The aftermath of the encounter with the Architect had left Myrridan wounded but alive. The city's anchoring mechanisms had stabilized, but the scar on the Dimensional Beacon pulsed with an ominous rhythm. To most, it was invisible. To Arin, it echoed like a countdown.
"It's not over," Archive said. "It never is, when the Origin threads are disturbed. We sealed a wound, not the weapon that caused it."
Astra sat across from her in the Archive's sanctum. She was pale, haunted by the lingering effects of their battle in the Forbidden Nest. "That place… it pulled out a version of me I'd buried so deep I forgot she ever existed."
Arin clenched his fists. "Then we go to the beginning. The Dawn Chasm. If we can reach the moment before choice splintered—before time began—we can reshape what's to come."
Archive turned to him slowly. "To reach the Dawn, you'll need the Key of First Breath. It was hidden when the system seeded itself. Only one being has held it in every known timeline: The Chrono Herald."
The Hunt Begins
The Chrono-System pulsed with layered requests:
Mission Added: Retrieve the Key of First Breath.
Target: Chrono Herald.
Current Status: Lost in Non-Time.
They began the search in the Twilight Fold—a place not bound to sequence, where yesterdays and tomorrows brushed shoulders and reality twisted with paradox. Time didn't flow there. It coiled.
They found a relic first: the Herald's Mask, buried in a grave without a corpse.
"This belonged to him," Archive whispered. "But look closely. There's a second echo here. Someone else wore it—someone who shouldn't exist."
Astra traced the metal's runes and gasped. "Arin… it's you."
Threads Entwined
Suddenly, the air shimmered. The Spiral Memory activated on its own, linking with a hidden sequence.
Memory Fusion Triggered: Divergent Self Encounter.
A rift opened—and from it stepped a man in obsidian armor bearing the same face as Arin, older, eyes filled with wrath.
"I am the one who chose vengeance," he said. "The timelines I ruled fell to flame and ash. But now I see… even annihilation is not freedom."
Arin stepped forward. "You're the version I might have been."
"You will be, unless you learn why we failed."
The Dawn Protocol Unlocked
With the Herald's memory shard embedded in the mask, a portal appeared—shimmering like golden breath on glass.
System Update: Dawn Protocol Unlocked.
Chrono-Class Unlocked: Epochweaver.
Ability Acquired: First Step Rewrite – Alters the foundational choice at a moment's origin.
Archive gasped. "That's forbidden. Not even the Architects dared manipulate the first step of existence."
Astra looked at Arin, her voice steady. "Then we use it. Not to rewrite fate… but to restore freedom to it."
Arin held the mask in one hand, the Spiral Memory in the other. The portal opened, vast and full of light.
"Then let's begin again," he said. "From the very start."