There was a sound in the walls — not the kind you hear with ears.
It vibrated behind Hina's eyes, a low resonant code ping, like the air itself had become part of a detection system.
Veyrun turned first.
No spell. No movement.
He simply looked toward the far corner of the room, where the air had started to ripple like liquid glass under heat. Hina followed his gaze and saw reality folding inward again — but this time, it wasn't dreamlike.
It was targeted.
From the ripple stepped two figures: a boy no older than fifteen, wielding a gleaming red spellbook, and behind him — a Momodo. Tall. Covered in hexagonal plating. Energy crackled around his body in neat, deliberate pulses.
A "normal" pair.
Hina recognized the book immediately. Standard red, with gilded symbols. Every student in Saitama had heard rumors. Battle pairs. Spells. Books that burned when the Momodo lost.
But they weren't looking at her. They were looking at Veyrun.
The boy stepped forward, cocky grin already forming. "Looks like we're early to the kill. You see his book?"
The plated Momodo spoke with metallic calm. "There is no book. This one's unstable."
The boy flipped his spellbook open with a snap. "Doesn't matter. Orders are clear — system pinged an illegal breach."
"Reignam Zultar!"
The glyph circle formed beneath the plated Momodo's feet.
A beautiful circle — sharp, defined, glowing red with streaks of white sigil script rotating in rings. Perfect formation.
Except it didn't activate.
The circle shuddered. Then it cracked — and imploded in on itself like a crushed mirror.
The Momodo staggered back, shocked. "The spell… destabilized."
The boy looked down at his book. The glyphs on the page were smudging themselves out, warping in real time.
"What the hell?" he whispered.
Hina stepped back instinctively. Her book — the Codex — pulsed again in her hands, and this time, she felt it in her veins.
The unspell field.
Veyrun hadn't moved. Hadn't spoken. But his presence was corrupting the spell matrix around them. Not maliciously — just wrong. Like trying to play a record backwards through a digital speaker.
"You're not part of the game," the plated Momodo said, voice almost trembling.
"He isn't," Hina said.
"Then what is he?"
Veyrun's voice echoed: "An error. One the system forgot how to delete."
The boy tried to cast again. A different chant.
"Varagos—"
CRACK.
The spellbook snapped shut on its own, nearly slicing his fingers.
The glyphs on its surface restructured into random symbols before turning black.
Hina saw panic ripple across his face. "He's a jammer. He's a living fieldbreaker. We can't fight him like this!"
The Momodo stepped in front of the boy protectively. "He's not just jamming. He's rewiring."
For a moment, the plated Momodo's armor flickered — and underneath it, another layer of skin, smooth and pale, like it wasn't supposed to be there. Hina saw it, and her stomach flipped.
It was like the Momodo's body was remembering an older form — one he didn't know he had.
"Who sent you?" Hina asked.
The boy's voice snapped. "We're from the Obedience Network. Sublevel three."
"The what?"
"Kid, that thing standing next to you is a glitch construct. We don't get to question why — we just follow the Elder's ping. Anything outside the spell registry gets burned."
Veyrun raised a single hand — not in attack. Just open.
And the ripple around the boy and his Momodo slowed. Time thickened.
"You are not enemies," he said.
"You are echoes."
"I remember what you were before the codex laws were enforced."
The plated Momodo glitched again. Another pulse of his original form flashed underneath the armor — and this time, his hand trembled.
"What… did you just do to me?" he said, voice cracking.
"I reminded you."
Suddenly, the boy grabbed his book, trying to retreat.
"System's compromised. We're pulling out!"
But the tear wouldn't open.
The Sigil Tree — the network they relied on — was not responding.
Instead, the Codex pulsed in Hina's hands once more. This time, she felt it pull her forward. Her mouth opened without her control.
"Zegna'tel–Vihr."
The word didn't complete.
But it didn't have to.
Around them, the air folded inside out — not destructively, but cleansing. The walls of her room rearranged themselves into glyph loops. Not architecture. Not physical material.
Just structure made of thought.
The boy and his Momodo froze.
And for a brief moment, the plated Momodo turned to Hina and said:
"If you rewrite me… what happens to the me that was loyal?"
And Veyrun answered:
"He doesn't die. He wakes up."
Suddenly — a ping. Not a sound, not a color.
Just… a sensation.
⚠️ Elder Agent Detection Active.
Veyrun twitched.
"We have to move."
Hina blinked. "Where?"
"Anywhere but here. Once they arrive, they don't erase you — they unremember you."
The boy and his Momodo pair had dropped to their knees, books smoldering, glyphs fading. Their connection severed — not by violence, but by contradiction.
They'd been exposed to something the system hadn't accounted for.
A book that shouldn't exist. A spell that couldn't chant. A memory that had no beginning.
Hina grabbed Veyrun's arm. "Then take me. Now."
He looked at her. "You understand the cost?"
"No."
"But I understand staying here means being overwritten."
His eyes glowed — not with light, but with confirmation.
"Then speak the glyph I cannot," he said.
"Say the word that unanchors reality."
Hina closed her eyes.
And she whispered:
"Veyrun."
The Codex exploded with light.
Not blinding — cleansing.
The world folded inward — and Hina and Veyrun vanished from the physical layer.
—
Somewhere across the Momodo realm, the Sigil Tree blinked for the first time in recorded history. It processed a glyph it had no field entry for. A being it could not locate. A book it did not write.
And in its core branch, the leaves began to curl.
⚠️ UNREGISTERED ENTITY DETECTED.
⚠️ POSSIBLE SYSTEM VIRUS.
⚠️ THREAT LEVEL: FORGOTTEN.
— Muahahahah I'm back with another story… can anyone tell me the metaphors within? And what are some ideas for the gsme that I'm making for this?