The reality tear in the collapsing world of Aethelgard yawned wide, resembling an open wound across the sky ready to seal shut at any moment. Without waiting for automated coordinate calculations from The Ledger, Davin hurled himself directly into the raging storm of the dimensional vortex before him.

Whooossshhhh—!

Instantly, Davin was dragged into a wild, dark, and patternless cosmic tunnel. Unlike previous dimensional shifts guided by the system, this unshielded, forced leap acted as pure physical and mental torture.

High-pressure winds spun violently, tearing through his coat and hammering his body like relentless steel hammers. Excruciating pain coursed through every nerve in his spine, yet that physical agony paled in comparison to what unfolded inside his head.

The dimensional storm acted as a brutal memory predator.

Amidst the swirling vortex of binary light and wild data flashes, Davin’s remaining permanent memories were forcibly ripped away. Quick flashes sped past his eyes like a film playing at maximum speed: Lyra’s smiling face in the Neo-Veridia street hideout before she sacrificed her life... The warm smiles of Oakhaven’s villagers before that first world was wiped from the map... The face of Dr. Arthur Ronan, his father, smiling bitterly inside the source code core room... Even his mother’s face, long since blurred, now dissolved entirely into grains of white dust swallowed by the void.

No... don't take that away... let me remember it...! Davin struggled mentally within a consciousness beginning to blur.

Yet, the system showed no mercy. That undirected transcendence tax drained the critical limits of his identity. When Davin opened his mouth to scream, no sound emerged—only the final particles of his memory fluttering away to leave a chilling, vacant void inside his head.

He no longer remembered his full name before becoming the Architect. He no longer remembered which laboratory he came from. What remained inside his bodily shell was merely a burning iron resolve and the hourglass symbol on the back of his hand, now blinking dimly, depleted of energy.

The vortex storm abruptly reached its peak, unleashing a deafening sonic explosion.

BOOM!

The merciless gravitational pull hurled Davin’s body out from the end of the dimensional tunnel, sending him sliding freely before slamming hard onto the floor surface below.

Thud!

Davin dragged across the hard floor for several meters, bouncing before coming to a rigid halt, surrounded by an eerie silence.

Several minutes passed in total stillness.

Davin groaned softly, his fingers twitching against the cold floor. His breathing was ragged, heavy, and broken. With his remaining strength, he forced both hands to brace against the floor, lifting his body slowly.

Davin raised his head, blinking to adjust his vision.

He no longer stood in the fractured skies of Aethelgard, the cyberpunk megacity, or the memory village of Oakhaven. He now found himself inside an enclosed, immensely grand chamber that felt utterly alien and terrifying.

Davin stood upon a floor of pitch-black, obsidian-like marble so polished it reflected his silhouette like a tranquil mirror of water. The room was vast, shaped as an enclosed hall without clear boundary walls, surrounded by towering giant pillars piercing a dark ceiling filled with slowly rotating star galaxies.

It was a giant throne room—magnificent, silent, and entirely uninhabited. The place felt like the focal point of all cosmic chaos, the beating heart of every multiversal simulation he had ever visited.

In the center of that silent throne room stood a white stone altar table radiating a dim golden glow. Atop the altar lay a giant notebook with an old leather cover crafted from ancient metal.

The book stood wide open of its own accord, displaying blank pages pulsing with lines of glowing code light, as though patiently awaiting someone's arrival to write their final destiny.

Davin stared at the giant notebook with ragged breath, his footsteps echoing softly across the black marble floor as he approached the altar, realizing his long multiversal journey had brought him straight before the source of everything.