*The Child Who Was Never Meant to Fall***
The world had no sky anymore.
Just light—
shattering, spiraling, crashing around Aru as he **dove**.
Below him, the child—his child-self—fell limp through the glowing abyss, surrounded by fragments of golden rhythm and broken memories.
Aru reached out his hand.
"Hold on—!"
But the air wasn't air.
It was liquid light.
Heavy.
Pulling.
Dragging him down.
Kairo's voice echoed behind him:
"ARU, FLY OR SOMETHING—TURN ON SUPER MODE—DO *ANYTHING*!"
But Aru didn't have control over the silver-black rhythm yet; it flickered around him violently, more like a warning flare than a power.
Solace yelled, "The Memoryfire is collapsing! If you fall too deep, you'll get pulled into the root layer—you won't come back!"
Aru didn't slow down.
"I'm not letting him fall alone!"
The child hit a stream—a river of memory-light—and his small body was swept away like a leaf in a raging flood.
Aru plunged after him, the silver-black rhythm igniting around his arms like burning ink.
He slammed into the river.
Cold.
Blinding.
Voices everywhere—
**—don't cry, Aru—
—you're special, Aru—
—why can't he keep up with the others—
—increase his tempo—
—no, he's still a child—
—children are instruments—
—he belongs to the Crown—**
Aru choked.
These weren't memories he remembered.
They were the Monarch's.
The Crown's.
The world he came from.
He pushed through the current, teeth clenched, eyes burning.
He saw the small silhouette tumbling ahead—
weak—
losing shape—
as if dissolving.
"NO—NO—NO—DON'T YOU DARE—!!"
Aru poured everything he had into one movement—
His silver-black rhythm howled.
The river SPLIT.
A wave three stories high tore open, gouging a path straight through the current. Aru sprinted across the exposed channel floor, boots slamming glowing water.
He lunged—
—and **caught the child's wrist**.
The moment their hands touched, the rhythm exploded.
A pulse of light swallowed both of them.
For a second, everything froze.
The child opened his eyes—gold trembling with fear.
"Why… why save me?" he whispered, voice smaller than ever. "I'm the part of you that they made. The part that hurt you. The part that—"
"You're the part they *stole* from me," Aru said. "Not the part I hate."
The child's breath hitched.
Aru pulled him close, holding him against his chest as the world shook violently around them.
Kairo's panicked yell echoed from somewhere above:
"ARU, THE ENTIRE RIVER IS TURNING INTO A TOILET FLUSH—GET OUT OF THERE!"
Solace added, "The core is collapsing! If you don't escape now, you'll be erased with the memory layer!"
Aru lifted the child.
"Can you walk?"
The boy nodded weakly. "If you lead me."
Aru smiled faintly. "Good. Because I'm not leaving without you."
The river cracked open behind them, splitting into molten lines of rhythm. A vortex formed, roaring upward like a celestial tornado.
Kairo shouted from the cliff of a floating memory shard:
"ARU, JUMP!"
Aru held the child close and leapt—
The silver-black rhythm surged under his feet—
forming a platform of light—
then another—
and another—
He was running on rhythm itself.
Kairo and Solace reached out from the floating shard—
Aru threw the child forward.
Solace caught him.
Kairo yelled, "BRO, MOVE! MOVE—MOVE—MOVE!"
Aru jumped—
The vortex ate the world behind him.
He landed on the shard—just as the entire Memoryfire **imploded** inward, collapsing into a blinding sphere of light.
A shockwave blasted out.
Aru shielded Kairo with one arm and the child with the other.
The sky cracked.
The shard buckled.
The sphere detonated.
**BOOOOM—**
A flash devoured everything.
—
Silence.
Then slowly—
faintly—
Aru heard it.
A heartbeat.
Not his.
Not Kairo's.
The child's.
Alive.
Shaking, Aru opened his eyes.
They were no longer in the Memoryfire.
They were on a barren plateau of white stone—
the tower gone, the sky gray, wind cold.
And the child looked up at him with wide eyes.
"You saved me," he whispered. "But I don't understand… what happens now?"
Aru breathed hard.
"Now?"
He stood.
The silver-black rhythm flickered around his silhouette.
"Now… we face the Crown together."
The child stared at him, something unreadable in his gaze.
"Then I won't disappear."
Aru froze.
"What?"
The child stepped forward, gripping Aru's sleeve.
"I'm not a memory. I'm a person. A part of you that they made, yes—but a real one."
His voice quivered.
"Please—don't seal me again."
Aru swallowed.
"I won't."
The child exhaled shakily.
Kairo stepped closer and whispered to Solace:
"Bro… did Aru just adopt… himself?"
Solace sighed.
"Honestly? I don't even know anymore."
But before anyone could speak again—
A shadow fell across the plateau.
Aru tensed.
A figure hovered above them—
cloaked—
masked—
radiating rhythm so dense it bent the air.
A deep, cold voice echoed down:
"Found you."
Aru's pulse stopped.
Kairo whispered:
"…That's not the Monarch."
The figure lowered, landing with a soft crunch.
No rings.
No glow.
Just a presence heavy enough to crush stone.
It removed its hood.
And Aru's blood froze.
The child gasped.
Solace stepped back.
Kairo whispered:
"Who… is that?"
The stranger's eyes burned like black suns.
And he smiled.
"Hello, Aru.
My name is **Eidolon**."
He took one step forward.
"I am what the Crown sent…
when gods weren't enough to kill you."