Fragments of Yugen

The air was growing heavier again.

Ren stood at the edge of Spiral Theta-V, his boots sinking into the uneven memory-soaked soil. What had once been a quiet recovery zone for fragmented Spirals now pulsed erratically—red cracks running through the sky like bleeding constellations. Something was corrupting the realm.

"This Spiral shouldn't even exist anymore," Aki said, scanning with a flick of his sketchbook. "We stabilized this three weeks ago."

Ren's eyes narrowed. "Then something—or someone—unstabilized it."

Yumi's voice echoed in his mind through Spiral Link:

> "You're not wrong. I'm seeing echoes in the Spiral Web—new distortions spreading across zones we've already locked. Almost like... they're resisting us."

Kael clicked his time-gear and set it to anchor mode. "Then we cut off the source before it spreads again."

---

They stepped deeper into the broken Spiral fragment. Buildings hovered sideways. Trees looped themselves into Möbius strips. Echoes—glitches in human form—watched from doorways, their eyes flickering static.

Ren reached out to one of them, but it recoiled.

"They're scared," he whispered. "Not corrupted. Just... displaced."

Suddenly, the ground shook. Cracks split open beneath them, glowing violet. Out of the fissures crawled strange forms—Shadow Walkers. Spiral anomalies without identity. Hollow bodies, glitching limbs, drawn from unanchored timelines.

Kael cursed. "Defensive loop—now!"

---

The fight began.

Aki sketched sigils mid-air, launching memory pulses that burned away the dark shapes. Kael rewound sections of the battlefield to trap the Walkers in time-stutter fields. Ren moved like a current—flowing between enemies, his creation pen slashing gold arcs into the chaos.

But it wasn't enough.

More anomalies emerged. Bigger. Sharper. One of them towered over the rest, dragging a sword made of shattered timelines.

Yumi's voice shouted through the Link:

> "That one—he's pulling data from Null-grade memories! If you die here, you'll be erased from all timelines!"

---

Rei arrived just in time, chain-blades slicing into the largest creature's core. It shrieked, warping into mist.

"Hope you missed me," she said, grinning. "I heard 'erased from all timelines' and couldn't resist."

Ren panted, wiping blood from his cheek. "Thanks. But these things… they're acting like guardians."

"Guardians of what?" Rei asked.

Kael, eyes scanning the fragments, finally spoke up.

"They're not here for us. They're holding something in."

---

A huge roar echoed through the Spiral.

At the center of the distortion field stood a shimmering structure—half temple, half machine—wrapped in a barrier of recursive light. It pulsed, resisting observation. Like it didn't want to be seen. Or remembered.

Yumi teleported in, appearing in a gust of data petals. She looked pale.

"I traced the signal. That structure? It shouldn't exist. It's not Spiral-formed. It wasn't imagined here."

Ren looked at her sharply. "Then who built it?"

No one answered.

---

The team approached carefully. The structure pulsed again—screaming for a second in all their voices at once—before collapsing into itself.

Gone. Just like that.

Silence.

Kael cursed. "I had a lock on that signature."

Aki's hand trembled slightly. "We've fought Spiral fragments, Hollows, glitches, Void-things... but that? That was built. Constructed. Intentionally."

Ren whispered, "Then someone's been here before us."

---

Later, back at the Memory Root, they all gathered.

Yumi unfolded a diagram. It showed at least seven zones—stabilized Spiral sectors—now destabilizing in perfect sequence.

"This isn't random," she said. "Someone's laying out a path."

Kael leaned in, expression grim. "A path to what?"

Rei folded her arms. "Or a test. Someone's watching how we react. Measuring us."

Ren stared at the map, then circled a zone near the edge—one that had just flared into instability.

"Next stop," he said.

---

Final scene:

Far away, beyond Spiral reach, a hooded figure stood before a massive floating gate—shaped like an eye, covered in swirling code.

They watched Ren's team through a flickering screen of fractured memory.

No face shown.

No name spoken.

But they whispered:

> "Let them grow. Let them struggle."

> "Soon, the true Spiral will open."