The fog was thicker on the east end of Dustend. Thicker and colder. Not natural, even by the game's usual standards.
Nell led the way down a narrow trail past the chapel. We moved quiet, careful not to draw attention. The trees here looked… wrong. A little too tall, a little too still.
"You sure we're headed the right way?" I asked.
"Nope," she said, stepping over a fallen branch. "But that's how Fractures work. You don't find them—they find you."
"That's not comforting."
"Welcome to Sanctuary."
A soft sound came from ahead. Not a growl. Not a footstep. Something in between. Like a memory whispering.
We ducked low.
Zone Alert: You have entered a Distortion Field. Temporary modifiers applied.
Visibility reduced
Memory Drift (light): +5% Emotional Feedback
NPCs may behave unpredictably
I squinted through the gray. Shapes shifted around us. Not monsters—at least, not yet. Just flashes of light and color, like a glitchy video playing in the wrong resolution.
"Do they always look like this?"
"No two are the same," Nell said. "This one feels new. Unstable."
A stone archway appeared ahead. Covered in moss. I hadn't seen it a moment before.
It pulsed once with blue light.
Nell took a slow breath. "That's the edge. Inside that arch is the Fracture."
"What happens if we step through?"
"We find out what the system wants us to confront."
"That's vague and threatening."
"That's Sanctuary."
We stepped through.
The world changed immediately.
The fog was gone. So was the forest. We were standing in a long hallway lined with mirrors. Everything was silent. Not game-silent—like, real silent. No ambient sound, no wind, no footsteps.
And the mirrors… moved.
Not reflections. Not exactly. Each one showed a version of me. Different clothes. Different expressions. Some angry. Some afraid. One was crying.
"What is this place?" I whispered.
Nell stared at one of her own mirrors, face tight.
"It's a Reflection Loop," she said. "Emotional triggers. You'll see parts of yourself the game thinks you haven't dealt with."
"Great," I muttered. "Self-therapy dungeon."
"Keep your focus. If you spiral, the Fracture reacts."
We walked slowly.
One mirror showed me in my old military uniform, standing in a courtroom. I looked… broken. Another showed me shouting at someone. Then another—I was kneeling, arms covered in blood, staring at the ground.
I kept walking.
But the next mirror—
I stopped.
Nell turned, looked back at me. "Marcus?"
"I know this one."
I was in prison clothes, sitting in the corner of a dark cell, holding a photo. Of a woman. Her face was blurred, but I felt a jolt in my chest.
I reached out to the mirror.
It shimmered, and something pushed back.
Emotional Trigger Detected: Guilt Resonance Level 2 Unlocking Emotion-Tier Ability…
Pain flared in my hand, sharp and sudden. The mirror cracked—then shattered.
From the shards, something climbed out.
A creature made of shadow and glass. It looked like me—same shape, same size—but its face was all wrong. Too many eyes. A mouth that didn't move.
Boss Encounter: Fragment of Self – [Guiltform, Tier II]
"I hate this dungeon," I muttered, then dodged as the thing lunged.
Nell drew her dagger, but I held up a hand. "Let me."
"Are you—?"
"I know this thing."
It swung with jagged arms, each movement jerky like a puppet on tangled strings. I ducked, rolled left, then hit it with Echo Pulse. It staggered but didn't fall.
"New ability unlocked," I said through clenched teeth. "Might as well try it."
I focused inward.
Emotion-Tier Ability Unlocked: Echo Grasp Type: ControlEffect: Bind a target using threads of unresolved emotion. Strength increases with Soul Integrity.
I reached out—not physically, but with whatever energy the system let me use now. Threads of red light shot from my fingers. They wrapped around the guiltform's arms, then legs, pinning it to the wall.
It screamed. Not a real scream—something deeper. A noise I felt more than heard.
"You're not real," I said.
It hissed.
"But you matter."
The threads tightened. The guiltform shattered.
Fracture Stabilized. Emotional Data Absorbed. Soul Integrity +1
The mirrors vanished.
The hallway melted into fog again. Nell stood a few feet away, watching me with a look that wasn't pity, or fear. Just… recognition.
"You okay?" she asked.
"Nope."
"Good. Means it worked."
We turned to leave—but the archway was gone.
In its place stood someone I didn't recognize.
An NPC.
He looked like a monk. Bald, dark robes, hands behind his back. But his eyes flickered—not like a normal character. Like code trying to stabilize.
"You are Wraithbound," he said.
"I am," I replied. "Who are you?"
"A watcher," he said. "A remnant. My name has been deleted, but I remember the Wraithbound Code."
Nell stepped forward. "You're not supposed to be here."
"I am not supposed to exist," the monk replied calmly. "But the code is unraveling. And Wraithbound are the only ones with access to the roots."
"Roots of what?" I asked.
"The system. The sins. The original patchwork of Sanctuary."
He reached into his robe and pulled out a small scroll. It flickered like everything else about him.
"This contains a location. A chapel no longer marked on any map. Seek it, and you will find the second layer."
"What's the second layer?"
The monk didn't answer. He just… faded.
Not like a normal logout. Like he was being erased.
Nell stared at the scroll in my hand.
"That wasn't an accident," she said.
"No," I agreed. "It was a message."
Back in Dustend, the fog had lifted.
The town looked a little brighter. Or maybe I did.
We sat on the inn's roof, watching the stars flicker through coded clouds.
"What he said," I murmured. "About the system unraveling—how bad is that?"
"Bad," Nell said. "There's rumors. Of memory leaks. NPCs acting like real people. Real people going… empty."
"Why not log out?"
She gave me a sideways glance. "You don't remember, do you?"
"…Remember what?"
"There is no logout."
I stared at her.
She nodded slowly.
"You can die. You can suffer. You can even respawn. But no one's left the game in over a month."
"…What?"
"That's what I meant back at the start," she said quietly. "This isn't just rehab, Marcus. It's a trap. And I think the only way out…"
She looked at the scroll in my hand.
"…is through the Wraithbound code."