The sky didn't crack.
It folded.
Like parchment curling under flame, the air above the Field bent inward as if something massive had tried to crawl through it and got stuck. It didn't tear. It twisted.
Saylor stared up from the broken platform, dust still clinging to his shoulders. The aftermath of Myrix's collapse hung in the air like burnt breath.
Lucia adjusted her chain's grip. Brant was silent.
> [SYSTEM MESSAGE: POST-GOD VOID DETECTED] [FIELD PURGE INCOMPLETE]
The Wheel did not spin.
Instead, it shivered.
And then, they heard it.
Not a roar.
A whisper.
A whisper from everywhere.
---
It began at the platform's edge.
A shimmer. A blur.
Then a human shape. Half-formed. Ghostlike. But not godlike. Remnant.
The first of dozens.
They stepped out of nothing, each one wearing pieces of a player—clothes from another time, scars from another life, weapons half-formed and glitching. Some held chains. Some held fragments of Tickets that glowed and flickered.
Lucia took a step back.
> "They're not projections anymore."
> "No," Saylor said. "They're... here."
One of the Remnants looked up.
And spoke.
> "Saylor."
Not a title. Not a player ID.
A name.
---
> [FIELD ERROR: REMNANT SOLIDIFICATION EXCEEDS THRESHOLD] [RECURSIVE ID = SYSTEM INSTIGATOR?]
Brant swore. "Are they saying you did this?"
Lucia flinched as one of the Remnants approached her and then stopped. Its eyes were mirrors.
Saylor stepped forward.
> "They were trapped in fragments. Memory cages. Now that Myrix is gone... they're free."
The Remnant spoke again.
> "You opened the first door. Now we choose the next god."
Then it raised its hand.
And others followed.
---
> [REWRITE PROTOCOL: REMNANT QUORUM FORMING] [SYSTEM DEITY NOMINATION EVENT DETECTED]
Lucia's breath caught. "They're... voting?"
Brant gripped his fists. "This is a rebellion."
Saylor didn't answer. He stepped forward, calling up the internal link he'd felt stirring since Taelrin's tomb.
He activated Unholy Devotion.
---
> [UNHOLY DEVOTION: CHANNEL INITIATED] (You may bind up to 3 Remnants. Each binding consumes 1 pulse of mental integrity.)
Saylor focused on three: the mirror-eyed Remnant, a girl with a golden chain burned into her wrist, and a third, cloaked in silence.
> [BINDING COMPLETE: 3 REMNANTS ABSORBED]
Then it hit him.
A flood of not just abilities—memories.
Flash: A platform overrun by red flame.
Flash: A god speaking in his mother's voice.
Flash: Himself, screaming in a language he had never spoken.
He staggered.
Lucia caught him. "Don't push it—you said yourself the system filters these for a reason."
> "It doesn't anymore," he muttered. "I am the filter."
---
The bound Remnants hovered near him now like tethered spirits. They weren't ghosts. They were pieces of lives never resolved.
And now they were his.
> [ABILITY ACQUIRED: SPEECHLESS WARD] (Reduces god-level audio-based effects by 80%) [ABILITY ACQUIRED: FORGOTTEN CHAINCALL] (Lucia only: May chain-bind to bound Remnants within 40m)
Lucia's chain flared. She gasped. "I didn't do anything."
> "You were connected to me when I did," Saylor said. "The system can't tell us apart anymore."
---
A hostile Remnant lunged.
This one wore a broken god-mask. Its Ticket was fused into its chest. It shrieked in a half-human voice.
Brant stepped forward and activated Reflective Bind. The ground anchored and pulsed.
The Remnant slammed into the looped chainfield and twisted in on itself.
> [REMNANT REJECTED: IDENTITY FAILURE]
> "They're not all friendly," Brant grunted.
> "No," Saylor said, eyeing the system messages starting to flicker. "Some of them were being forged into gods when they were stopped."
Lucia pointed upward.
> "Look."
Above, the Wheel had not spun.
But it had fractured.
In the center, a vote counter appeared.
---
> [REMNANT VOTE IN PROGRESS]
[DEITY ASCENSION CANDIDATES: 1]
[TARGET: COGNI, SAYLOR]
> [APPROVAL: 47% AND RISING]
Lucia turned slowly.
> "They want to make you the next god."
Saylor didn't blink.
> "Then I guess I have to decide."
> "Do I stop the game..."
> "...or become it?"