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Chapter 20 - The Page That Screamed

Cain first noticed it when he bled on the Codex by accident.

Not during a ritual. Not during a skillcraft.

Just a small cut. A lazy nick. And the Codex twitched.

Then screamed.

Not in sound—but in text.

"ACCESS DENIED.""REDACTED.""PRISONER: INDEX ██ - BREACH ATTEMPT REGISTERED."

Cain staggered. The Blank Book flared open, pages turning on their own.

And then: a page that didn't belong.

Black. Heavy. Edges burned.

"What are you?" Cain whispered.

It opened its eye.

[System Alert – Forbidden Memory Triggered]

Hidden Domain Access: The Index Prison

Classification: Codex BlacksiteContents: Sealed Skills | Forbidden Users | Failed HostsEntry Risk: 87%Consequences: Psychological Collapse, Timeline Drift, System Contamination

Continue?

Cain smirked.

"Always."

Transition – Mindfall Descent

His body fell asleep.

His mind did not.

He dropped between words.

Welcome to the Index Prison

It wasn't a dungeon.It was a library with no exit—where every book was screaming, and none were written in ink.

They were written in people.

He passed shelves bound in skin.Spines that flinched.Pages that wept.

And at the center—

A cage.

Wrapped in chains of redacted language, symbols burned from existence.

Inside sat a girl.

Eyes blindfolded in iron.Fingers missing.And still, she smiled.

"Finally," she said, voice like static."Another pagewriter."

📜 Codex Log – INDEX PRISON: CELL ██-11

Subject Name: ViraFormer Title: Codex Host – 3 Cycles AgoStatus: Corrupted. Contained.Crime: Wrote her own ending. Refused the System Rewrite.Danger Level: Class EchoBlack

Cain stepped closer.

"You're a former host."

She laughed.

"I'm what happens when the Codex forgets to forget someone."

The Truth She Gave Him

The Codex never wanted creators—just vessels

The Blank Book is not sanctioned

Every time Cain writes, he breaks Codex protocol

The Index Prison stores other rebels, overwritten memories, forbidden fusions

If he goes too far… they'll lock him here next

But she offered him something else.

"Write your way out, Cain. Tear open the binding.""But first… take this."

She reached into her chest—and pulled out a word.

Just one.

📜 New Fragment Gained – VERB: UNBIND

Function: Breaks a Codex rule for 3 secondsCooldown: 1x per dayWarning: Codex will retaliatePassive Side Effect: You are now watched by the Index Wardens

Cain turned to leave.

The prison resisted.

Books screamed. Chains tried to hold him. Ink bled from the floor.

Cain activated UNBIND.

The rules cracked.

He escaped.

But something followed.

Back in the Real

Cain woke with blood running from his nose.

Nyx crouched nearby, tail low.

"Something's coming," she said."It smells like… rewrites."

Far off, a Codex Warden walked the mortal realm for the first time in an age.

Its body was made of torn book-spines. Its eyes: quotation marks that bled.

And it whispered:

"You should not have turned the page, Cain."

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