I Own the Multiverse's General Store!

The silence that followed the formation of the Rewoven Council was not peace.

It was the calm before memory awakened.

Though the light of Lucius's new reign spread far and wide, illuminating the corners of forgotten worlds and mending fissures in space and time, some echoes refused to fade. Deep within the farthest rifts of the Multiverse—where light still had not reached—remnants stirred.

Not everyone had bowed to the Crown Rewritten.

Not all were ready to accept the new dawn.

In the abandoned quadrant of Hyracil, a once-prosperous realm consumed by arcane frost centuries ago, something moved beneath the glacier of time. Ancient shrines hummed. Runes long sealed under layers of cursed ice glowed faintly.

A figure emerged, wrapped in robes that smelled of iron and dust, their face hidden by an ever-shifting veil.

The Archivist.

One of the last High Judges of the Old Order.

Forgotten by most, but not by the Throne.

And not by Walter.

In the Core Citadel, Walter's eyes snapped open.

A ripple passed through the silver threads woven into the Citadel's foundations—a distortion, faint but insistent. He stood quickly and paced to the edge of the nearest balcony.

Lucius was already there, hands clasped behind his back, watching the patterns of light and dark shift across the universal map.

"You felt it too?" Walter asked.

Lucius nodded. "A presence. Old. Angry."

Walter exhaled slowly. "The Archivist still lives."

Lilith stepped from behind a glasswork pillar, her arms crossed. "Who?"

Walter turned. "The one who maintained the Vaults of Judgment. The one who recorded every failure… but never forgave a single one."

Alexia appeared next, summoned by instinct. "If he awakens, he won't just oppose us. He'll try to restore the Old Order."

Luna stretched languidly, emerging from the ceiling as a swirl of shadow and light. "So we kill him before he remembers how to resist."

"No," Lucius said. "We confront him. But not with blades."

Walter's brow furrowed. "You would reason with that which has never known mercy?"

Lucius turned slowly.

"I would show him that mercy now has weight."

Preparations began.

Lucius, Lilith, Walter, and Luna would travel to the ruins of Hyracil.

Alexia would remain to anchor the Citadel—should the Archivist attempt to reach deeper through the roots of law.

Ships made of memory and light formed in the hangars. Their hulls were etched with protective runes and bound with threads of time-resistant silk.

As they boarded, Lilith stepped close to Lucius.

"If this turns into war…"

He met her gaze. "Then we make it a war of truth."

She smirked. "Just make sure I get to set something on fire."

Walter gave a tired sigh. "With you, I doubt there'll be much left not on fire."

Luna leaned back in her seat, arms behind her head. "Then let's hope he's wise enough to listen."

The ship rose.

The Core faded behind them.

And ahead—

The echo waited.

Hyracil greeted them with silence.

The realm had once been a jewel of civilization, its skies painted in hues of violet and its waters singing with arcane resonance. Now, it was buried beneath centuries of frost and stillness. The ruins of a thousand cathedrals jutted from the ice like broken teeth. Wind howled through frozen columns, whispering remnants of forgotten prayers.

Their vessel descended slowly onto a platform of cracked marble. Lucius stepped down first, his boots crunching against the brittle ice. The cold wasn't merely physical—it was conceptual. The very laws of entropy had been heightened here, as if mourning had become the dominant principle of existence.

"This place is cursed," Lilith muttered, her flames flickering low as if reluctant to burn.

Walter narrowed his eyes. "No… it's preserved. He wanted this pain to last."

Lucius raised a hand, signaling them to move forward. Every step was measured, cautious. Old statues stared from alcoves, their expressions locked in horror or reverence. The closer they moved toward the heart of the ruins, the more distorted time became—past and present overlapping like pages stuck together.

Then they reached the Vault.

A monolith of black crystal stood embedded in the heart of a crumbled coliseum. Runes floated around it like fireflies made of ink, flickering with intent. And there, standing beneath its shadow, was the Archivist.

He turned.

And his voice was not a voice at all.

It was verdict.

"You do not belong here."

Lucius stepped forward. "Neither do you. Not anymore."

The veil shifted. A thousand eyes blinked from beneath it. Memories. Judgments. Failures.

"I am the ledger. The reckoner. The memory of what should not be forgiven."

"And I am the choice to forgive it," Lucius said.

The wind howled.

And the ice began to crack.

***

The world beneath Lucius's feet groaned.

Not from tectonic movement, but from the immense weight of memory being disturbed.

The Vault of Judgment was awakening.

As the Archivist's voice echoed into the frost-bitten air, ancient glyphs sparked to life across the monolith of black crystal. Great slabs of stone shifted and sank, revealing stairways that descended into a place untouched since the era before time had laws. The ruins trembled, and the wind stilled—as if even the storm feared what lay below.

Each footstep down into the Vault echoed like a chisel against the bedrock of the past.

Lucius stepped forward, his voice calm but unyielding.

"You kept records. Fine. Let's see them."

The Archivist's veil swirled like ink poured into water. "You misunderstand. I do not offer your sins. I make you walk them."

And with that, the ground shattered.

Lilith screamed as the floor gave way beneath them, and they fell—not through space, but through judgment itself.

Lucius awoke in a hall of mirrors.

But these were not ordinary mirrors. They were made of memory condensed into crystalline time. Each surface rippled with unreality, reflections that flickered not with his appearance—but with versions of his soul.

He approached the first.

In this vision, Lucius stood upon a pyre of bodies. He was alone. Crowned. Worshiped. And utterly hollow. His gaze carried power, but no warmth. His hand trembled from years of sacrifice disguised as necessity.

The next showed him denying every bond. Refusing Lilith's devotion, pushing Alexia into exile, mocking Luna's loyalty. Power consumed him, leaving only a throne made of bones and betrayal.

The third reflection shattered as he stepped toward it.

It was too much.

His breath caught in his throat.

"I am not these monsters," he whispered.

A whisper licked his ear: "But you could be. All it takes is silence."

Lucius clenched his fists. The reflections twisted and became monstrous—clawed hands breaking through the glass, twisted grins of self-righteous rule. Each version lunged from its mirror, aiming to devour him whole.

He fought.

Not with the Pillars.

But with will.

He accepted them all.

"I made mistakes," he shouted. "But I learned from them. I am not perfect. I am willing."

The mirror-world groaned and cracked.

A pillar of pure white light burst upward, sending shards of guilt into nothingness.

Lucius stood in silence.

And the hall crumbled.

Walter emerged in a labyrinth of laws.

The walls were lined with binding contracts, impossible geometries of divine syntax, and the screams of all those whose names were lost in bureaucratic damnation. Endless pages fluttered around him, etched in ink that bled.

Every decision he had ever made—every compromise, every blind eye turned for the sake of balance—was scrawled into the walls.

He walked. The paper sliced at him—not skin, but spirit. Each wound whispered another failure.

"You could have saved them," a voice accused.

He collapsed to his knees.

"I remember… so no one else has to."

With that truth, the maze stilled.

A single path opened before him.

Lilith found herself upon a mountain of ash.

The wind carried screams of the past. Around her burned the pyres of villages she had scorched, the graves of warriors she had broken.

Before her stood a child. Her first kill.

It reached out, eyes wide. No hate. Just sorrow.

She fell to her knees.

"I burn for love. For vengeance. For freedom."

The fires dimmed.

And the ash became soil.

Luna stood atop a black stage.

Above her, a thousand masks dangled—each one a persona she had worn: thief, mistress, deceiver, survivor.

An audience made of shadows laughed, mocking her truth.

"Who are you really?"

She stepped forward, catching one of the masks.

She crushed it in her hand.

"I am every version of myself. But I choose which one lives."

The laughter died.

The shadows vanished.

And she walked forward.

They regrouped at the Vault's core.

The air shimmered with raw memory. Glyphs spun in orbit, arranging themselves into a spiral of reckoning. The Archivist hovered above a dais of frozen time, arms outstretched.

"You passed?" he said, almost incredulous.

Lucius stepped forward.

"No. We rewrote the script."

He extended his hand.

"Join us. Or be forgotten with your ledgers."

The veil writhed.

And the Archivist… laughed.

A dry, brittle sound.

"For eons, I kept the records. But no one ever came to understand them."

He lowered his arms.

"Very well, King Rewritten. I will witness what comes next."

The Vault shuddered.

Not in collapse.

But in release.

Behind them, the cold melted.

Ahead, the path cleared.

And Hyracil—at last—began to thaw.