Chapter 26: Nocthera's Womb
Nocthera—the moon of illusions, a realm wrapped in perpetual twilight—loomed like a sleeping god over a black ocean. Arin and his companions stood at its edge, gazing at the fractured skyline where castles floated upside down and shadows whispered truths.
Maeryn Voss narrowed her eyes. "Nocthera remembers everything you've forgotten. It distorts memory and time alike. Tread carefully."
Seris held her spear tighter. Elyra scanned their entry point. A gate—formed from obsidian mirrors—shimmered ahead, held in the hands of time-frozen sentinels.
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Descent into Memory's Labyrinth
They entered and the world bent. Arin blinked and found himself in his childhood bedroom.
"You failed them."
The voice wasn't his. It was his mother's—but older, cold, laced with accusation. He turned, heart racing, only to find a hollow statue in her place.
The System pulsed:
> Entering Nocthera's Womb: Memory Distortion Zone. Cognitive Filtering Engaged.
Each of them faced trials of memory:
Elyra saw the death of her original creator.
Seris stood in the ruins of the rebellion she once led.
Maeryn relived her betrayal at the hands of the Sovereign Council.
But Arin… he saw himself alone in an empty timeline—no system, no allies, nothing but silence. It was maddening.
He screamed into the dark.
A light responded.
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Fragment of Truth
It appeared like a seed—glowing white, untouched by illusion. As Arin reached for it, the sentinels of Nocthera attacked.
Entities of forgotten thought. Memory-shades. A thousand possible Arins, some tyrants, some broken, some divine.
"Only the truest self may claim the Fragment," they said.
Arin unleashed Collapse Affinity, bending reality. Then, weaving timelines taught to him by Elyra, and channeling Maeryn's entropy, he stabilized a perfect moment.
"I am all of me," he whispered.
> Fragment of Truth Acquired. Sovereign of Light: Revealed – Azarelle, the Luminarch of Genesis.
A new voice rang through the realm:
"Arin… come to me. The Truth you seek was always within."
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The Betrayer's Warning
As they escaped, a fissure opened in Nocthera. A cloaked figure appeared—half-machine, half-man, with Chrono-glyphs etched in his metallic skull.
"The Triumvirate knows," he said. "And they send one of our own—one who once bore the Arbitrator's name."
"Who are you?" Arin demanded.
"I am your shadow cast from the first divergence. I am the Arbitrator who fell."
He vanished, but left behind a data-crystal etched with a warning:
> The Epoch Core cannot be completed without sacrifice. One Sovereign must die.
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