The creature’s final words remained in Ethan’s mind.And it has just woken up.For several seconds, nobody moved.The enormous army beyond the broken sky had gone completely still.Millions of eyes stared into the valley, but none of them looked toward Ethan anymore.They were looking behind themselves.Something was coming.Something that frightened even them.Ethan slowly turned his head toward the cracks in the sky.“What’s waking up?”The creature didn’t answer immediately.Its enormous eye remained fixed on the darkness beyond the army.Then the first sound came.A heartbeat.Boom.The valley trembled.Boom.The mountains shook.Boom.The flowers growing from the fallen memories trembled.Another heartbeat followed.Boom.This time, the cracks in the sky widened.The Forgotten army began moving backward.Not attacking.Retreating.Ethan noticed immediately.“You’re afraid.”The creature finally looked at him.“Yes.”That single word was enough to make Ethan’s expression change.H

The sky went black.Not dark.Black.Every star above the Valley of Waiting disappeared at once, as if an invisible hand had reached across creation and erased the heavens. The flowers that had grown from the Forgotten’s tears stopped moving. The silver grass bent toward the ground, and the air became so heavy that even breathing felt like an act of rebellion.Ethan stood in the middle of the valley, staring at the darkness.The blue fragments of the Legacy hovered around him, trembling.For the first time since he had entered this strange world, they seemed afraid.“Legacy?” Ethan whispered.No answer came.He looked at the system interface floating before his eyes. The familiar lines of blue light flickered, broke apart, and reassembled into symbols he had never seen before.WARNING.ORIGINAL AUTHORITY DETECTED.LEGACY SYSTEM INTEGRITY: 7%.PURPOSE CONFLICT DETECTED.The letters changed.ORIGINAL AUTHORITY HAS AWAKENED.Ethan’s stomach tightened.“Who is the original authority?”The

“Now, Ethan, tell me why you left me to die.”Ethan stared at the boy.He wanted to answer, but his mouth refused to move.The words had entered his ears. He understood every one of them. Yet his mind rejected the question as something impossible, something that could not belong to his life.He had never seen this boy.He had never stood in that white room.He had never made a promise to anyone before his own world existed.At least, that was what he believed.“I don’t know you,” Ethan finally said.The boy’s smile disappeared.For a moment, he looked so disappointed that Ethan felt an unfamiliar pain settle in his chest.“You said that before.”“Before what?”“Before you forgot me the first time.”Ethan pushed himself to his feet.“Stop speaking in riddles. Tell me who you are.”The boy looked toward the broken tower.Behind him, the enormous hand had withdrawn into the darkness. The chains that once held the tower together floated in the air, each broken link surrounded by a faint b

The first world was returning.Ethan watched the sky change, unable to understand how quickly everything was falling apart.Stars disappeared one after another. The blue threads connecting different realities turned silver, then black. Across the sky, unfamiliar cities appeared over existing ones, their towers overlapping buildings that had stood for thousands of years.The Legacy System flickered before his eyes.FIRST WORLD RECONSTRUCTION: 8%.REALITY CONFLICT DETECTED.MEMORY OVERWRITE IN PROGRESS.Ethan tightened his grip around Cael.“Stop the reconstruction!”The system did not respond.“Legacy, can you hear me?”A faint pulse of blue light appeared on his palm.“Connection… unstable.”“Then tell me how to stop this!”“Unknown.”Ethan stared at the interface.Unknown.After everything they had survived, after every impossible battle and every revelation, the system had no answer.The percentage increased.9%.10%.The valley shook violently.Ren screamed as the ground split bene

The hand that emerged from beneath reality was small enough to belong to a child.That was what terrified Ethan most.It rose through the crack in the ground, pale fingers gripping the edges of broken existence. There were no claws, no scales, and no terrifying armor. The hand looked human.Then it tightened.The entire city lurched downward.Buildings folded into themselves. The sky twisted, and the stars began moving in the wrong direction. Ethan felt the ground slipping beneath his feet as though the world had suddenly become a page someone was trying to tear out of a book.Cael grabbed his waist.“Ethan!”Ethan reached for him with his free hand.“Don’t let go!”The little girl was still in Ethan’s other arm. Her body had become frighteningly cold, and the blue thread connecting her to his Legacy System was flickering between silver and black.Above them, the First Architect stood frozen.For the first time since Ethan had encountered him, the old man seemed unable to understand w