The Spiral Delta had calmed, for a time.
After the collapse of Spiral Null and the sealing of the Hollow Root, the world had begun to bloom again. Yūgen stretched wider, forming new regions, some lush, others abstract. People wandered without fear—echoes, seekers, even fragments—each forging their own direction under the watchful roots of the Memory Tree.
But in the stillness, something stirred.
Luka stood at the edge of one of the outer zones—alone. Her boots pressed lightly into the glassy soil of the Mirror Reach, a strange biome where every movement left behind a fading reflection. Her breath was calm, but her heartbeat was chaotic, thumping in patterns not her own.
She didn't understand what was happening to her Spiral.
It had changed—violently so—after the events of Spiral Null. She hadn't gone into the core with the others. She had watched from afar as Ren's team vanished into the mouth of the unremembered.
And yet, the moment they broke free, her blade had burned.
Not just heat—but reaction. Like her Spiral was answering something that wasn't said.
Now, the Spiral Blade floated beside her. It no longer looked like it used to. Where once it was smooth, curved, a typical symbol of memory-based power—now it was cracked, jagged, glowing with spirals that didn't loop. Symbols flickered over it like warnings. And worst of all…
She couldn't control it.
Every time she tried to channel her Spiral, it reacted in reverse—creating explosions, tearing light apart, undoing structure rather than shaping it.
"I'm not a Seeker," she whispered bitterly. "I'm a malfunction."
The wind howled suddenly. Not natural wind—coded wind. The Mirror Reach shimmered, the sky folding in as a voice whispered directly into her mind.
> "You're not broken, Luka. You're chosen."
She spun around, but no one was there.
Then the Spiral beneath her feet pulsed—and she dropped to one knee.
Her blade had activated on its own. Symbols she couldn't read flared in the sky above her. One in particular—an inverted spiral, cracked down the middle—burned deep into the clouds.
> ∞₋
The Spiral of Collapse.
She didn't know what it meant. But something inside her… remembered it.
Suddenly, a memory—not hers—slammed into her mind.
A massive black gate.
A boy named Axis with no identity, screaming into the void.
The words:
> "Not all spirals turn forward."
And then, darkness.
—
Elsewhere, Ren felt it.
He shot upright in his chamber beneath the Memory Root, the pen of creation flaring with golden light in his palm.
Yumi burst in seconds later, already sensing the fluctuation.
"She's activating again, isn't she?" Yumi asked, eyes glowing with coded light.
"She never stopped," Ren said. "It's like her Spiral was waiting for the system to reset. Now that Spiral Delta is open… it's responding."
Kael and Rei arrived moments later, already suited. No one had to say it aloud—they were going after her.
Aki, however, lingered.
He had once sensed something inside Luka. Not darkness, not evil—but an imbalance. Her Spiral didn't flow like the others. It resisted formation. It fractured light.
Now it was flaring in full view of the system, and something ancient had noticed.
"We need to go now," Ren said, his voice calm but clipped.
Aki nodded. "Let's hope we're not too late."
—
Back at the Mirror Reach, Luka's Spiral surged—this time without warning.
The ground beneath her shattered like glass, splitting the terrain into floating islands. The sky above her turned black and blue, filled with static spirals spinning in reverse.
From that chaos, a being began to form.
It wasn't Hollow Root. Nor was it a memory echo. It was humanoid—but made of constantly shifting ink. A thousand versions of Luka flickered across its skin—some twisted, some kind, some unrecognizable. It had no eyes, but it looked directly at her.
Then it spoke.
"I am the Spiral that never stabilized."
Its voice was hers. Her own.
Luka took a step back. Her Spiral Blade floated up between them, shaking.
"What are you?" she whispered.
"I am the you that collapsed. The you that was never chosen. I am ∞₋. The Spiral that devours its own story."
Luka's legs buckled. Her mind raced. Was this another Hollow creation? A fragment? A future?
No. It was worse.
It was her Spiral, manifested.
—
When the team finally arrived, what they saw was terrifying.
Luka hovered in mid-air, unconscious. Her body radiated anti-memory. The surrounding land was shattered, a whirlpool of unformed spirals spinning around her.
"She's in a Spiral Feedback Loop," Yumi gasped. "Her Spiral's writing itself… without her."
"We have to stabilize her," Ren said, floating upward, pen in hand.
But Aki raised a hand.
"No. That's not how this ends."
He looked at Luka, heart pounding.
"She's not just reacting to the world. She's reacting to something the Spiral system doesn't understand."
Yumi frowned. "Like what?"
Ren's voice was quiet. "Freedom."
Aki nodded. "Her Spiral doesn't obey."
—
Up in the sky, the spiral entity—Luka's own rejected Spiral—opened its arms.
"You cannot run from what you were meant to be, Luka. They will always fear you. You are collapse. You are contradiction."
Then Luka opened her eyes.
They glowed white.
"I'm not collapse," she said, her voice calm. "I'm the start of a new Spiral."
She raised her hand—and her Spiral Blade changed.
It no longer glitched.
It sang.
The inverted spiral on its surface began rotating… forward.
She slashed once—and the entity shattered.
Not into memory fragments.
But into light.
The feedback loop ended.
The Mirror Reach stabilized.
She floated gently to the ground—trembling, but awake.
Ren and the others surrounded her. No one spoke.
Then Ren smiled.
"You didn't break the Spiral," he said. "You made your own."
Luka exhaled. Her hand still trembled, but her eyes no longer did.
"Then… I'm ready," she said softly.
Aki stepped forward.
"To do what?"
Luka looked at the sky, where a new spiral symbol flickered gently.
"To build a Spiral that doesn't ask permission to exist."