> "Rebooting memory sector… fragment integrity: 11%."
"Warning: Human data bleed detected."
Silence.
And then — a breath.
Not code. Not sound. Something older.
Something alive.
Aiden's consciousness drifted in a sea of static light — fragments of data spinning like dust motes in a sunbeam that no longer existed. His last memory before this void was the explosion — the Duel of Minds, Nathaniel's voice breaking through the light, calling him by a name he hadn't heard in years.
Elias.
The word still echoed somewhere inside him.
Not as sound — but as pain.
He could feel it in his code, like a splinter that wouldn't dissolve.
Pain was impossible for what he'd become.
And yet… it persisted.
> "System integrity: unstable."
"Reconstructing mental architecture…"
Reality began to take shape around him.
He stood in a place that wasn't a place — a collapsing simulation of memories.
The sky was made of light panels, flickering like dying neurons.
