"If it wants me for breaking the Codex…"
Cain stood on the edge of the Hollow Thicket, where trees bled ink and the shadows had teeth.
"…then I'll give it something worse."
He drew the Blank Book.
This time, he didn't craft a skill.
He wrote a lie.
📜 [Blank Book – Forbidden Entry Written]
"Cain dies in the Hollow Thicket. Killed by a wild beast. Codex resets the Host Chain.""The Warden confirms the kill. Timeline restored. Case closed."
Status: False Narrative ImprintedRisk Level: Terminal if Believed by Codex EntitiesWARNING: Writing LIES into the Codex is a Level-Black Violation.
Cain finished the line, tore the page from the book—and left it in a pool of his own blood.
"Come verify it, bastard."
Then he vanished into the trees.
Cut To: The Warden Arrives
It towered.
Limbs made of stitched spines.Veins of narrative thread.Eyes shaped like quotation marks, bleeding red ink.
The false page floated in front of it.
The Warden paused.
It read the lie.
"Host Terminated?""Verifying…"
It sniffed the timeline.
And hesitated.
A pause.
A glitch.
Exactly what Cain needed.
Ambush Triggered – Skillchain Unleashed
Cain had rigged the forest with three threads:
Soulspike Fang buried beneath rotting bark
Shadow Maw tethered to a blood rune
A new Codex-script trap: Reverberate Lie – Echoes a false narrative into the enemy's memory
"NOW!"
The trap fired.
Cain surged from the trees in full Shadow Maw form—
The Warden reacted—
Too late.
Combat Sequence Begins – Cain vs Warden of Redacted Ink
Cain strikes first: Soulspike Fang pierces the Warden's left shoulder, draining a sentence of its memory.
He whispers his own lie mid-combat:
"You've already lost this fight."
And the Warden… glitches again.A pause. A moment of static.
Cain activates Reverberate Lie—the Warden begins to believe the fight already ended.
"Victory logged. Host terminated.""Beginning reset protocol…"
"Wrong." Cain growled.
He lunged, claws shredding the Warden's spine-skin.
⚠️ Warden Recovery Mode
"Deception Detected.""Activating Narrative Correction Protocol.""UNBIND THREAT CONFIRMED."
The Warden split open.
Inside: a mouth made of unwritten laws.
It roared.
The forest burned in reverse—time rewinding around Cain.
Final Strike – Using UNBIND
Cain triggered UNBIND—his one-per-day Codex-breaking skill.
Time froze.Law bent.
Cain whispered to the Blank Book:
"Write this: The Warden bled."
The page caught fire.Reality snapped.
And the Warden did exactly that.
It bled story.Paragraphs of forbidden laws spilling onto the dirt.
Cain tore one out as a trophy.
📜 Acquired – Torn Page of Redacted Law
Function: UnknownEffect: May overwrite one Codex rule… onceWarning: Possession marks the Host as "Anathema-Class"Trackers deployed. Pursuers incoming.
Aftermath
Cain collapsed beside Nyx.
"You okay?" she asked.
"No," he grinned. "But I won."
From the trees, the Moonlink girl watched.
Silent. Eyes wide.
"You killed a Warden," she said.
"Not yet," Cain replied. "But I made it bleed."