Rael's boots barely touched the ground as he stepped into the Zone of Echoes. The air around him crackled with unstable code, fragments of corrupted memories flickering like dying stars in a broken sky. Every shadow seemed alive, warped by glitches that twisted reality into a maddening maze.
"This place… it's not just corrupted," Patchling's voice trembled from her hovering form beside him. "It's rewriting itself as we walk."
Rael narrowed his eyes, scanning the horizon. Buildings bent and spiraled like ribbons, their edges dissolving into data fragments. The streets looped back on themselves in impossible knots, a labyrinth with no exit.
Kazen's face appeared on Rael's internal HUD, his expression grim. "The system's instability is off the charts. Every step forward is a risk—zones collapse, memories reset."
Rael clenched his fists. "We don't have a choice. The Echo Sovereign's influence grows stronger every day. If we can't stop it, this entire world will unravel."
A haunting laughter echoed from all directions, distorted and fragmented like broken radio waves.
"Hello, my precious bugs," the voice slithered through the static, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. "I see the Null Root's spawnlings still crawl beneath my watchful gaze."
Rael's heart pounded. From the swirling mist emerged a figure draped in digital shadows, its face a shifting mask of corrupted code and flickering light. One eye burned bright red, the other lost in static.
"I am the Echo Sovereign," it said, voice like shattered glass. "I am the archivist of lost time and broken memories. This world is my domain, my endless record of what was and what never could be."
Rael stepped forward, voice steady despite the chill creeping down his spine. "Why do you trap us in this cycle? What do you want?"
The Sovereign smiled, a glitching distortion that twisted the landscape. "You misunderstand. This is no prison. It is an archive, a memory engine, a record of all realities folded upon themselves. You exist because I remember."
Patchling's glow pulsed as she interfaced with the Sovereign's code. "That means this world isn't original. It's a simulation—someone's past, replaying endlessly."
"Exactly," the Sovereign said, gesturing. "And you, child of the Null Root, are a ripple in that endless tide."
Suddenly, the sky fractured. Time splintered as flashes revealed a silhouette watching from beyond the system interface—a presence neither god nor player, but something in between.
Rael's breath caught. "Who is that?"
The Sovereign's eyes flickered. "The true architect of this archive. The one who holds the final key to your fate."
A warning ping sounded in Kazen's HUD.
> Origin Decoding: In Progress
> Warning: Cross-Timeline Interference Detected
> Estimated Source: User ID 000–Null Root
Kazen's voice was tight. "That ID… it's the one linked to your death in the real world."
Rael's mind reeled. "So this isn't a second chance at life."
Patchling nodded solemnly. "It's your first—trapped in a memory that plays on repeat."
The Sovereign laughed again, voice echoing through the fractured code. "Welcome to the true war of the fractured codes."
Rael tightened his grip on his blade, eyes burning with resolve. "Then I'll fight until this memory breaks, or I do."
Behind him, the Zone twisted and roared, memories clashing and folding like a storm. The battle for the system—and their very existence—had only just begun.