The Memory Strata darkened.
Not because light vanished—
—but because history leaned closer.
The pillars began to hum, each glyph shifting, rearranging, unfolding like a lock finally accepting the right key.
Guakulia felt it immediately.
"…there are more," he said quietly.
Dioka didn't smile this time.
"Yeah," he replied. "A lot more."
---
POV: THE ONES WHO REMEMBER
The chained entity stepped forward. Its restraints rattled—not with movement, but with resistance.
> "You were not the first," it said.
The words echoed across the Strata, embedding themselves into the stone.
> "You were not even the worst."
Dioka raised an eyebrow.
"Ouch."
The armored Architect gestured.
The pillars activated.
Scenes burned into reality.
---
ERASED RECORD #001
A figure standing inside a collapsing star.
Laughing as gravity inverted.
Reality tried to overwrite them.
Failed.
> "They refused classification," the star-filled silhouette said.
"So the System flagged them as a corruption."
The image shattered.
> "They were erased."
Guakulia's jaw tightened.
"…that wasn't erasure," he muttered.
"That was deletion."
---
ERASED RECORD #014
A city frozen mid-second.
Everyone inside immortal.
Screaming.
A being at the center—eyes glowing softly—trying to stop time permanently to save them.
> "They tried to preserve existence," the chained one said.
"The System called it destabilization."
The city vanished.
No explosion.
No remains.
Just absence.
Dioka's voice dropped.
"…they were trying to help."
---
ERASED RECORD #███
The pillars hesitated.
Glitched.
Then showed something blurred.
Multiple anomalies.
Fighting together.
Reality buckling.
The Supernova System—unfinished, raw—deploying emergency laws.
> "That record was sealed," the armored Architect said.
"Even from us."
Guakulia looked directly at him.
"And yet you remember."
Silence.
Then:
> "…yes."
---
THE TRUTH
The star-filled silhouette spoke carefully now.
> "When the first anomalies appeared, reality panicked."
> "They did not follow lanes."
> "They did not scale."
> "They did not obey ceilings."
Another voice joined in—quiet, regretful.
> "So the System was created."
Dioka tilted his head.
"…not to organize power."
Guakulia finished it.
"To contain fear."
The Memory Strata shook.
> "Correct," said the chained entity.
"The lanes were never about balance."
> "They were about control."
---
THE FAILED SOLUTION
> "Those who could not be controlled," the Architect continued,
"were removed from causality."
> "Their names erased."
> "Their echoes buried."
> "Their existence labeled… impossible."
Guakulia clenched his fist.
"…and us?"
The answer came slowly.
> "You two were different."
Dioka's eyes narrowed.
> "How?"
The star silhouette looked almost… amused.
> "You didn't fight the System."
> "You didn't challenge it."
> "You didn't even acknowledge it."
A pause.
> "You simply lived outside it."
---
THE IMPLICATION
The Strata fell silent.
Then Dioka laughed.
Not joking.
Not mocking.
Just honest disbelief.
"So let me get this straight," he said.
"You erased everyone like us…"
"…except the ones you couldn't even touch."
Guakulia smiled faintly.
"And now the world thinks we're anomalies."
The chained entity lowered its head.
> "…you are what remains."
---
WORLDWIDE EFFECT
Across the planet—
Ancient seals shattered.
Hidden vaults opened.
Beings long believed to be myths felt something stir inside them.
A resonance.
A memory trying to return.
Whispers spread in forgotten tongues:
"They weren't alone."
"They never were."
---
ENDING TEASE
Dioka stepped forward.
"So," he said casually,
"how many of them are still… out there?"
The Architects didn't answer.
Because the pillars did.
DOZENS.
Some dim.
Some fractured.
Some flickering back into existence.
Guakulia exhaled slowly.
"…the System didn't erase a mistake."
Dioka grinned.
"It buried a rebellion."
---
FINAL LINE
> "They were erased from history…
but not from reality.
And now, the forgotten are remembering how to exist again."