The reconstructed academy had become a patchwork of serenity and distortion. Some halls were clean, restored, even warm. Others shimmered with fractured illusions and distant, whispered echoes. The sky overhead continued its slow repair—a dome of light and code, cracked but healing.
Jay Arkwell walked alone for the first time since Null's integration.
Each step he took across the rebuilt corridor felt heavier than the last. Not in body, but in memory. A part of him still lingered in the void—a part that wore a cold, expressionless face and whispered truths laced in static. Null was gone, yes. But not erased.
He was part of Jay now. And that meant something had changed.
"You were right," Jay murmured to no one. "You weren't a glitch. You were the part I didn't want to face. The version of me I could've become."
A terminal on the wall blinked open beside him, revealing fragments of system logs, encrypted and unreadable. Jay ignored it. He didn't need more data. He needed air.
