Part 28: "The In-Between Flame and the Unwritten War" -- What happens to a memory that was never allowed to exist? --
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[Scene 1 – The Vanishing of Arshan]
Location: Timeline Layer Vault, 0.5th Dimension (Folded Time)
Silence.
Not the kind born from peace, but the kind formed from absence.
Arshan was gone. Not dead. Not hidden. Just... not there.
Every record, photo, and spoken name of him blurred. Even the digital systems could no longer generate his profile.
> Ilira (desperately flipping pages): "The Chronicle of Heroes… there's a gap between pages 314 and 316. His name was on 315. It's just... empty."
> Rayn: "He's become a void in our history. But my blood… still remembers his scream."
> Zyana (voice distorted): "He's in the Unwritten Layer — a place that records only what almost happened."
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[Scene 2 – The Reverse Aging of the Child]
The mysterious girl — the child who never was — began to flicker.
Each hour, she grew younger. From six to five. Then four.
> Ilira: "If Arshan doesn't return… she'll vanish too. Her entire existence is stitched to the possibility of his choice."
Zyana placed her hand on the child's forehead.
> Zyana: "Her name is Aeris. Not data. Not ghost. She is the temporal scar of the Seventh Crest."
As Aeris slept, her dreams leaked — showing alternate futures where Arshan had walked away from the system… from the flame… from the war.
Futures where he was... simply a father.
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[Scene 3 – The Still Flame's Silence and Betrayal]
Back in the Emberfall vault, the Still Flame pulsed but remained dormant. It had rejected Rayn.
Then it moved…
Toward Ilira.
> Rayn: "Wait… it chose you?"
> Ilira (eyes glowing): "No. I didn't take it. It clung to me. It's scared. It thinks Arshan's truly gone."
The flame began to write something on the wall — not in fire, but in ash:
> "THE UNWRITTEN WAR BEGINS IN THE PLACE THAT NEVER HAPPENED."
Zyana's system blared an alert:
> Zyana: "A war is breaking out in Layer Null. The ghosts of discarded possibilities are organizing… and they are led by someone who calls himself — the Reflected Founder."
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[Scene 4 – The Arrival of the In-Between Legion]
Across Velmora, the sky shimmered. Lightning struck, but in reverse.
Figures emerged from cracks in space — cloaked warriors made of mirror shards, ink shadows, and broken timelines.
> High Mage Elira: "This isn't Drift. This is meta-temporal infection. These aren't just invaders… they're the versions of us that never came to be."
> Council Head: "Activate the Anchor Rings. Seal all seven Crests. Let nothing bleed out."
But the Crests were unresponsive.
The eighth Crest — Crest of Now — had overruled them all.
> Mirror Warrior (echoing): "You had a chance to choose peace. You chose remembrance. Now remember us."
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[Scene 5 – Arshan in the Void]
Somewhere in the Unwritten Layer, Arshan walked a bridge made of frozen seconds.
He saw alternate selves:
One who died at birth.
One who ruled Kryonexus.
One who never awakened the system.
Then, a voice:
> Voice: "You broke time not by traveling it… but by defying what it had set."
> Arshan: "I chose to remember a child who never existed. And I will keep choosing that."
The void flickered.
From behind the fragments of reality, Aeris appeared, holding a candle.
> Aeris: "This is my flame. Not the Still Flame. But the In-Between Flame. It only lights for those who refuse to forget."
> Arshan: "Then let's burn the unwritten war down."
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To Be Continued...
Next: Part 29 – "The Reflected Founder and the Collapse of Anchors"
Coming Soon:
The first true battle in Layer Null.
Ilira's visions start to bleed into the present.
Arshan meets the Reflected Founder — a version of himself who never broke the system rules.
The anchors that bind timelines begin to crack…