The rain poured down like a relentless curtain, shrouding the city in a gray mist.
Cael Adryn stood at the edge of the rooftop, his eyes fixed on the digital display hovering above the skyscrapers.
He glanced at his watch and then at the display. The numbers ticked away on both, counting down to midnight.
"Uhh… It's almost time."
He paused, then continued:
"What will happen this time? I've always wondered, always wondered about the world we live in, about the simulation and the very nature of reality."
He sighed and gazed at the distance, his face carried a calm but thoughtful expression.
"Hahhh…"
Is it real? Is it just a simulation? The truth is, I don't know. But what I do know is that we're living in a world called the Final Archive, a simulated reality controlled by the Archivists.
The wind howled, whipping his hair into a frenzy as he gazed out at the city.
He sighed heavily and straightened his back, feeling a shiver run down his spine, a mix of excitement and trepidation.
The conversation with his team resounded in his mind as he started opening and closing the lid of his watch and moving the gears inside it.
'I hope Professor Samara is wrong.'
Before the meeting, Professor Samara sended him a message on his inbox. It carried the detailed explanation about the task, about the nature of the Record Break.
She mentioned that this Record Break can be catastrophic, because it is most likely caused by an error on Archivists side, afterall even if they claimed to be god there is no reason for them to protect their identity and carry the sense which humans has.
It was not out of relam of possibility that they can cause an error an such a massive scale but again it was given to be handled by debuggers, so maybe it wasn't that much of a deal for them or a major problem in general for higher beings.
But it certainly can be for humans.
At that moment the countdown reached zero, and the world around him began to distort. The buildings trembled, the streets shook, and the sky turned a deep shade of crimson.
The Record Break had begun.
He watched in awe as the world around him unraveled. He had seen it before, but it never got old. The glitches, the distortions, the reset. It was like a never-ending cycle…
…But something felt off. A sense of unease crept up his spine, like a whisper in his ear.
"W-what"
The whispers continued, raiding his mind and consciousness:
'You weren't supposed to live through this.'
'That act of physical assault was just me planting the seed in...'
'You remembered the memory...'
'The world you know is a script. A controlled narrative...'
'Humans are caged to their emotions...'
'You are more resilient to corruption than...'
He stumbled backward, his hand grasping for the rooftop's edge. The pain made him feel like his head was ready to explode.
Cael dropped to the ground gripping his head. The world continued to fall into shambles being indifferent to him. The whispers continued and ended as the world went black.
'You don't have time, snap out of it.'
***
When he opened his eyes, he was lying on the rooftop, his head throbbing with pain. The city was quiet, the rain having stopped. The digital display was gone, replaced by a message:
[Record Break Complete. Simulation Reset.]
He stared at it for some time, then the voice glitched as the sky itself started corrupting.
[Record Break Complete.]
[Re-Re-Record Break Complete.]
[Simulation Reset.]
[Record Break]
[Complete]
[Com-Com-Com-Complete]
Cael watched the scene unfold in horror. His already fair face went deathly pale.
"Huh…?"
'What is happening.'
He felt his body turning colder and stale in real time as the sky broke like glass. The rooftop shimmered with glitches and the distortions in space-time formed here and there around it.
Something is very wrong. It is beyond us.
Hethought about it but couldn't do anything.
Even talking a step costed him all of his energy, it was like the world itself was resisting his movements.
Then, it hit him.
A whisper quite melodious than before. A voice sounding like a lullaby instead of words said by a sinister demon.
It was a soft chime, smoothing his mind and body amid the chaos happening around him but for some reason Cael got more tensed up after listening to the familuer ringing.
"This is..."
Right, how could I forgot.
The memories flushed his mind, the encounter with the mysterious black figure, finding the remanent of original script, the fight with the abominable mirror monster and the revelations of the black figure.
All of them hit him in a flash. The toll of it all was too much for him to handle that he ended up spitting blood.
'I think now I know what those deja vu really were.'
He balanced himself, brushing the blood off.
He then moved the needles of his watch and made them spin momentarily on their own.
"This is an echo..."
An echo, and not an normal echo which is like a fragment of something forgotten or lost like a memory or an error which is often have to be corrected by the workers.
It's an echo of the memories, a recollection of them made into something to resemble reality, a fake simulation to wake up him from the real deal.
That's what he thought.
Cael closed his eyes and listened to the ringing in his ears. Then, he listened to the energy dwelling in his core.
The warmth listened to his call, spreading throughout his body. Then he wasn't in one place anymore.
The reality collapsed and he was falling through the streams of blue - white blocks arranged in numbers and symbols.
He continued to fall losing all sence of direction, his self, his being. The up and down ceased to exist, the very concepts of time and space losed their meaning.
Cael felt his consciousness dissolve into nothing, his mind becoming both light and heavy.
I can't lose my control. I have to be focused.
At that moment, he felt something cracking inside him, something which belonged to him but he too was a part of it.
Then, countless memories spun inside his head, various timelines flashed before his eyes and as they did he drowned in them.
From the blue screens and blocks came forward silhouettes, all carrying the same form but different expressions.
They were the memories of Cael Adryn from other timelines.
Ten
Twenty
Thirty
The numbers continued to rise. All of them drowing the real Cael in them, swallowing him whole.
'Arghh...'
As he almost got completely swallowed the needles of his watch stopped, clicking and making an melodious sound.
Clink! Clank!
And a white radiance engulfed them all. Whispering the words which Cael awaited to hear:
[ User Cael Adryn Identified ]
[ Connecting to [***] ]
[ Synchronisation Complete ]
[ Stable network established. Initiating Advance Debugger Protocol ]
[ Activation 78% ]
Then, everything went blank shrouding everything in endless white void.
Cael floated amid this white void, his mind free of any thoughts and feelings.
Amid this, the voice of the AI system echoed reverating throughout the endless white space.
[ [***] Aspect Seal 1 broken ]
[ You have gained a little understanding of your [***] attribute. ]
[ A petal is consumed ]
[ An echo stirs in your depth ]
***
"Where... am I?"
Cael was laying down on a bed in the dormitory, his right hand was pierced with a needle connected to a patch of blue blood, on closer look there seemed to be electrical sparks and white streams flowing in it.
"You are finally awake."
Rohan was laying on the sofa near the bed as he spoke these words a flash of blue light vanished in the air around his face.
He stood up and walked near the bed, then he removed the connection to the patch with Cael's arm.
Cael sat up on the bed slowly as he did he pressed his head with his right hand.
"Argh... my head!"
Did I collapsed after what transpired?
Cael's head was throbbing with pain, his memories were also kind of blurry and his body also felt a little weaker.
Nevertheless, he pressed the situation and tried to remember just what problem he was in now.
Did the Record Break glitched? Was those whispers responsible for knocking me out?
He pressed his head tighter.
No that was just a vision— an echo. How I ended up like this?
"Rohan... what happened?"
Rohan looked at him with an sullen expression but replied while carrying a soft tone:
"That's what I... I mean we would want to know. What happened?"
"I... I don't really remember properly but the Record Break finished and the simulation was reseted after this i don't really remember that well what happened."
Cael replied while still holding his head but his mind was again racing his thoughts.
I couldn't tell him or anyone about the mirror monster and the black figure. Not yet, at least. But if that was real and the vision— echo was not, then how did I not remember what happened after my conversation with them?
How am I this weakened in the first place?
'This is so weird'
Rohan sighed and sit beside him on the nearby chair. His fingers dragged across his cheek and over his eyes, pressing hard as if he could wipe away the exhaustion etched into his skin.
For a brief second, his face disappeared behind his palm.
He exhaled.
His hands slid down and lingered at the jaw for a moment as they did He lowered them and opened his eyes looking at Cael with a restless face.
"Well good thing that the situation is not that worse. There was a chance that you ended up losing a good chunk of your memories and your individuality but I think that is not the case."
He paused and continued letting Cael some time to settle with that information.
"See that is a Fable Patch," He pointed at the blue blood like container which was attached to Cael's arm before.
"It contains the fragments of collected lost memories, the forgotten echos and many more collected throughout the Record Break's and recursion breaches it costed us quite a fortune to get three of them for you but Professor Samara didn't back down."
Cael looked at the other side of his bed and saw two drained up patches in the dustbin.
Seeing this he frowned.
"Fable Patch? Was my condition that bad?"
The Fable Patch was just that a collection and mix of different things. In the world of Archive and it's simulations, one would very well become a part of it losing their memories or in worst case a part of their personalities and individuality.
Fable Patch allows to insert the hollow or the shell left of that person with the forgotten stories which were either discarded, forgotten or leaked through unwanted events.
It fills them with the memories, scripts and even codes and make their being and their very core stable and working again.
To think that it took 3 of them for Cael to regain his consciousness made him feel cold, turning his face pale.
Rohan nodded slightly and replied:
"Well not exactly. You returned to the cabinet after the Record Break saying that you are feeling dizzy and that we should inform the higher ups, after that you collapsed on place and rest is here."
I came to cabinet, feeling dizzy?
Cael moved his legs trying to stand up, his mind still flowing with thoughts.
When they disappeared I headed for the elevator to return that much I remember now.
Then what?
Why?
Why? I saw that vision, was that a different conclusion to one of the timelines they mentioned?
The moment his feet touched the floor, a sharp pulse shot through his body.
"—Wait."
Rohan grabbed his shoulder before he could fully rise.
"Don't push it," he said quietly. "Your neural signature was fluctuating for hours. If the Patch hadn't stabilized you, you'd probably still be unconscious."
Cael steadied himself against the bedframe.
For a moment the room seemed to flicker.
Not physically.
But behind his eyes.
He felt the rush of energy and warmth collecting in his eyes, as a familiar feeling settled in them.
'Wait is this?'
He turned hiding his face from Rohan, then he pulled up the blanket and layed there on the bed again.
"You are probably right, I still feel weak."
Cael's tone carried uneasiness but Rohan ignored it dealing it as the side effect of walking up after a slumber.
"If you wish...
He walked away and stopped after few steps.
...you know Lyra was regularly monitoring you for a while so get well soon, Mr. Vael and I had a lot of explaining to do. You can't even admire my break."
Cael chuckled softly still holding his blanket as he spoke.
"I am really sorry for the inconvenience. I will try my best to remember to help you two...
...Ah! Also say thanks to Lyra for me, wait don't say anything to her I will speak to her directly."
Rohan turned with a slight smile on his face and continued walking outside. When he reached the exit the door automatically opened in a swirl.
"As you wish"
Cael was left alone. He listened to the footsteps dimining, stood up from bed and looked at the mirror in the bathroom.
'As expected'
His eyes glowed with the ethereal light in them. Asure rings circuled around the pupils, while the pupil itself glowed a light shade of blue.
His eyes changed again
'So, that one was the real event.'
Before, he thought that maybe the vision was the reality while the whole commotion with the mysterious figure was a vision, a fake or a forgotten memory merging with his own as a side effect of overdose of Fable Patch.
The chances of them were quite low but not zero. So, there was a slight chance but now he knew that wasn't the case.
"But that vision felt quite real..."
It was like a script was following itself. I remembered the meeting with the team, their chatter and going to check on Record Break it is like that too was a vision.
'But it cannot be'
Cael closed his eyes and opened them again then, he remembered the voices in the vision, the whispers which reverberated when everything was swallowed by the whiteness.
He washed his face and moved his hands in the air, moving them in a particular motion.
Just as he did, a blue screen popped up inside his head, in front of his eyes visible only to him.
[ User Cael Adryn Identified ]
[ Connecting to the [***] ]
[ Stability fully realised. ]
[ Debugger Protocol Initiated: Activation 100% ]
'Now this is interesting'