The four most powerful beings in my world stared at me, and in their collective gaze, I felt the full, crushing weight of my own insignificance. I was a glitched piece of data, a line of broken code that had somehow found its way into the command prompt of the gods.
The silence was finally broken by the ashy-haired man, Ashe. His voice was as crisp and dry as autumn leaves, each word precise and devoid of any unnecessary emotion.
"Let us dispense with the formalities," he began, his gaze sharp and analytical. "You are no doubt aware of who we are, given the circumstances of our last meeting. However, protocol dictates a proper introduction." He gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. "I am Ashe. I am the current Founder and acting head of the Administrator Faction."
His introduction was as clinical and efficient as his entire faction. He then glanced at the two other strangers at the table. "Gezir. Lunet."
The giant with the obsidian shield, Gezir, inclined his massive head. His voice was a low, powerful rumble that seemed to vibrate through the stone floor. "Gezir. Adventurer Faction." That was all. A name and a title, as blunt and solid as the man himself.
The woman with the golden eyes, Lunet, on the other hand, beamed, a brilliant, energetic smile that was a stark contrast to the grim atmosphere. "Lunet! A pleasure to finally meet the man causing all the fun!" she chirped, her voice like a cascade of ringing bells. "I represent the Merchant Faction. We handle the coin, the contracts, and all the interesting things that make this city tick."
Ashe's gaze then shifted to the Builder, who remained as still and silent as a mountain. "And I believe our host requires no introduction," Ashe stated. "Krauss, Founder of the Builder Faction."
Krauss. The name still felt alien, a small, humanizing detail on a being I had only ever thought of as an elemental force. He offered no sign of acknowledgement, his sharp eyes remaining fixed on me.
The introductions were over. The brief, almost normal moment of formality evaporated, and the crushing weight of the room's true purpose returned with a vengeance.
Ashe steepled his fingers, his expression turning from formal to grave. "Kael," he began, and the way he said my name made it sound like a case file number. "We have summoned you here for one reason. The incident in the wasteland."
A cold spike of dread pierced through me. I knew this was coming.
"Your… synchronization… with the Lineage Orb of the Founder Helias Rogue," Ashe continued, his voice dropping, each word carefully chosen. "What you did out there was not a simple absorption of a skill. You forced a complete and total merger with a corrupted, high-level data-fragment. Such an act is unprecedented. And it is a matter of the highest possible concern for the security and stability of this city."
My mouth went dry. I had known, in the back of my mind, that what I had done was a terrible, desperate gamble. I had felt the corruption, the tearing of my own data. To hear it laid out so plainly by the head of the Administrators… it made the reality of my transgression terrifyingly clear. The Lineage Orb was already a cursed, taboo item. To not just use it, but to consume it, to become one with it… I had broken the ultimate rule of this world.
I finally found my voice, the question tearing itself from my throat, raw and filled with a quiet terror. "What… what is going to happen to me?"
It was Lunet who answered, but her response was not the one I expected. She let out a short, sharp laugh. It wasn't a cruel sound, but it was utterly devoid of comfort. It was the laugh of someone who saw the profound, tragic irony in the rules she was about to recite.
"Oh, the things that should happen to you," she said, leaning forward, her golden eyes sparkling with a dangerous light. "The protocol is quite clear, you know. An individual who has initiated a full-data merger with a Founder-class Lineage fragment is classified as a 'Pre-Catastrophic Entity'."
She savored the official-sounding term, letting it hang in the air. "Such an entity is considered to be in the process of an irreversible corruption. The prognosis is always the same: you will eventually lose control. Your consciousness, the 'you' that is Kael, will be overwritten by the raw, fragmented rage of the echo you absorbed. You will become a Lineage Monster, but one with the memories and foundational skills of a Founder. A walking apocalypse."
Every word was a nail being hammered into my coffin. I could feel the cold sweat beading on my forehead.
"Therefore," she continued, her cheerful tone making the words even more horrifying, "the standard procedure, as outlined in the Municipal Stability Act, section seven, clause four, is immediate and preventative termination. Execution."
Execution. The word hung in the silent chamber, cold and absolute.
"We wouldn't even wait for you to turn," Lunet added, as if clarifying a minor point. "The risk is too great. The moment we confirmed the full merger, the protocol would be to put you down. Cleanly, efficiently. Before the monster you are destined to become has a chance to wake up."
I stared at her, my mind reeling, my blood running cold. This was it. I had survived the Fallen Founder only to be executed by the ones who were supposed to be my allies. My desperate act to save my friends and avenge Silas had only succeeded in signing my own death warrant.
"But," Lunet said, and her smile turned into a sly, knowing grin. "You are a very, very lucky boy, Kael."
She gestured with her thumb toward the silent, stone-faced man at the head of the table. "Because for some reason, your taciturn, anti-social, rarely-speaks-in-meetings Faction leader decided to make your case his personal project."
My head snapped toward Krauss. I stared at him, my mind a maelstrom of confusion. The Builder? The man who had evaluated me like a piece of material, who hadn't said a single word to me since the mission began?
"Krauss here," Lunet continued, clearly enjoying the drama, "stood before the Founder's council and formally appealed your termination order. Lodged a formal stay of execution, citing you as a… what was the term, Ashe?"
Ashe sighed, a faint, weary sound. "A 'unique, strategically valuable asset with potential for controlled development'," he recited, the words sounding like they left a bad taste in his mouth.
"That's the one!" Lunet chirped. "He argued that what you did, while reckless and a flagrant violation of every safety protocol we have, also demonstrated an unprecedented level of compatibility with Founder-class data. He made a case that you are not just a walking time bomb, but a potential new type of weapon."
I stared at Krauss, my heart hammering against my ribs. I tried to read his expression, to find some clue, some reason for his impossible intervention. But his face was a mask of stone, his sharp eyes revealing nothing. He had saved my life. He had stood against the other three most powerful beings in the world and defended me, the glitched, corrupted player who had brought nothing but trouble since the day I arrived.
The question was a silent scream in my mind.
Why?