The meeting happened on the floor.
Not at a table.
Not with cool holograms or war-room lighting.
Just four traumatized people sitting in a loose circle on Maya's carpet like a group therapy session that accidentally turned into a battle council.
Maxx sat cross-legged, gripping a mug of tea he didn't remember asking for.
"Okay," he said, voice shaky but determined. "I've been chased by a god Wi-Fi tree, almost kiled by a metal weapon, and kidnapped by my crush who might be a checkpoint system. I think I've earned at least some context."
Maya kept her legs tucked under her, calm but alert.
Lyra sat close. Close-close.
Fingers brushing Maxx's sleeve like she was grounding herself through contact.
4531 stood by the wall, arms crossed like a coiled weapon.
Maya nodded. "You deserve to know."
She took a long breath and here we go.
"I'm not just a student."
Maxx blinked.
"I knew it. I KNEW it. Nobody that calm is normal."
She gave him a tired look.
"I'm a Warden."
Silence.
Even Lyra stiffened at this revelation and
4531's eyes narrowed.
"You hunt anomalies."
Maya nodded.
"I contain them. Study them. Protect the world from them."
Maxx raised a slow hand.
"…Am I an anomaly?"
Maya met his eyes gently.
"Yes."
The word didn't feel cruel.
Just honest.
"My family has guarded Root activity for three generations," she continued. "We're trained to locate Root irregularities and either seal them… or guide them."
Lyra tensed.
"You were watching him."
Maya nodded again.
"From the moment he arrived at Stream University."
Maxx blinked in slow horror.
"…So when I tripped in front of you outside the cafeteria—"
"You tripped into a surveillance seal."
Maxx leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
"I can't lie. That hurts."
Maya softened.
"But things changed."
Maxx looked back at her.
"When?" he asked.
She hesitated.
"When you stopped being a mission… and started being a person."
Awkward silence.
Lyra shifted slightly closer to Maxx as
4531's jaw tightened.
Maxx's throat went dry.
"…Oh."
4531 pushed off the wall.
"The Root does not hunt randomly."
Lyra added, "It plants fragments… marks people across timelines."
Maya nodded.
"It builds vessels."
Maxx whispered,
"…Like me."
Maya's voice dropped lower.
"You weren't chosen because you were weak."
She pointed gently at his chest.
"You were chosen because you were resilient."
Silence settled heavier.
Maxx laughed once, breathless.
"…That is the nicest terrifying thing anyone has ever said to me."
Lyra's fingers tightened on his sleeve.
Then....
Maya stood and paced.
"Helix isn't your biggest threat," she said. "The Root is."
Lyra nodded.
"Helix hunts minds. The Root consumes souls."
4531 added,
"And it will attempt to reclaim him."
Maxx raised his mug.
"So what's the counterplay?"
Maya stopped walking.
"We don't wait."
Everyone looked at her and she looked straight at Maxx.
"We find it first."
Silence.
Maxx's pulse spiked.
"…You want to hunt the thing that marked my own soul?"
Maya nodded.
"Yes."
Lyra's eyes lit with a strange mix of fear and resolve.
4531 cracked her knuckles, electricity snapping.
Maxx slowly lowered his coffee mug.
"…Okay."
He stood up, his knees were shaking and his hands were trembling.
But his eyes were steady.
"Let's go find my stalker god tree."
The lights in the room flickered at this moment.
Maya froze.
Lyra felt it.
4531 turned toward the wall.
A symbol burned faintly into the air as a branching spiral was twisting and watching them.
Maxx swallowed.
"…It heard us."
Maya whispered.
"Yes."
Outside the room, something shifted and it seemed old and hungry.
And something very, very interested at this point.
The symbol didn't disappear.
It grew.
Thin white-blue lines spread through the air like cracks in glass — branching, twisting, crawling across the walls. The spiral pulsed once.
Then the room tilted.
Maxx grabbed the table.
"It's happening again. It's always moving when I finally get comfortable."
Maya was already forming a counter-seal in the air with her fingers, glowing symbols snapping into place.
Lyra stepped closer to Maxx, her shoulder brushing his arm.
4531 moved in front of them like a shield.
The spiral expanded.
And then it tore.
Reality split open like wet paper.
Behind the tear — not darkness — but a corridor of roots made of light and data, twisting infinitely into something that felt like the inside of a living god.
Maxx's breath left him.
"That's…"
Maya finished it for him.
"…A Root Gate."
It Wasn't Pulling Them at this weird moment but..
It was inviting them.
The air hummed and the pull wasn't violent.
It was surprisingly gentle and persuasive
like a hand on your back guiding you forward.
Lyra's fingers brushed his.
"It recognizes you."
Maxx laughed weakly.
"I feel very recognized right now."
4531 scanned the corridor, energy building in her palms.
"This is not a forced incursion."
Maya nodded slowly.
"No… it's a test."
The spiral pulsed again and a voice spoke.
Not aloud.
Inside Maxx.
Come home.
He recoiled at this voice' s sound
"Nope. Nope nope nope. I already have roommates."
The old voice didn't argue.
It waited patiently and it seemed
Unbothered.
Maya stepped beside him.
"If you step through," she said quietly, "we can't guarantee where it takes you."
Lyra's voice was softer.
"But we won't let you go alone."
4531 didn't speak.
She just moved closer as a protective presence.
Solid and Ready.
Maxx looked at the Root Gate then at them.
Then back at it.
He imagined running,hiding and pretending he was normal again.
He thought about the billboard.
The truck.
The moment everything ended.
And the thing that chose him.
He swallowed.
"…Okay."
Lyra stiffened and 4531 sparked harder.
Maya's eyes sharpened as he stepped forward then the Root reacted instantly and
the corridor widened.
Light thickened while the gate opened fully.
Maxx turned back.
A unusual crooked smile.
"If I get eaten by a cosmic Wi-Fi forest, I'm haunting all of you."
Maya smirked.
Lyra breathed out a shaky laugh.
4531 just nodded like that was a promise.
And together —
they stepped into the Root.
New Space: The Inner Layer
The world inverted,Sound died and light bent.
The ground wasn't ground — it was memory.
Maxx felt it before he saw it.
This wasn't another place,it was a full mind
Old .Vast, hungry and curious.
Something watched them as they warped here.
And this time —
it wasn't hiding.
A massive shape began forming in the distance.
Not a monster.
Not a man.
But a network of branching consciousness pulling itself into a form the human brain could process.
A silhouette made of stars and wires.
And it spoke.
You came willingly.
Maxx lifted his chin.
"Yeah," he said, voice shaking.
"Now explain why you ruined my life."
The thing leaned closer as the branches stretched and light pulsing with intent thick in the air.
Because you survived it.
Silence dropped like a coffin.
The figure raised one limb made of pure data-light.
And pointed straight at Lyra.
She is not supposed to exist.
Lyra froze.
4531's hand ignited with power.
Maya's seal flared.
And Maxx stepped forward with heart hammering in his chest.
"Don't talk about her like she's a glitch."
The Root pulsed as it said
Then prove she isn't.
The world bent as this reality prepared to test them.
And far above the Inner Layer —
Helix activated an override protocol.
Rogue assets detected.
Intervention authorized.
The war wasn't coming.
It had already started.