Carter moved through the dead zone with careful steps, every sound amplified by the unnatural stillness. The trees around him stood like statues, their branches frozen mid‑sway, as if even the wind refused to enter this place.
REI hovered close, her glow faint but steady. "Your mana signature is fully suppressed here. The Guild will not detect you."
"Good," Carter said. "I need time to think."
But thinking was the problem.
Two forces.
One saved him.
One wanted him erased.
And now the Guild was hunting him too.
He rubbed his temples. "REI… what did you see in the Memory Log? Before you overloaded."
Her glow dimmed. "Only fragments. A voice. A presence. Something that intervened at the moment of your death."
"Why me?"
"I do not know," she said softly. "But it was not random."
Carter sat on a fallen log, staring at the gray, lifeless grass. "So I'm caught between two cosmic forces, the Guild wants to dissect me, and my System is evolving into something it shouldn't be."
"Yes," REI said. "That is an accurate summary."
Carter snorted. "Great."
A faint pulse rippled through the clearing.
Carter stiffened. "What was that?"
REI's eyes widened. "An anomaly. Very small. Very close."
Carter stood, scanning the treeline. "Another attack?"
"No," REI said. "This is different. It is… residual. Like a Temporal Remnant."
"Of what?"
Before she could answer, the air shimmered.
A faint silhouette appeared at the edge of the clearing — a figure made of flickering light, barely visible, like a reflection on broken glass.
Carter froze.
"REI…?"
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I am detecting a Temporal Remnant."
The figure stepped forward — or rather, glitched forward, skipping frames like a corrupted video.
Carter's heart pounded.
The figure lifted its head.
It was him.
Carter stared at the ghostly version of himself — pale, flickering, eyes hollow.
"What… what is that?" he whispered.
REI's voice trembled. "A Temporal Remnant of your death."
The Remnant‑Carter opened its mouth.
Static poured out.
Then words.
"You… shouldn't… be… here…"
Carter stepped back. "REI—"
The Remnant twitched violently, its form distorting.
"It… follows… you…"
Carter's blood ran cold. "What follows me?"
The Remnant's head snapped toward the treeline.
"Run."
The clearing darkened.
A wave of cold swept through the air.
REI's glow flared. "Carter — anomaly spike! Something is entering the dead zone!"
"That's impossible," Carter said. "You said nothing could—"
"I was wrong!"
The treeline rippled like a curtain.
A shadow stepped through.
Not a monster.
Not a person.
A shape.
A distortion.
A tear in reality wearing the outline of a human.
The Temporal Remnant screamed in static and shattered like glass.
Carter stumbled back. "REI—what is that?!"
Her voice shook. "A correction agent. A fragment of the entity trying to erase you."
The shadow turned its faceless head toward Carter.
The world dimmed.
The System flickered violently.
> [WARNING: DIRECT INTERFERENCE DETECTED]
> [USER AT RISK OF ERASURE]
Carter's pulse spiked. "REI — what do I do?!"
"Fight," she whispered. "Or die."
The shadow lunged.
Carter raised his dagger.
And the dead zone erupted into chaos.