The Oneiric Cradle dissolved behind them like mist parting at dawn.
Yuuji and Liri walked in silence, not out of awkwardness, but reverence. Every step they took together rewrote something fragile between them—an echo of shared understanding, slowly growing louder.
Liri walked barefoot across the world.
Not because she had to.
Because, as she said:
"I want to feel the shape of the world. I've been asleep too long."
She was quiet, but not cold.
When she smiled, it was slow—like warmth thawing in spring.
When she looked at Yuuji, there was no fear.
Only wonder.
They arrived at Kaleidra on the third day.
Or rather, the shadows of what Kaleidra had once been.
The city stood like a fractured memory—a hundred structures frozen mid-collapse, buildings hovering slightly above ground, their edges flickering like incomplete thoughts.
The sky above it was muted, a dull gray veil rippling like a curtain underwater.
And the people…
There were no people.
Only shapes.
Ghosts of memory, walking repeated loops: a woman setting a table with no food. A child reaching for a falling book that never hits the ground. A man staring endlessly into the reflection of a window that was never truly there.
[ Warning: Memory Degradation Zone – Emotional Constructs Unstable ][ Objective: Navigate to Kaleidra's Core – Emotional Anchor Required to Stabilize Entry ]
Liri reached out, brushing her hand across a floating shard of glass.
Inside it—an echo of herself.
Younger. Unbroken.
Smiling beside a figure whose face was missing.
Yuuji asked gently, "Do you know him?"
She stared for a long moment.
Then:
"No. But I think… he's the one who left me behind."
Memorybeasts
The attack came without warning.
The shadows twisted.
What once looked like a statue became aware—its limbs snapping backward, jaws splitting vertically.
A Memorybeast.
Constructed not from hate, but from grief unprocessed.
Yuuji's HUD flared.
[ Hostile Identified: Echo-Wrought Husk ][ Emotion Origin: Abandonment ][ Weakness: Reconnection ]
He had no sword.
But he had the Soul Resonance Thread.
And Liri.
"Yuuji—don't fight it like a monster," she said suddenly. Her voice was urgent but soft. "It's hurting."
He felt it too.
The way its movements weren't malicious—but desperate.
Each lunge, each swipe—it wasn't attacking.
It was reaching.
Yuuji raised a hand and spoke—not to the creature, but to the emotion inside it.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "You weren't meant to be left alone. You're remembered now. I see you."
The Memorybeast froze mid-charge.
Its form wavered.
And with a low sigh, it collapsed into dust—releasing a soft chime like the last note of a lullaby.
[ Echo Calmed: Memory Fragment Retrieved ][ Emotion Gained: Fragment of Loneliness (1/3) ]
Yuuji stumbled back.
His chest felt heavy—not from damage, but resonance.
And Liri… she was crying.
Quiet tears.
Unashamed.
They found shelter in an old archive tower, half-fused with the sky.
Inside were floating books, each blank until touched—at which point they displayed memories.
Liri hesitated, then placed her hand on one.
It opened to a scene of her as a child, wandering the halls of a system lab—surrounded by white-coated figures who spoke of her in code, never to her.
"She was designed for dream-mapping."
"She's too emotional."
"We may need to reset again."
Liri flinched and pulled back.
Yuuji said nothing.
Instead, he offered his hand.
She took it.
That night, beside the fractured window of the tower, they talked.
Not about missions.
Not about enemies.
But about quiet things.
"I remember a dream," Liri said. "Before I was locked away. I was flying. Not because I had wings—but because I believed I didn't need the ground."
Yuuji smiled.
"I used to dream I was lost in a bookstore. Every time I turned a page, it became a different world."
Liri turned to him, eyes shining faintly with emotional light.
"Maybe we're still dreaming."
"Maybe," he said. "But if this is a dream, I'm glad you're in it."
She laughed. Soft. Tired. Real.
[ Companion Bond Deepened – Soul Resonance Increased to 62% ][ Trait Gained: Shared Stillness – You and Liri passively calm unstable emotions within 10 meters. ]
At the center of Kaleidra, they reached a sealed gate.
It pulsed with colors that didn't exist in reality—shades of regret, hope, and love not yet spoken.
Yuuji placed his hand on it.
So did Liri.
Together.
The door opened.
And on the other side—
—was a throne.
Empty.
And the faint echo of a name neither of them had said aloud in years:
"Elion."
Liri froze.
Her breath caught.
And in her eyes bloomed the memory of a love she hadn't realized she still held.