Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls

The shelves closed over the corridor.

Sylphie pulled Kael backward before two rows of black wood collided where he had been standing. The impact produced no sound. Books, boxes, and artifacts passed through one another like overlapping images, forming a solid wall between them and the rest of the group.

Kael could still feel Eleonor, Violet, and Hadriam on the other side, but their voices reached him out of order. Words spoken later appeared before the questions. Footsteps were heard several seconds before they happened.

The Archivist had not merely divided the space.

He had divided the sequence of the corridors.

"Violet," Kael said, touching the communication crystal. "Remove every employee together with the corresponding books. Do not leave any open record without someone watching it."

The commander’s answer came before he finished:

"We are trying to reach you."

Kael looked at the crystal.

"She answered something she has not heard yet," Sylphie said.

"That is going to make the conversation irritating."

The Archivist remained at the end of the new corridor, even though the shelves had moved between them. The pages attached to his fingers passed through the wood as though they did not recognize obstacles.

"Communication is merely an organized sequence," the man said. "A question requires an answer. An order requires understanding. One only needs to remove the correct interval."

He turned a page.

Kael felt Sylphie release his hand.

When he looked to the side, she was still nearby, but he did not remember entering the archive with her. He recognized her face, her natural energy, and the sense of safety caused by her presence. Her name, however, had disappeared.

The elf noticed immediately.

"Kael."

He frowned.

"I know who you are."

"What is my name?"

Kael opened his mouth.

Nothing came.

The Archivist smiled.

Sylphie held his face with both hands. The connection between them opened without any protection, allowing emotions, memories, and mana to cross at the same time. Kael saw a central forest, white hair over his arms, arguments in bedrooms, blood over roots, and green eyes watching him sleep.

"Sylphie."

The name returned accompanied by a sharp pain behind his eyes.

"He does not remove it completely," Kael said. "He hides the connection between the record and the memory."

"I can keep returning it."

"He will use that to reach you."

"Then find a better way before I need to do it again."

Umbra appeared on the wall behind the Archivist. A dark mouth opened beside his neck, followed by teeth formed from shadow.

The man turned another page.

Umbra disappeared.

Kael felt her shadow return to his own feet. The entity rose again, confused.

"I was already there."

"He erased your departure from my shadow," Kael said.

"I will leave again."

Umbra passed through the floor.

The Archivist began raising the page, but Kael shouted:

"Do not attack the same way."

Four black hands emerged from different shelves. One grabbed the man’s ankle, another closed around his wrist, and the remaining two tried to reach the books attached to his waist.

The page turned.

Three hands disappeared.

The fourth remained holding one of the books.

The Archivist lowered his eyes.

Umbra pulled.

The silver chain stretched, tearing the small volume from his waist. The book fell into the shadow before another page could touch it.

"He needs to choose which part of the sequence to remove," Kael said. "Too many actions at once force him to let one pass."

The Archivist did not appear concerned.

"A correct observation."

The pages attached to his right hand opened like a fan.

"But incomplete."

Kael lost the memory of the beginning of the fight.

He found himself with his sword raised, Sylphie beside him, and Umbra hidden beneath the floor, but he did not know why the man at the end of the corridor was an enemy. The gray coat, the books, and the ring produced no meaning.

The Archivist turned his back.

"Volume closed."

Kael felt his arm lower.

Sylphie tried to open their connection, but another page moved. She brought a hand to her chest and forgot what she intended to do.

The man began walking away.

Kael watched the empty employees being transported through the openings between the shelves. He saw books containing entire lives, nameless people, stolen vessels, and the divided crown engraved over hundreds of objects.

He did not remember what had happened.

But he understood what he was seeing.

Something in that place had taken everything from those people.

And the man in the gray coat walked like the owner.

Kael raised his sword again.

The Archivist stopped.

"You do not remember me."

"I do not need to."

"You do not know why you are here."

"You are standing between me and people who need to be removed."

Kael positioned his feet.

"That is enough."

The Archivist turned three pages at once.

Kael decided to advance.

The decision disappeared before it reached his legs.

He remained still.

He tried again.

The result was the same.

The power did not erase his muscles or block mana. It removed the interval between will and execution, making every action end before it began.

Kael closed his eyes.

Celestial Step normally depended on a perfect sequence. Intention, circulation, contraction, impulse, and displacement. The Archivist could remove any part of that chain.

However, there did not need to be a chain.

Kael circulated mana through his entire body without choosing a destination. He did not prepare a step, strike, or defense. He merely kept muscles, bones, tendons, and breathing synchronized in a single continuous condition.

Advancing would not be a new decision.

It would be the natural state of his body.

Kael opened his eyes.

He took one step.

The Archivist turned a page.

The memory of the movement disappeared, but Kael did not stop. The mana was already circulating, sustaining the same intention without needing to rebuild it.

He took another step.

Then another.

The distance began shrinking.

The Archivist’s smile disappeared.

He turned more pages. Kael forgot the first step, the second, and every meter crossed. He did not know when he had begun walking or how much remained.

Even so, he continued.

Every heartbeat fed the next movement. Every breath maintained the intention. Celestial Step was no longer a succession of displacements.

It was a displacement that had not yet ended.

The Archivist raised the main book.

The corridor returned to its previous state.

Kael appeared beside Sylphie again.

However, a line of blood crossed the floor between him and the enemy. The sole of his boot had opened an old cut on his ankle, and every step had left a physical mark over the stone.

The Archivist had managed to restore the recorded position.

He had not managed to undo what the body had done while remaining outside the sequence.

Kael looked at the red line.

"I found you."

He used Celestial Step.

The Archivist tried to remove the beginning.

There was no beginning.

Kael appeared in front of him and struck the main book with the guard of his sword. The cover opened, pages came loose, and the chains connected to the man’s fingers were pulled aside.

The Archivist retreated for the first time.

Kael cut the first chain.

One of the shelves disappeared, revealing Violet and five agents guiding employees outside. He cut the second. Hadriam and Eleonor’s voices returned to the correct order.

The third chain wrapped around the blade.

The Archivist closed the book and pulled Kael closer.

"You continue believing this is a body."

The page attached to his index finger touched Kael’s chest.

A sentence appeared on the paper.

Kael Scarlet died in the Black Archive.

The ink began to run.

Kael felt his heart miss a beat.

Sylphie launched roots at the Archivist. The man turned a page, but Umbra opened six shadows at the same time. He removed four attacks. Eleonor froze the space around the fifth.

The sixth reached his arm.

Umbra bit.

The teeth pierced the sleeve and crushed the wrist holding the book. The page containing Kael’s death fell.

Sylphie pulled it with a root.

The ink continued advancing through the sentence.

"I cannot erase it," she said.

"Then tear it."

Sylphie split the page in half.

Kael’s heart began beating correctly again.

The Archivist did not scream when Umbra destroyed his wrist. He merely watched the blood fall onto the floor, as though recording a loss that belonged to someone else.

Kael placed the sword against his neck.

"It is over."

"No."

The man looked toward one of the employees being removed.

The empty man stopped.

His body arched backward. His eyes lost the little life that remained, and pages began emerging from his mouth. His face slowly changed, taking on the Archivist’s ordinary, difficult-to-remember features.

Kael cut the neck of the body in front of him.

There was no blood inside.

The skin collapsed like an empty coat, revealing hundreds of folded pages shaped like bones, muscles, and organs.

The distant employee finished transforming.

"Archivist is a function," he said through the new mouth. "The body is merely the place where the index remains open."

Violet held the employee before he could attack, but the Archivist turned a page that had appeared between his fingers. The commander forgot the man was a prisoner and loosened her grip.

Kael advanced.

Hadriam entered the side corridor and shouted:

"Every living record goes into separate circles. Close the containment areas as soon as the body and corresponding book are together."

The Archivist looked toward the emperor.

A blank page appeared in front of him.

Hadriam noticed.

"He is trying to record me."

Kael cut the page before the first word appeared.

"Keep giving orders. I will handle the pages."

Hadriam looked toward the agents.

"Remove everyone."

Violet recovered her intention and dragged the transformed employee into a purple circle created by Eleonor. As soon as the corresponding book crossed the boundary, the space was isolated.

The Archivist’s body lost strength.

The pages began searching for another host.

Kael observed the chains.

All of them extended toward different corridors, but one thicker line descended through the floor.

"Elion."

The researcher approached with an instrument.

"There is a structure beneath us."

"Depth?"

"Almost one hundred meters."

Hadriam frowned.

"There is no other floor beneath the archive."

"Physically," Eleonor replied.

Kael looked toward the restrained body.

"Every archive needs a main index."

The Archivist smiled.

"You will not find it."

Kael drove the sword into the floor.

Scarlet mana passed through the stone, following the thickest chain. It did not try to destroy anything. It merely marked the path to its origin.

The Archivist opened every page at once.

The shelves trembled.

Books began falling and opening. Hundreds of names crossed the air, searching for bodies, objects, or memories where they could attach themselves. The empty employees twisted inside the containment fields. Erased portraits recovered their faces. Ancient weapons whispered the names of their owners.

"He is going to mix everything!" Elion shouted.

"Sylphie, bind the books to their original positions. Eleonor, freeze the shelves. Umbra, swallow every loose page."

Umbra opened across the ceiling.

Darkness fell like a net, capturing sheets before they reached the corridors. Roots passed through the shelves and wrapped around every volume without crushing it. Eleonor closed space into blocks, preventing the names from crossing from one section to another.

Kael held the main chain with mana.

The Archivist tried to tear away the mark.

Kael pulled.

The floor broke apart.

There was no explosion. The stones separated into perfect circles, revealing a vertical shaft surrounded by pages. At the bottom, a black book floated above a pedestal.

It was not large.

The cover carried only the divided crown and a single word written beneath it.

Index.

The Archivist’s body stopped struggling.

Kael looked toward Hadriam.

"Does this archive belong to the Crown?"

"Yes."

"Does the office of Archivist exist by imperial authorization?"

"It did."

"Then end it."

The restrained man began laughing.

"Authority changes. Records remain."

Hadriam walked to the edge of the shaft.

"I, Hadriam, Emperor of the Human Realm and lawful authority over the Crown’s Black Archive, revoke the function, privileges, and all autonomy granted to the office of Archivist."

The crown engraved on the book lit up.

Blank pages appeared around the emperor, trying to record his voice, blood, and authority.

Kael used the continuous Celestial Step.

He passed through all of them in a single scarlet line and cut them before any sentence could be completed.

Hadriam continued:

"The archive remains property of the Crown. Its records will be preserved, its victims restored, and no title will again possess authority over living people."

The ring on the Archivist’s finger cracked.

The black book fell onto the pedestal.

The chains connected to bodies, pages, and shelves lost their light.

The man trapped inside the circle brought both hands to his head. His face changed dozens of times. Old, young, man, woman, human, and forms Kael did not recognize.

At last, a gray-haired man with brown eyes remained.

Hadriam recognized him.

"Oren Valerius."

The man opened his eyes.

"That was the first."

Kael approached the circle.

"How many names did you steal?"

Oren smiled with difficulty.

"I did not steal them."

"Cataloged them?"

"Preserved them."

Kael looked toward the empty employees.

"You can explain the difference during interrogation."

Oren stared at the book at the bottom of the shaft.

"You believe you found the organization’s archive."

"Did I not?"

"You found the Crown’s archive. The organization merely borrowed what your emperors collected over centuries."

Hadriam closed his fist.

"What else was removed from here?"

"Open the index."

Elion began descending with instruments, but Kael raised one hand.

"Wait."

The black book had lost the Archivist’s authority, but remained active. Thin lines moved beneath the cover, reorganizing records after the title’s fall.

Kael descended using the exposed stones for support. He did not activate Celestial Step. Sylphie came immediately behind him, keeping their connection open.

He reached the pedestal and touched the cover with the tip of his sword.

The book opened on its own.

The first pages contained the archive employees. Fifty-eight names, each one connected to a body. Then came artifacts, confiscated bloodlines, and consciousnesses kept inside vessels.

Further ahead appeared the records of Aster, Nemet, and Orla.

All of them had been crossed out.

Kael continued turning pages.

There were other projects.

Some marked as destroyed.

Others as suspended.

Nine remained active.

Amelia descended and began recording the titles without touching the book.

"Voiceless Choir. Garden of Bones. Hollow Throne. Inner Moon..."

Kael stopped at a different page.

There was no project name.

Only a personal entry.

Kael Scarlet.

Below it was a list of titles, known relationships, observed abilities, and interventions carried out by the organization.

At the bottom of the page was a recently written sentence.

Closure refused. Volume transferred.

Kael looked toward Oren above.

"Transferred where?"

The former Archivist raised his face.

"To the only place that does not belong to this archive."

"Which one?"

Oren smiled.

"The original volume."

The final page of the index turned on its own.

On it was the drawing of a white tower built at the center of a shadowless plain. At its base, a door stood open.

Someone had just taken Kael’s record inside.

Beneath the image, a new sentence began writing itself.

The First Archive requests correction.

Kael closed the book before the message finished.

Amelia looked at him.

"You are not going to ask what that means?"

"I am."

Kael stared at Oren.

"After every name has been returned to the correct body."

The former Archivist lost his smile.

Kael handed the index to Elion.

"No one accesses the nine projects until we finish here. No removing artifacts, opening vessels, or chasing towers."

Amelia raised an eyebrow.

"You are postponing a pursuit?"

"I am choosing the order."

Sylphie tightened her hand around his.

Kael looked toward the fifty-eight employees being removed and the books that carried their identities.

The First Archive possessed his record.

That was a problem.

But for the first time since entering the Black Archive, Kael remembered perfectly every step he needed to take.

"First, we return the people."

He looked once more at the image of the white tower before closing the index’s cover.

"Then I correct the archive."

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