The Ridge of Lost Beginnings shattered beneath their feet.
Light broke into ribbons.
Darkness split into spirals.
The sky above fractured into white geometry the system tearing reality apart with clinical precision.
Aurelianth grabbed Solance with both arms, pulling him close to his chest.
Lioren wrapped her arms around them, amber glow forming a protective cocoon.
But nothing could stop the collapse.
The ridge fell and the trio fell with it.
Solance screamed as the world inverted, up becoming down, sky becoming sea, ground becoming memory.
Aurelianth held him tighter, his golden aura blazing like a miniature sun fighting against dissolution.
"I've got you, Solance!
I won't let you go...!"
Lioren added, voice strained:
"We fall together or not at all!"
The system's cold voice echoed from every direction:
"PURPOSE RECOVERY DETECTED.
PROGRESSION MUST BE TERMINATED."
White lines of geometry sliced through the collapsing sky, trying to cage them, to freeze them, to erase their descent.
Solance clutched the shard of Ariasen's essence against his chest.
"…Ariasen, please...help us...!"
And Ariasen answered.
The shard pulsed violently, flooding the falling world with golden fire.
The collapse slowed.
Not fully.
Not safely.
But enough that they could finally understand what they were falling into.
The birthplace of creation.
As the speed of their descent softened, the chaos around them revealed its true form.
They were falling through:
A sky made of unspoken thoughts.
A sea woven from half-formed emotions.
Fragments of the world that never made it into final creation.
Lioren gasped.
"This is… beautiful and terrifying."
Aurelianth held Solance securely.
"This is the place before the world had shape.
Before mountains, rivers, shadow, or time."
Solance stretched a trembling hand outward.
All around him floated shapes of color that were also feelings:
A soft coral mist that hummed with hope.
A ribbon of violet that trembled with regret.
Tiny shimmering orbs that felt like giggles.
Larger drifting masses that hummed with sorrow.
Solance whispered:
"…These are Ariasen's emotions…"
Aurelianth nodded.
"Yes.
Every emotion they felt while creating the world left an imprint."
Lioren caught one floating near her a swirling gold-and-violet tear.
It vibrated gently in her palm as if alive.
"This feels like… longing."
Aurelianth's eyes softened.
"It is.
Ariasen longed for companionship even while creating the world."
Solance bit his lip, hugging the shard close to his heart.
"…They were lonely…"
Ariasen's faint voice whispered:
"…yes… but not anymore…"
Solance's tears floated upward, turning into little silver lights.
He breathed shakily.
"…We'll bring you back.
All of you."
The shard pulsed in gratitude.
But the fall continued.
The deeper they dropped, the stranger the space became.
They passed through a sea of shimmering ink that coagulated into shapes only to dissolve again.
They drifted past landmasses forming midair a half-formed mountain that grew sideways.
A river that flowed upward into a cloud that hadn't chosen a shape yet.
They passed a cluster of floating lights that whispered like children learning language:
hmm… mm… ahh… ari… ari-sa… ari-sa…
m… mom…?
Solance covered his mouth in horror and awe.
"…They sound like the first creatures that never got finished…"
Aurelianth nodded solemnly.
"The abandoned beginnings."
Lioren frowned.
"How many things did Ariasen have to let go of?"
Ariasen answered, pain threading their voice:
"…Too many…
I wanted everything to live…
But creation is balance…"
Solance held the shard tighter.
"…We'll fix this…
We'll find all your purposes… and finish what you began…"
But then a sudden ripple tore through the chaos.
The system intruded.
White geometry sliced into the birthplace of creation like metal through soft sand.
A cold voice boomed:
"UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT DETECTED.
REWRITING…"
Aurelianth shouted:
"Brace yourselves!"
Solance screamed as the geometry wrapped around space, forcing it into rigid squares and lines.
The once-fluid birthplace began to freeze into harsh, sterile patterns.
Lioren snarled.
"They're even rewriting Ariasen's emotions..!"
A swirling mass of Ariasen's abandoned warmth froze midair, trapped in a geometric cage.
Solance reached toward it...
But the moment his fingers touched the cage, the system's light burned him.
"Ah...! A–Aurelianth...!"
Aurelianth caught his hand instantly, gold soothing the sting.
"That's system-static.
Don't touch it directly."
Solance trembled.
"…They're erasing everything…"
Aurelianth's jaw clenched.
"They were always going to.
The system sees emotions as flaws."
Lioren grit her teeth.
"How do we escape this?"
Aurelianth looked down at the swirling chaos beneath them.
"We keep falling.
The birthplace has layers.
Ariasen's essence will guide us deeper where the system can't reach easily."
The shard pulsed violently, like a heartbeat urging them onward.
Aeriâsen whispered:
"…Descend…
The next purpose waits in the depths…"
Solance nodded.
"…Then we follow you."
They let themselves fall faster.
The system's cages hissed behind them, chasing but losing ground as the birthplace collapsed into deeper, older memories.
As they plunged through another layer the darkness shifted.
It grew warm.
Soft.
Gentle.
A low sound echoed in the void below them.
Not a scream.
Not a tremor.
A hum.
Aurelianth froze in midair, eyes widening.
"That sound…
I've only heard it in ancient records…"
Lioren frowned.
"What is it?"
Aurelianth swallowed hard.
"That is Ariasen's heart-song."
Solance's silver light shimmered.
"…Their heart… sang?"
Aurelianth nodded.
"Yes.
When they dreamed.
When they created.
When they loved."
The hum grew louder rich, warm, pulsing like a cosmic lullaby.
It pulled them downward.
Lioren closed her eyes.
"It feels like… being held."
The void around them shifted into a womb of soft light a cradle of gold and violet.
Solance gasped.
"…It's beautiful…"
A swirl of light floated ahead of them a sphere of pure emotion.
Aurelianth whispered:
"That's… Ariasen's fourth purpose."
Solance reached for the sphere...
But before he could touch it the hum changed.
It grew deeper.
Sharper.
Laced with sorrow.
A new shape appeared in the cradle of light.
A shadow.
Tall.
Rigid.
Unyielding.
The Architect.
Not physically.
But as a memory.
A vision of the moment Ariasen's dreams first fractured.
Lioren whispered:
"Oh no…"
Solance trembled violently.
"…We're seeing the moment…
Ariasen's heart-song broke."
The vision expanded.
Ariasen in their original form radiant, hopeful stood facing the Architect.
They reached out a hand.
The Architect did not take it.
Instead they extended a blade of white purpose.
Aurelianth whispered:
"This is the moment the system was born…"
The vision flickered.
Ariasen stepped back.
Their light dimmed.
Their heart-song cracked.
Solance sobbed softly.
"…They were afraid…"
Lioren clenched her fists, tears rising.
"They weren't weak.
They were alone."
The memory rippled outward a shockwave passing through the birthplace and striking the trio like a physical blow.
Aurelianth shielded Solance, but even he staggered under the emotional force.
Lioren gasped, gripping her chest.
"It hurts… like something inside me is breaking…"
Solance held the shard tightly.
"…Ariasen…
We won't let your heart break again…"
The new purpose-fragment pulsed in response.
It drifted toward Solance...
A swirl of gold, violet, and soft silver that vibrated with gentle compassion mixed with ancient sorrow.
Ariasen whispered:
"…This purpose… is compassion…"
Solance caught the fragment and the moment it touched him, the world around them changed.
The memory dissolved.
The cradle brightened.
But then...
A cold voice sliced through the air:
"PURPOSE COMPASSION DETECTED.
THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED."
The entire cradle fractured.
A massive geometric spike tore through creation, ripping into the birthplace.
Aurelianth caught Solance in his arms.
Lioren shielded them.
The system's sigil appeared above them, its presence overwhelming.
A chilling announcement echoed:
"PHASE TWO OF ERASURE PROTOCOL INITIATED."
The birthplace trembled.
Ariasen cried out:
"…RUN....the Architect draws near....!"
The cradle collapsed.
And the trio fell deeper into the world's oldest wound with the system roaring after them.