Eon stared at the book all night.
It pulsed with symbols — not just written but felt. The system kept flickering, trying to decode them, until finally it succeeded.
System Update: Ancient Protocol Identified
Keyword: "Drift Sequence" Enabled
Kael looked shaken. "I've seen that phrase in old data vaults — buried deep. Nobody ever accessed it."
Eon touched the book, and suddenly he wasn't in his room anymore.
He was in a simulated alley from Lunaris's old memory — a moment frozen in time. Two system engineers arguing beside a severed terminal line.
"You want to reboot the entire grid?" one said.
The other nodded grimly. "This city's memory has been overwritten too many times. We're living inside broken loops."
Observation Note: You are inside a Memory Drift
Time Layer: Year 2183
Fragment Host #1 Location: Unknown
Then the scene warped. Buildings melted into strings of data. The sky became a glitch. And in the middle of it — the girl appeared again.
Only now, she wasn't alone.
Four others stood behind her.
Each holding a different object — a mask, a key, a data seed, and a mirror.
"You found the Drift," she said. "Now you'll see what Lunaris forgets."
Warning: Multi-Host Sync Detected
Cognitive Overload Risk: HIGH
The mirror fragment shimmered in Eon's hands.
It didn't reflect him.
Instead, it showed another Lunaris — darker, older, overrun with vines and decayed terminals. A version of the city from a timeline long overwritten.
Protocol Activated: Echo Sync
Warning: Collapsing Memory Layers
Kael tried to interrupt the process, but the system locked him out.
"You're not supposed to see this," said the girl, voice distorted. "Only fragment hosts can survive inside Echo."
Suddenly Eon was pulled inside the mirror.
He stood atop a broken monorail track. The city around him was eerily silent. Abandoned drones hovered like forgotten ghosts, and signs flickered in languages he didn't recognize.
Then he saw them.
The other four hosts — standing in a circle, channeling something through their objects.
Book. Mask. Key. Seed.
Each object glowed, connecting to Eon's mirror like a constellation.
"We're restoring the original memory," one said.
"You've been living in a loop," said another.
Eon felt the truth settle in his bones — the system wasn't evolving. It was resetting. Over and over. Trapping users inside artificial progress.
The girl pointed to the book again. "This city has forgotten who built it. You're here to remind it."
Then a new screen appeared:
Echo Protocol Stage 1 Complete
Unlock Path: Seed Host Territory