"Found you… at last."
The voice seeped through the cracks of the Gate like fog, thick and cold.
Aiden stiffened—his body reacting before his mind could make sense of anything.
Those eyes…
Not human.
Not beast.
Not divine.
Something older, deeper, layered with countless memories that weren't his, yet pressed against his mind like a thousand whispers pushing to be remembered.
The darkness bulged outward.
The Gate—once a monument of celestial stone—groaned like a wounded creature.
A second crack ran through it.
A third.
The mist poured out faster.
Aiden's breath hitched.
"Yunaria… what's coming out?"
Yunaria moved in front of him again, dagger drawn, stance low and defensive—though Aiden sensed fear hidden beneath her composure.
"Something that should not exist outside the throne cycle," she murmured. "Something that awakens only when the Lost King returns."
Aiden swallowed hard.
"I'm not a king."
Yunaria didn't react.
Or rather—she did, but she hid something behind her eyes.
"You may not remember," she said softly, "but the worlds haven't forgotten you."
The mist surged forward.
Aiden flinched. "It's coming closer—!"
Yunaria extended a hand, summoning a barrier of light. The mist hit it with an explosive crack, splintering the barrier like glass.
Aiden stared in horror.
"That was a barrier? It destroyed it—like nothing."
Yunaria gritted her teeth. "It isn't destroying. It's erasing."
The sound of stone fracturing echoed through the chamber.
The Gate tore open.
What stepped out was not a creature—
not fully.
It was a shadow wearing the memory of a form.
An outline of something once alive.
A silhouette made of unraveling threads.
A torso, vaguely human-shaped but continuously tearing itself apart and re-knitting as if reality couldn't decide what it was.
The glowing eyes were the only stable part—piercing blue, ancient, and far too aware.
Yunaria inhaled sharply.
"No… this is impossible. That's—"
The shadow took a step.
Reality around its foot dissolved like watercolor touched by rain.
Aiden staggered back. "What IS that?!"
Yunaria whispered the answer like a curse:
"A World-Eater Fragment."
Aiden froze.
"That name sounds—bad."
"It is," Yunaria said. "A World-Eater is the force responsible for devouring entire worlds during the Erasure Era. But this isn't the full entity—this is only a fragment of its will."
"Why is something like that HERE?!"
"Because it's looking for you."
The Fragment tilted its head, like studying Aiden.
Then came the voice again—closer, clearer:
"Lost King… return… come back…"
Aiden's chest constricted.
"I'm NOT your king!" he shouted. "I'm not anyone! I'm just—"
He stopped.
Because the Fragment moved faster than thought.
In a blink, it stood inches from Aiden.
Yunaria didn't even have time to shout.
Aiden's instincts reacted first—he stumbled back, raising his hand—
—and the star-shaped sigil flared beneath him once more.
Archivist energy exploded outward.
The Fragment hesitated for the first time, threads vibrating violently as though pushed back by an invisible storm.
Yunaria gasped.
"He's resisting it—this is impossible—!"
But Aiden wasn't doing it intentionally.
He wasn't thinking.
He wasn't controlling.
He was responding to something buried deep inside him—a command written into his very existence.
The Fragment leaned in, ignoring the force.
"You left," it said. "You fled. You hid. But you cannot run from your throne."
Aiden's heart pounded. "What throne?! Stop talking like I'm supposed to know—!"
The Fragment reached toward his chest.
Yunaria shouted: "AIDEN—DON'T LET IT TOUCH—!"
The finger brushed his shirt.
Just that small contact—
—and the fabric unraveled into dust.
Aiden's breath froze.
"I—can't fight that. I can't—"
The Fragment's voice echoed within his mind, bypassing his ears entirely:
"You belong to the throne of erased worlds. Come home…"
The structure around them groaned.
The chamber floor cracked.
The stars in the ceiling dimmed.
Aiden felt a pressure on his mind—something pushing, trying to pry open a door he didn't even know existed.
The Fragment extended more threads, coiling around him like tendrils of darkness.
Yunaria lunged forward.
"Get away from him—!!"
She struck.
The dagger hit the Fragment's arm—
—and passed right through.
Not cutting.
Not damaging.
Just phasing through like slicing fog.
Yunaria's eyes widened. "No effect…?!"
The Fragment didn't even acknowledge her.
The tendrils wrapped around Aiden's shoulders, tightening like cold vines.
Aiden gasped as a wave of memories—not his memories—flooded his mind:
Burning skies.
A crown of stars.
A battlefield of screaming worlds.
A dragon coiled around a dying sun.
A woman crying his name—
"Aiden…"
But not Yunaria's voice.
Someone else.
Someone he loved.
He screamed and tore away from the Fragment, but the tendrils held strong.
His heart hammered.
"I don't want this—! I'm not a king—I don't want to remember—!"
The Fragment whispered:
"You don't get to choose."
Aiden's knees buckled.
His vision blurred.
Is this it? Is this where I die?
But then—
A surge of warmth pulled him back.
A gentle hand touched his forehead.
Yunaria.
Her voice cut through the chaos.
"Aiden. Look at me."
He forced his eyes open.
Yunaria's face was inches from his—calm, focused, determined.
"You are not dying here," she said softly. "You are not being taken. I won't allow it."
The Fragment hissed, tendrils tightening.
Yunaria pressed her palm harder against Aiden's forehead.
Silver light erupted from her hand, surrounding both of them in a thin veil of celestial brilliance.
Aiden felt weight lift from him—just slightly.
The Fragment shrieked in distorted outrage:
"Traitor… you protect him… again…?"
Aiden blinked.
"Again?" he whispered. "Yunaria… what does it mean, again?"
Yunaria didn't answer.
Her eyes were locked on the Fragment, teeth clenched.
"I won't let you take him this time."
Aiden froze.
"'This time'? Yunaria—what aren't you telling me?!"
The Fragment roared.
A shockwave blasted outward, shattering the floor, splitting the walls, and extinguishing the lights in the chamber.
The world tilted.
Aiden felt his consciousness slipping.
Yunaria grabbed his shoulders, refusing to let him fall.
"Aiden—stay with me! Do NOT close your eyes!"
"I—I can't—"
The Fragment surged forward, its form expanding into a storm of unraveling threads.
Yunaria screamed a single command:
"AIDEN—REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!!"
Aiden's world exploded into blinding white.