The rain poured down like a relentless curtain, shrouding the city in a gray mist.
Cael Ardyn stood at the edge of the rooftop, his eyes fixed on the digital display hovering above the skyscrapers.
He glanced at his watch and then at the display. The numbers ticked away on both, counting down to midnight.
"Uhh… It's almost time."
He paused, then continued:
"What will happen this time? I've always wondered, always wondered about the world we live in, about the simulation and the very nature of reality."
He sighed and gazed into the distance, his face carrying a calm but thoughtful expression.
"Hahhh…"
Is it real? Is it just a simulation? The truth is, I don't know. But what I do know is that we're living in a world called the Final Archive, a simulated reality controlled by the Archivists.
The wind howled, whipping his hair into a frenzy as he gazed out at the city.
He sighed heavily and straightened his back, feeling a shiver run down his spine — a mix of excitement and trepidation.
The conversation with his team reverberated in his mind as he began opening and closing the lid of his watch, turning the gears inside it.
'I hope Professor Samara is wrong.'
Before the meeting, Professor Samara had sent him a detailed message about the task. About the nature of the Record Break.
She mentioned that this Record Break could be catastrophic, because it was most likely caused by an error on the Archivists' side. After all, even if they claimed to be gods, there was no reason to assume they were incapable of feeling the same blindness that humans have.
It was not outside the realm of possibility that they could cause an error on such a massive scale but then again, it had been given to debuggers to handle, so perhaps it wasn't that significant to higher beings.
But it certainly could be for humans.
At that moment, the countdown reached zero, and the world around him began to distort. The buildings trembled, the streets shook, and the sky turned a deep shade of crimson.
The Record Break had begun.
He watched in awe as the world around him unraveled. He had seen it before, but it never got old. The glitches, the distortions, the reset. It was like a never-ending cycle…
…But something felt off. A sense of unease crept up his spine, like a whisper in his ear.
"W-what—"
The whispers continued, raiding his mind and consciousness:
'You weren't supposed to live through this.'
'That act of physical assault was just me planting the seed in…'
'You remembered the memory…'
'The world you know is a script. A controlled narrative…'
'Humans are caged to their emotions…'
'You are more resilient to corruption than…'
He stumbled backward, his hand grasping for the rooftop's edge. The pain made him feel as if his head were ready to explode.
Cael dropped to the ground, gripping his head. The world continued to fall into shambles, indifferent to him. The whispers continued and then ended as the world went black.
'You don't have time. Snap out of it.'
***
When he opened his eyes, he was lying on the rooftop, his head throbbing with pain. The city was quiet, the rain having stopped. The digital display was gone, replaced by a message:
[Record Break Complete. Simulation Reset.]
He stared at it for some time, then the voice glitched as the sky itself began corrupting.
[Record Break Complete.]
[Re-Re-Record Break Complete.]
[Simulation Reset.]
[Record Break]
[Complete]
[Com-Com-Com-Complete]
Cael watched the scene unfold in horror. His already fair face went deathly pale.
"Huh…?"
'What is happening.'
He felt his body turning colder and stale in real time as the sky broke like glass. The rooftop shimmered with glitches, and distortions in space-time formed here and there around it.
Something is very wrong. It is beyond us.
He thought about it but couldn't do anything.
Even taking a step burned all of his energy. It was as if the world itself was resisting his movements.
Then, it hit him.
A whisper more melodious than before. A voice that sounded like a lullaby rather than words spoken by a sinister entity.
It was a soft chime, smoothing his mind and body amid the chaos happening around him but for some reason, Cael grew more tense after listening to the familiar ringing.
"This is…"
Right, how could I forget?
The memories flooded his mind: the encounter with the mysterious black figure, finding the remnant of the original script, the fight with the abominable mirror monster, and the revelations of the black figure.
All of them hit him in a flash. The toll of it all was too much to handle, and he ended up spitting blood.
'I think I now know what those déjà vu moments really were.'
He steadied himself, brushing the blood away.
He then moved the needles of his watch and made them spin momentarily on their own.
"This is an echo…"
An echo — and not a normal echo, which is like a fragment of something forgotten or lost, like a memory or an error often corrected by squads.
This was an echo of memories, a recollection of them made into something resembling reality — a false simulation to wake him up from the real deal.
That was what he thought.
Cael closed his eyes and listened to the ringing in his ears. Then, he listened to the energy dwelling in his core.
The warmth answered his call, spreading throughout his body. Then he wasn't in one place anymore.
Reality collapsed and he was falling through streams of blue-white blocks arranged in numbers and symbols.
He continued to fall, losing all sense of direction, of himself, of his being. The concepts of up and down ceased to exist; time and space lost their meaning entirely.
Cael felt his consciousness dissolve into nothing, his mind becoming both light and heavy.
I can't lose control. I have to stay focused.
At that moment, he felt something cracking inside him, something which belonged to him but he too was a part of it.
Then, countless memories spun inside his head. Various timelines flashed before his eyes and as they did, he drowned in them.
From the blue screens and blocks came forward silhouettes, all carrying the same form but different expressions.
They were the memories of Cael Ardyn from other timelines.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
The numbers continued to rise. All of them drowning the real Cael, swallowing him whole.
'Arghh…'
As he was almost completely swallowed, the needles of his watch stopped — clicking and making a melodious sound.
Clink! Clank!
And a white radiance engulfed them all. Whispering the words Cael had waited to hear:
[ User Cael Ardyn Identified ]
[ Connecting to [***] ]
[ Synchronisation Complete ]
[ Stable network established. Initiating Advance Debugger Protocol ]
[ Activation 78% ]
Then, everything went blank, shrouding everything in an endless white void.
Cael floated amid this white void, his mind free of any thoughts and feelings.
Amid this, the voice of the AI system echoed, reverberating throughout the endless white space.
[ [***] Aspect Seal 1 broken ]
[ You have gained a little understanding of your [***] attribute. ]
[ A petal is consumed ]
[ An echo stirs in your depth ]
***
"Where… am I?"
Cael was lying on a bed in the dormitory, his right arm pierced with a needle connected to a patch of blue blood. On closer look, there seemed to be electrical sparks and white streams flowing through it.
"You're finally awake."
Rohan was lying on the sofa near the bed. As he spoke these words, a flash of blue light vanished in the air around his face.
He stood up and walked over to the bed, then removed the connection from Cael's arm.
Cael sat up slowly, pressing his head with his right hand.
"Argh… my head!"
'Did I collapse after what transpired?'
Cael's head was throbbing with pain, his memories blurry, his body a little weaker than normal.
Nevertheless, he pressed himself to think and tried to remember exactly what situation he was in.
'Did the Record Break glitch? Were those whispers responsible for knocking me out?'
He pressed his head tighter.
'No, that was just a vision. An echo. How did I end up like this?'
"Rohan… what happened?"
Rohan looked at him with a sullen expression but replied with a soft tone:
"That's what I-I mean, we would want to know. What happened?"
"I… I don't really remember properly, but the Record Break finished and the simulation was reset. After that I don't really remember what happened."
Cael replied while still holding his head, his mind racing again.
'I couldn't tell him or anyone about the mirror monster and the black figure. Not yet, at least. But if that was real, and the vision — the echo — was not, then how do I not remember what happened after my conversation with them?'
'How am I this weakened in the first place?'
'This is so strange…'
Rohan sighed and sat beside him in the nearby chair. His fingers dragged across his cheek and over his eyes, pressing hard as if he could wipe away the exhaustion etched into his skin.
For a brief second, his face disappeared behind his palm.
He exhaled.
His hands slid down and lingered at his jaw for a moment before lowering. He opened his eyes, looking at Cael with a restless face.
"Well… good thing that the situation isn't as bad as it could be. There was a chance that you had lost a significant portion of your memories and your individuality, but I don't think that's the case."
He paused, then continued, giving Cael a moment to settle with the information.
"See that. That's a Fable Patch," he pointed at the blue-blood-like container that had been attached to Cael's arm.
"It contains the fragments of collected lost memories, forgotten echoes, and many more things gathered throughout Record Breaks and recursion breaches. It cost quite a fortune to get three of them for you, but Professor Samara didn't back down."
Cael looked at the other side of his bed and saw two drained patches in the dustbin.
Seeing this, he frowned.
"Fable Patch? Was my condition that bad?"
The Fable Patch was just as Rohan had explained — a collection and mix of different things. In the world of the Archive and its simulations, one could very well become a part of it, losing their memories, or in the worst case, a part of their personality and individuality.
The Fable Patch allowed inserting the hollow or shell left of a person with the forgotten stories that had been either discarded, forgotten, or leaked through unwanted events.
It filled them with memories, scripts, even codes making their being and their very core stable and working again.
To think that it had taken three of them for Cael to regain his consciousness made him feel cold, draining the color from his face.
Rohan nodded slightly and replied:
"Well not exactly. You returned to the cabinet after the Record Break, saying you were feeling dizzy and that we should inform the higher-ups. After that you collapsed on the spot, and the rest is this."
'I came back to the cabinet, feeling dizzy?'
Cael moved his legs, trying to stand up, his mind still flowing with thoughts.
When the figure disappeared, he headed for the elevator to return. That much he remembered now.
Then what?
'Why?'
'Why did I see that vision? Was that a different conclusion to one of the timelines they mentioned?'
The moment his feet touched the floor, a sharp pulse shot through his body.
"—Wait."
Rohan grabbed his shoulder before he could fully rise.
"Don't push it," he said quietly. "Your neural signature was fluctuating for hours. If the Patch hadn't stabilized you, you'd probably still be unconscious."
Cael steadied himself against the bedframe.
For a moment, the room seemed to flicker.
Not physically.
But behind his eyes.
He felt the rush of energy and warmth collecting in his eyes, as a familiar sensation settled in them.
'Wait… is this-?'
He turned, hiding his face from Rohan, then pulled up the blanket and lay back down on the bed.
"You're probably right. I still feel weak."
Cael's tone carried uneasiness, but Rohan took it as a side effect of waking up after a slumber.
"If you wish…
He walked away and stopped after a few steps.
…you know Lyra was regularly monitoring you for a while, so get well soon. Mr. Vael and I had a lot of explaining to do. You can't even admire my dedication."
Cael chuckled softly, still holding his blanket.
"I'm really sorry for the inconvenience. I'll try my best to make it up to you two…
…Ah! Also say thanks to Lyra for me. Actually, don't say anything to her. I'll speak to her directly."
Rohan turned with a slight smile and continued walking outside. When he reached the exit, the door automatically opened in a swirl.
"As you wish."
Cael was left alone. He listened to the footsteps diminishing, then stood up and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror.
'As expected.'
His eyes glowed with ethereal light. Azure rings circled around the pupils, while the pupils themselves glowed a light shade of blue.
His eyes changed again.
'So that was the real event.'
Before, he had thought that maybe the vision was the reality, while the whole commotion with the mysterious figure was just a vision — a false memory merging with his own as a side effect of the Fable Patch overdose.
The chances had been quite low, but not zero. There had been a slight possibility but now he knew that wasn't the case.
"But that vision felt quite real…"
It was like a script following itself. I remembered the meeting with the team, their chatter, and going to check on the Record Break. It is as if that too was a vision.
'But it cannot be.'
Cael closed his eyes and opened them again. He remembered the voices in the vision. The whispers that had reverberated when everything was swallowed by whiteness.
He washed his face and moved his hands through the air in a particular motion.
As he did, a blue screen popped up inside his head. In front of his eyes, visible only to him.
[ User Cael Ardyn Identified ]
[ Connecting to the [***] ]
[ Stability fully realised. ]
[ Debugger Protocol Initiated: Activation 100% ]
'Now this is interesting.'