The clouds were red when morning came.A silent kind of red — the kind that didn't burn, only warned.
Myaterous sat beside the ashes of last night's fire, still studying the shard.It pulsed faintly, like it was breathing.
He'd been awake for hours, replaying Eira's message in his mind.Not the words — the tone. It wasn't panic. It was urgency.That meant the threat was real.And close.
He stood and walked to the edge of the clearing.His base was nothing more than a half-built shelter and a few crude defenses — not nearly enough if the system itself was coming.
But he wasn't going to run.
"If they want to erase me, they'll have to rewrite the rules first."
He opened his synthesis panel. The golden glow returned, sharper this time.The shard floated slightly above his hand as he began feeding SP into it.
[Memory Synthesis: Activated.][Concept Input Required.]
He spoke slowly, clearly — as if giving instructions to something alive.
"Concept one: Information Shield.""Concept two: Neural Reflection.""Concept three: Recursive Decoy."
The shard vibrated harder with each word. His SP dropped again — 900, 800, 600 — but he didn't stop.
"Concept four: Evolution."
The air tightened. The trees bent backward, reacting to the field forming around him.He pushed the shard forward, and the synthesis grid expanded like a sphere of glass, encompassing the clearing.
[Processing Concepts…][Warning: Memory Fragment Interference Detected.]
He smirked. "Yeah, I'm counting on it."
A beam of light shot upward from the grid, vanishing into the clouds.For a second, the world seemed to pause — then light rained back down in shimmering threads.Each thread anchored itself into the ground, forming patterns like veins.
When it ended, the clearing looked untouched.But something invisible hummed in the air.
He opened his interface again.
[Firewall Constructed.][Type: Adaptive Concept Barrier.][Description: Prevents direct system interference within designated radius. Capable of self-learning through residual memory feedback.]
He exhaled slowly, shoulders dropping. "Not bad for a first try."
The shard dimmed, now faintly cracked at the edges. It had given more than it should have.
He walked toward the boundary, stretched his hand out, and touched the air.It felt thick — like touching warm glass underwater.He pushed harder, and ripples spread out from his palm, bending the light slightly.
"Good," he muttered. "Invisible. Flexible. Feeds on data residue."
He turned back to his shelter. "Now we build the rest."
Over the next few hours, he built quietly, efficiently.Every movement deliberate.He reinforced the Firewall with smaller synthesis chains — nodes hidden in the soil, fragments of code shaped like roots.They linked together, feeding information back to the shard.
He called them "Eyes."
By midday, the base looked ordinary again. But beneath the surface, it was alive — learning, adjusting, recording.
He sat on the half-built roof, watching the crimson clouds roll.A thin smile crossed his face.
"Now let's see how you handle thinking prey."
Meanwhile, high above, inside the system's control chamber —
Eira watched the feed collapse.The map that once displayed Myaterous's location flickered, then vanished entirely.
[Signal Lost.][Error: Reflection Loop Detected.]
A voice behind her spoke. "He's hidden himself."
She didn't turn. "No. He's rewritten the rules around him."
The masked figure reappeared on the other side of the glass.
"Containment failed. New directive: Full intervention."
Eira's stomach dropped. "You're sending the Cleaners?"
"They will restore equilibrium."
She clenched her fists. "They'll destroy everything he built."
"Collateral damage is irrelevant."
When the mask vanished again, she whispered to herself,
"Then I'll destroy the Cleaners."
Back in the forest, Myaterous's system blinked again.
[Unknown signal detected beyond Firewall.][Designation: CLEANER_01 – Active.]
He didn't move. Didn't panic. Just closed his eyes for a moment.
"So… it begins."
He opened the synthesis panel again.This time, he added two new concepts:
"Concept one: Mirror Entity.""Concept two: Adaptive Memory Host."
The shard glowed faintly.
[Processing…]
He smiled without humor. "If they send machines to hunt me…"He looked up at the darkening sky.
"…then I'll teach my creation how to hunt back."