Crestwood High always felt old. Not ancient. Just... tired.
Peeling paint, humming lights, rumors about basements no one was allowed into.
Normal school stuff.
Until tonight.
---
> [Objective: TRACE THE SIGNAL]
[Target Location: Veilzone – "Unknown Archive"]
[Coordinates: Sublevel -2, Restricted Maintenance Hatch]
[Access: Warden Class Required. Arsenal Sync ≥ 20%.]
[Status: Entry Permitted.]
The hatch was hidden behind the boiler room, half-buried under insulation and rusted metal. Most people wouldn't even notice it.
But the System made sure I did.
With Lena beside me, we pulled it open—revealing a pitch-black shaft leading down into silence.
"You sure about this?" she asked, checking her sigil interface.
"No," I admitted.
We went anyway.
---
The descent was long. Metal stairs. Dripping pipes. Dust in the air like ancient breath.
Halfway down, my reflection in a cracked wall panel looked up before I did.
I kept my hand on the hilt of my Arsenal. The blade hummed against my palm like it knew something was waiting.
> [Entering Veilzone – Reality Stability: 63%]
[Warning: Class-Based Interference Detected.]
[Suppression Field: OFFLINE.]
---
The corridor opened into a vast underground chamber.
No desks. No lockers.
Just rows of floating stone slabs, each etched with pulsing runes and shifting symbols—almost like… files.
Not digital. Not quite physical.
A library made of memories.
> [Welcome, Archive Warden.]
[Initializing Echo Memory Access.]
Lena's eyes widened. "I've only seen something like this once. During a system test breach. This place shouldn't exist."
"Thanks for the reassurance," I muttered.
We stepped deeper.
---
Each slab displayed fragments as we passed.
A man screaming as shadows stitched his mouth shut.
A woman turning into fog and screaming through every phone in a building.
A monster made of time-lagged footsteps and echoing door creaks.
These weren't data logs.
They were recorded kills.
> [Echo Memory Compatible.]
[Would you like to bind additional weapon traits?]
Before I could answer, the chamber shifted.
---
> [ALERT: ARCHIVE HAS BEEN BREACHED]
[Unauthorized Entity Detected]
[Manifesting Archive Guardian…]
The slabs rippled. Symbols bled red.
Something crawled from the far end—at first just a shadow, then a malformed figure of twisted parchment and fractured steel. Faces stretched across its surface, each whispering different words in reverse.
> [ENEMY IDENTIFIED: "MEMORY GUARDIAN – LINGUANTH"]
[Type: Echo Construct]
[Threat Level: B+]
[Combat Begins in: 5… 4… 3…]
---
Lena flinched. "That's not a regular monster—it's part of the Archive! You kill it wrong, and it'll rewrite you into its next memory!"
"Cool," I muttered. "Guess we hit the boss room early."
> [Arsenal Memory Bind: ACTIVE]
[Chosen Trait: Mirror Spike – Anchor Mode]
[New Weapon Form: Echo Edge (Lv. 1)]
The blade changed again—now rippling like a mirror and humming with stored screams.
The Linguanth charged.
Its voice hit first—hundreds of words in a dozen languages all at once, like someone ripping open a dictionary mid-tornado.
My ears bled. My balance vanished.
But the System filtered it.
> [Tactical Sync – Lena Astrid: Deploying Counter Code]
[Skill Used: Null Loop – Echo Reversal Field (Lv. 1)]
The sound bent backward.
The Guardian stumbled.
I moved.
One slash. Two. Dodge. Anchor Spike through its foot.
The thing split open like an overexposed photo—blinding light and screaming code.
> [Target Eliminated.]
[EXP +145 | Skill Point +2 | Arsenal Expansion Unlocked]
[System Node Reconnected.]
And then, in the dark silence that followed, a voice returned.
The same one from before.
"Welcome to the Archive, Kai. We've been watching you since your first kill."