There was a strange smell in the air.
Not rot.
Not metal.
Not earth.
More like… a memory freshly cut open.
Hana and the Great Elder stepped into a room with no real shape.
The floor wasn't even, the walls weren't straight.
As if the room itself still couldn't decide whether it wanted to exist or not.
"Big Bro… where are we now?" Hana asked in a small voice.
"In the room that never happened," the Great Elder replied.
"…What?"
"This is a memory that should have vanished. But the world refused to erase it."
Hana swallowed.
"Big Bro, the deeper we go, the more it feels like I'm walking inside a corrupted hard drive."
"An analogy that is… surprisingly accurate."
The Flickering Fragments
Pieces of light began appearing.
Not large only palm-sized.
Flickering like glitches, appearing and disappearing too fast to follow.
Hana approached one fragment like a shard of glass, except its surface reflected memories, not images.
She saw a glimpse:
Someone kneeling.
Someone else standing above them.
Light.
Shadow.
A name never spoken.
The fragment shattered before Hana could see more.
"Big Bro! That just"
"Don't stare too long," the Great Elder cut in.
"Fragments like that can pull you inside."
"Inside where?"
"Into things that must not repeat."
"…Big Bro, this is getting unfunny."
"I did not intend to amuse you."
The Bodyless Voice
Suddenly a sound echoed.
Not a whisper.
Not a reverberation.
But something like… the world exhaling.
"…light… return…"
Hana felt goosebumps race down her spine.
"Big Bro, who is it looking for?"
"Not who. What."
The voice came again, closer this time yet from no direction at all.
As if it came from the air itself.
"…the light…"
"…lost… return…"
Hana pinched her own arm.
"Big Bro, whatever that is, it needs therapy."
The Great Elder didn't respond to her joke.
His face was tense more tense than any chapter before.
The Breaking Room
Suddenly the floor ahead of them cracked like falling glass.
But instead of collapsing downward…
the shards floated.
Rising.
Turning.
From the gap emerged a light too white to be called light.
Hana stared, breath stolen.
"Big Bro… what is that?"
The Great Elder looked at it for a long… very long time.
"A trace of a power that must not awaken."
Hana stepped back.
"Big Bro… is this His trace?"
"No."
Hana exhaled in relief
"This is the shadow of His trace."
Hana immediately achieved permanent pale mode.
"Big Bro… if this is just a shadow of a trace I don't want to meet the real one."
"You will."
"…Big Bro please don't be honest at times like this."
The Memory That Points
From the light emerged something not a being.
More like a screenless video.
A moment too old to be called history.
Hana saw:
A woman.
Holding a baby whose eyes glowed.
Around them, the world slowly collapsing like burning paper.
White radiance pushing back the crawling darkness.
Behind the woman…
A silhouette.
One that resembled the shadow from chapter 17
but denser.
More… aware.
Hana held her breath.
"Big Bro… that's"
The Great Elder nodded.
"That is Him. From the time before the world rewrote itself."
Hana didn't move.
"He… was chasing the woman?"
"No."
"Then?"
"He was chasing the baby."
Hana swallowed.
"Whose baby…?"
The Great Elder looked at her.
Silent.
Still.
Far too still.
Hana felt her heart skip a beat.
"…Big Bro. Don't tell me…"
"The baby…" The Great Elder looked straight into her eyes.
"is the reason He's searching for you."
The fragment of light trembled, then shattered like crystal rain.
The room returned to emptiness.
Silent.
Painfully silent.
Hana clutched her chest, breath tight.
"Big Bro… you mean…"
"Yes."
"Please don't joke, Big Bro."
"I am not joking."
"That baby… is me?"
The Great Elder exhaled deeply… and for the first time, he looked like someone who had carried a secret for far too long.
"Hana… you are not merely an inheritor of the light."
His gaze softened something rare on his face.
"You are the reason the light exists."
Hana fell silent.
And the Middle of Time trembled…
as if remembering exactly who was walking within it.