There are places where existence ends.
Where logic unravels, where time bleeds out, where even gods blink and forget why they were born.
The Zeroth Spiral was one such place.
A realm at the intersection of unreality and forbidden thought. A loop of paradox so ancient, even the Primordial Codices refused to record its name. It wasn't on any map—because mapping it meant acknowledging its right to exist.
And that could break a universe.
The boy stood on its threshold now.
No portal. No gate. Just a shimmering ripple in the air, humming with memory echoes and the scent of burning dreams.
❖ Location Verified: [Zeroth Spiral]
– Threat Level: Unknown
– Known Entities: Watchers (Class ???)
– Environmental Stability: Fragmented
– Enter at Own Risk
He tightened his grip on Nullfang, the blade already vibrating. It didn't want to go in.
Too bad.
Neither did he.
He stepped forward—and the world stopped.
He fell through color.
Not space. Not time. Not even the multiverse.
Just color—fractured shades, emotions painted into light, feelings smeared into geometry.
Thoughts whispered across his skin.
Not words. Ideas. Memories that didn't belong to him.
"I remember drowning in the teeth of a black sun."
"She said I was her god, but I saw the chains around her prayers."
"Why do you keep coming back?"
He ignored them.
Mostly.
Until a voice spoke clearly, louder than the rest.
"You took her from me."
He spun.
And there it was—his reflection.
But older. Eyes hollowed. Armor cracked. Covered in blood he didn't remember spilling.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The reflection grinned. "The you that didn't flinch. The one who kept the throne. The one who didn't run."
Then it lunged.
❖ Mind Intrusion Detected
– Type: Echo Manifestation
– Identity: [Thronebearer: Broken Path Variant]
– Authority Level: Matched
– Resolution Required: Internal Duel
Nullfang clashed with itself.
Steel sang. Memory screamed.
They fought in collapsing spirals of concept. Thoughts became terrain. Regret turned to fire. Every missed strike shattered another layer of his sanity.
"You could've ruled them all," the echo snarled. "You had it! The Realms were yours!"
"And I saw what it cost!"
"You think you're noble for breaking the throne? You think they won't build another?!"
"I'm not stopping the cycle."
He slashed across the echo's chest.
"I'm ending it."
The reflection smiled even as it bled.
Then crumbled into stardust.
❖ Internal Duel Resolved
– Integrity: Stable
– New Trait Unlocked: [Paradox Immunity]
– Current Spiral Progress: 9%
He stumbled forward, deeper into the Spiral.
Shapes flickered around him—monuments of memory, half-formed worlds that had never been born.
Then he saw them.
The Watchers.
They didn't walk. They floated.
Faceless giants in robes of language and law, their bodies stitched from forgotten truths and forbidden names. Each carried a scroll dripping black ink—words that could rewrite anything.
They turned toward him.
❖ Entity Identified: Thronebreaker
– Status: Violation Imminent
– Warning Issued: You should not exist here
He raised Nullfang.
"I'm not here for permission."
The Watchers unscrolled their parchments.
The sky rewrote itself.
And the fight began.
They didn't attack with weapons.
They attacked with edits.
One slashed his name from the wind—he forgot how to breathe.
Another struck his memory—he staggered, disoriented, forgetting the last three fights.
❖ Emergency Protocol Initiated
– Nullfang Reconfiguration: [Anti-Narrative State]
– System Override Activated
The blade shifted.
Its edge turned intangible—cutting not flesh, but plot threads.
He surged forward.
One slash erased a Watcher's paragraph of destiny.
Another stab deleted the clause of inevitability.
They screamed—not in pain, but in corrupted logic.
Still, they kept coming.
"This world rejects you!"
"The throne was not meant to break!"
"You defy the final edit!"
He grinned.
"Exactly."
With a roar, he activated the shard Solenne died protecting.
❖ Authority Surge: Grave Oath
– Memory Armor: Deployed
– New Skill: [Oathbreaker's March] Activated
He marched forward through collapsing reality, each step shattering the Watchers' edits.
Their scrolls curled in on themselves. Their forms disintegrated.
And at the Spiral's center—hovering above a pedestal of negated time—was the next shard.
It pulsed black and red, stitched together with veins of memory.
He reached out.
Then froze.
Because this shard was different.
It spoke.
"I remember you."
Not in words.
But as him.
This wasn't just a fragment.
This was the core.
❖ Throne Core Detected
– Warning: Cognitive Merge Risk 89%
– Memory Surge Imminent
– Do you wish to proceed?
He hesitated.
One step forward—and he might forget who he was again.
Might become what he once destroyed.
But he didn't flinch.
Because this was the only way forward.
He placed his hand on the shard.
The Spiral exploded in light.
Memories flooded him—lives he didn't live, wars he didn't fight, betrayals he didn't see coming.
But one voice cut through it all.
Hers.
Solenne.
"Finish it. Break it all."
He screamed—and absorbed the shard.
❖ Core Reclaimed
– Thronebreaker Authority Level: [Sovereign Disruptor]
– Realm Progress: 4/100+
– Ability Gained: [Anomaly Override]
– Perk Gained: Immunity to Written Fate
– Warning: Multiversal Eyes Opened
He collapsed to one knee.
Breathing.
Barely.
But alive.
Then the System spoke again.
❖ Incoming Ping: High-Level Realm Signal
– Source: [Crimson Concord – Blood Epoch]
– Message:
"You took the Spiral.
You stole what was sealed.
Now we're coming.
And you'll learn what it means to bleed across realms."
He stood.
Looked out at the Spiral unraveling behind him.
Another realm down.
But this war was just getting started.