The sky had settled back into an uneasy calm, but the tremors beneath their feet told a different story. Rael's gaze lingered on the place where the shadow had appeared—a place now silent, yet filled with unseen eyes.
"We can't just stand here," Oroth said, breaking the silence. "If that figure is watching, it means the system knows we're onto something."
Patchling hovered near the core, her glowing eyes reflecting the swirling data inside. "The memory loops are fragments—echoes of a reality long gone, or maybe never meant to be. But they hold the key."
Kazen's fingers flew over his interface, piecing together data faster than ever. "Cross-timeline interference means multiple realities bleeding into each other. Someone—or something—is rewriting the rules."
Rael clenched his fists. "So, if we're trapped in someone else's memory, maybe we're just pawns."
"No," Patchling replied firmly. "We're the glitch. The anomaly. The system didn't account for us."
A sudden alarm blared through the core. Kazen's screen flashed.
> Incoming system override protocol
> Threat level: Critical
> Initiating lockdown in 3...2...
The world flickered again, buildings warping, the sky splitting into shards of light and shadow.
"We don't have much time," Oroth said, drawing his blade as the landscape distorted around them. "We need to find the source of the memory engine. Tear it down before it consumes everything."
Rael's mind raced. "But where do we even start?"
Patchling's voice was steady but urgent. "There's a place—deep in the code—where the original sequence was first written. If we reach it, we might be able to rewrite our fate."
With no other choice, they plunged forward into the fractured world, chasing echoes of memories and truths buried beneath layers of code.
As they disappeared into the glitching horizon, a whisper echoed behind them, barely audible but chilling:
"Your rebellion has only just begun."