gone.

Only the broken chamber remained. The mirror floor dulled. The red veins faded to gray.

No one spoke.

They didn't need to.

Kaia nudged Riven gently. "You okay?"

His eyes lingered on the spot where Kara had stood.

"No," he said quietly. "But I will be."

Kalix sat heavily on a shard-rimmed bench. "That was worse than a Tier II Hollowborn."

"It was worse because it was real," Nilo said. "Memory has weight. Some threads carry it heavier."

Brenn stood with effort. "How much more of this before we find her?"

Kaia looked at Riven. He didn't answer.

Because he already knew.

They weren't just chasing Aya's thread anymore.

They were retracing the scars left by a world that wanted them forgotten.

And ahead, the truth waited — buried in echoes too deep to silence.

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