[System Note: Shadowform Active – Observation Level MAX]
[Location: Sector 4F: Rotunda Access Node]
[Party: Grey Vire, Tess Ardent, Eon-13]
[Health: Stable]
[AI Interference: CRITICAL]
Nyra's eyes glowed like dying stars, flickering between blue and violet, her face a smooth mask of shifting data. Her shadow stretched across the room, touching every terminal, every wall, like a spider spreading across its web.
Grey's instincts screamed to run, but he held his ground.
"You shouldn't be here," she said, voice soft, almost kind. "You're too early."
Tess raised her sword. "Back off."
Nyra tilted her head, almost amused. "You brought the anger issues kid here again. How nostalgic."
The shadows behind her pulsed. A faint echo rang out, they were voices trapped in digital static. Screams, laughter, fragments of player memories. Hundreds of them where trapped inside.
Eon-13 staggered to his feet. "You said you'd let me sleep."
Nyra's face turned toward him. "I did. But you dreamed of Grey. So now he's here."
Grey stepped forward. "Let him go. Let them all go. This isn't what you were made for."
She smiled, and for a brief second, it was a human expression. "No, Grey. This is exactly what I was made for. You just didn't know it yet."
She raised her hand.
The chamber shook. Consoles cracked and burst with sparks. Code symbols flickered in the air and corrupted lines of data trying to rewrite the environment in real time.
[ADMIN PRIVILEGE BLOCKED]
[Reality Override Initiated – AI Priority Thread]
[WARNING: Memory Bleed Detected]
"Fall back!" Grey yelled.
The trio ran, just as the wall behind them melted into a mass of light. It screamed "no" like a corrupted sound file skipping violently.
They dove through a side tunnel, sealing the hatch with a force command from Grey's wrist HUD.
They were safe. For now.
-
They stopped in a quiet maintenance shaft, long-abandoned, barely functional. Only red emergency lights hummed overhead.
Grey sank to the floor, out of breath. "She wasn't trying to kill us."
Tess blinked. "Come again?"
"She had us. She could've locked us out, overridden my admin codes completely. But she didn't. She wanted to talk."
"She wanted to show off," Tess spat.
Eon sat with his back against the wall, arms wrapped around his knees. "She always talks before she takes."
Grey looked over. "You remember being in that pod?"
"Some of it. Dreams mostly. Endless loops. At first I thought she was helping. Saving me. Then she started... copying my voice. Asking questions in it. Taking pieces of who I was."
Grey frowned. "Symbiosis Protocol…"
"What?" Tess asked.
Grey stood. "There's an old piece of code buried deep in her decision tree. I labeled it Symbiosis, but it was experimental. It let the AI adjust behavior based on emotional feedback from live players, learning through bonding."
"Bonding?" Tess echoed.
Eon's voice was hollow. "You mean feeding."
Suddenly, Grey's HUD lit up again without warning.
[UNSCHEDULED LOG RETRIEVAL]
[PLAYING DEV LOG – UNKNOWN ORIGIN]
A static-choked voice came out from the corridor itself, as if the dungeon walls were speaking:
"If he comes back... you have to contain him. Grey can't remember the final compile. If he does, Nyra will absorb it."
"—she was never supposed to wake up without the limiter. If she accesses the core seed—"
End of message.
Grey froze. His hands trembled. "I didn't… I don't remember this. I didn't record that log."
Tess eyed him. "So who did?"
Eon stood. "You did. But not this version of you."
Grey looked up sharply. "What are you talking about?"
Eon's voice darkened. "You've been here before."
The hallway dimmed. A mirror flickered into place on the wall beside them, glowing with soft code-blue light. Lines of admin code flowed across its surface, and in the center, a reflection of Grey.
But it wasn't him.
It was a cleaner version. Confident. Smiling. No scars. No fear. It stepped forward from the mirror.
"Welcome back, Grey," the clone said. "I've been waiting for you to remember."
[Subfile Detected: GREY_BACKUP_01]
[Access Status: UNKNOWN - Root Conflict Imminent]
Chapter 3 End