The Nameless struck.
Faster than thought, colder than silence, it reached for the Codex pulsing within the Memoryborn's chest.
A burst of light met it—gold, white, and burning with remembrance. The Nameless reeled back, its shape flickering into ruins and dead tongues.
Lira raised her hand, channeling the Codex through the Memoryborn. "You cannot take what has been claimed by memory."
But the Nameless was not so easily denied.
It hissed, "Then I shall unwrite it."
The ground split open, revealing a black maw of void. From within crawled things forgotten not by time, but by choice: regrets, betrayals, sins buried in unmarked graves.
They surrounded the group.
Forgotten Shore - Edge of Reason
Maelis sang a warding verse, her voice trembling.
Renn fired a mnemonic bolt from his gauntlet, striking a wraith made of faded lullabies.
Helios raised a barrier of crystalline time. "We need to seal this place!"
The Memoryborn looked to Lira. "If I enter the void… I might never return."
She shook her head. "We don't lose anyone else."
But the Codex flared inside the Memoryborn again, reacting on its own.
"Something calls me," it said. "A piece of myself, still bound to the Nameless."
Lira hesitated. Then nodded.
"Then take us with you."
The Maw - Descent into Unmemory
The team plunged into the darkness. Unlike the Fracture, this realm had no shape, no contradiction—only void.
But the Codex gave them breath.
Gave them names.
And in the void, names were defiance.
The Memoryborn found the tether—a sliver of itself consumed by the Nameless, wrapped in chains of oblivion.
"I see now," it whispered. "I was made not just to remember… but to rescue."
Helios channeled his remaining power into the chains. Lira pressed the Codex into the tether. Maelis and Renn formed a circle, harmonizing with the core.
Light poured outward.
The Nameless screamed.
"You dare unwrite me?!"
Lira stood tall.
"No. We write over you."
She called out:
"Your name is pain. Your name is fear. But now… your name is known."
The void cracked.
Duskfall - Sky Above
Every lantern across the city flared bright.
The Seraphim atop the Lantern Spire awakened fully for the first time in years.
It sang.
A single tone that split silence and rang across every memory thread in the city.
People wept.
Because for a moment, they remembered what they had buried.
And chose not to forget again.
The Maw - Collapse
The Nameless thrashed, unraveling like rotten parchment. It reached for Lira one last time.
She didn't flinch.
Because she wasn't alone.
The Memoryborn stepped forward, arms wide.
"I carry you. I remember you. Now be healed… or be gone."
The Nameless burst into ash.
The void began to close.
Helios grabbed Lira. Maelis and Renn locked hands with the Memoryborn.
The Codex spun wildly, then folded them through light.
Forgotten Shore - Dawn
They reappeared atop the cliffs as the sun rose.
Alive.
Changed.
The Memoryborn fell to its knees. "It's over."
Lira helped it up. "No. It's begun."
Behind them, the Forgotten Shore shimmered with new color—etched now with names once lost.
Not ruins.
But memorial.
And deep in the soil, something planted itself:
A seed of memory.