Under the ruins of the dilapidated bell tower, the black bricks faintly glowed with the residual energy of the text.
Aaron leaned against the cracked pillar, panting violently, blood mixed with ink flowing from the corners of his mouth, still tightly holding the broken notebook.
"Zair... what are you?"
The feeling of the moment when he used "Memory Rewrite" just now emerged in his mind - as if the vocabulary of the whole world was rejecting him, but surrendering to that strange character.
System prompt: The remaining mental load has reached the critical limit
It is recommended to enter the "Silent Recovery" state
"No..." He spit out these two words, but his eyelids became heavier and heavier.
He knew that if he fainted here, it would be equivalent to handing himself back to the "Out of Control Guild" with his own hands.
But he couldn't hold on after all, and his consciousness fell into darkness like melted ink.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in a basement full of old books and strange runes.
Three scrolls of ancient language were inlaid on the walls of the room, slowly turning from time to time. With each turn, golden light spots would escape into Aaron's body.
"You're awake."
A hoarse but firm voice sounded beside him.
Aaron sat up immediately, his eyes locked on the person who was speaking -
It was an old man with scars all over his face, a slightly hunched back, tattered clothes, but wearing a bronze badge surrounded by three "rejection words" on his chest.
"Who are you?"
"You can call me 'the sinker'."
The old man smiled, "I am a member of the underground word-building group. We specialize in taking in scribes, word-building people, and out-of-control people wanted by the guild... and 'awakeners of lost words' like you."
"Do you know Zair?"
Aaron was immediately alert.
"I know." Shen Cizhe nodded, "The language fragments in your body are no longer complete, which means that you have successfully used 'memory reconstruction' once, which is an extremely rare 'heterogeneous reconstruction' ability."
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"This kind of ability usually only appears in true language variants."
"What do you mean?"
"You are not an ordinary composer." Shen Cizhe looked at him with a hint of complexity in his eyes, "You are the 'carrier' of the core of an ancient text."
"And Zair is just a fragment of that core word."
Aaron's head rang loudly.
But before he could ask more, suddenly, the ground shook, and a faint heat wave rose in the air.
Shen Cizhe's face changed suddenly.
"Not good, the 'strange fire' has spread to the seventh construction area."
"What is the strange fire?"
Shen Cizhe looked serious.
"A polluted text - when the power of language is infected by the 'negative word order', it will generate a 'burning structure' similar to a virus."
"It will automatically look for unprotected text sources, devour, pollute, and finally explode - forming a terrible 'language incineration'."
"In short -"
"This is a fire that ignites the world with language."
Ten minutes later, Aaron followed the Sinking Words into the seventh construction area.
It was an underground data storage site, originally a vocabulary armory during the old empire. Now it is engulfed by groups of black and red flames - the flames are silent and invisible, but they burn the text nodes in the air, making the entire space seem to be forcibly reorganized by "writing errors".
"Where is the core of the strange fire?" Aaron frowned.
The Sinking Words pointed to the center, where a suspended crystal pen tip was covered with cracks, and underneath it was a notebook pierced by chains.
"That is the 'remaining manuscript' left by the previous pen maker who failed in the experiment. It was corroded into a 'strange fire core' by the unpurified negative affixes."
"It is absorbing all the text-building power nearby."
System prompt: Encountered a dangerous area·Text strange fire pollution area
Unknown contaminated text detected: Split flame text·F33 type
Suggestion: Use pure language to suppress the core, or detonate the reverse word order
The Word Sink said coldly: "We can't hold it for too long. You have a pen and Zair's residual power-you are the only one who can neutralize it."
Aaron was silent for a few breaths and finally nodded.
He walked to the edge of the strange fire, took out the last bottle of spiritual ink, and took a deep breath.
"Use 'words' as bones and 'sequence' as fire."
He moved the tip of his pen and wrote the first paragraph in the air-
"Words cannot burn unless their meaning is out of control."
The flame paused, as if it sensed hostility.
The next sentence was written quickly:
"Those who lose control of their minds shall not be included in the dictionary."
The flames immediately began to shrink, twisting wildly into characters that looked like crying human faces.
"Come on."
Aaron wrote Zair's variant sentence-
"Zair·Purification·Type 1: Use true words to counter false flames."
Boom!
A blue light that seemed to tremble in the soul exploded from the tip of the pen, and a series of word arrays appeared in the notebook, turning into metal characters, rushing into the core of the strange fire!
Crack, crack, crack!
The crystal at the tip of the pen exploded, the chain broke, and all the flames exploded and rolled into the air in an instant-but Aaron was not hurt.
And he, with his knees softened, knelt heavily.
Pollution level: Intermediate alienation·Successful purification
Experience gained: +420
Word spirit enlightenment: +1
New ability activated: Word flame resonance (unsolved)
The seditor stepped forward to help him up, his eyes unable to hide the shock.
"You are really the core host of that word..."
"There is hope for this war."
While the seventh structural area was silently recovering, a red scroll flew into the high-level conference hall in the guild's main city, the "Old Text Temple".
"No. AX-721."
"Just triggered the purification of the 'Splitting Flame'."
"He can fight against the strange fire."
"Increase the danger level - A-level structure changer."
"Activate the 'Sealing Order'."
