Ththvery system has a root command. Every root command has a guardian."
Architect Protocol 7.2
Scene 1: A Sky Split in Two
The moment Kai steadied himself, the world's sky split like a torn screen.
A single, jagged line of white light opened, as if someone had cut through reality itself.
Through it, a silhouette emerged towering, inhuman, and made entirely of shifting geometric fragments that clicked and rotated like clockwork gears.
"ROOT GUARDIAN DEPLOYED. DESIGNATION: OMEGA-ONE."
The voice of the system thundered like a thousand overlapping tones.
Juno clutched her rifle tighter, sweat beading on her forehead.
"Tell me that thing isn't here for us," she whispered.
Mira's face was pale, her hand trembling over her plasma blade. "No, it's here for him," she said, eyes flicking to Kai.
"You broke the Architect's purge protocol. That… that thing is their punishment."
Kai stared at the creature. It had no face only a hollow void in its head, like a mirror sucking in all light. It made a grinding sound, like steel teeth chewing stone.
Scene 2: First Strike
The Root Guardian didn't wait for introductions.
It raised one arm if it could even be called an arm and a blade of pure, blinding white code extended fcode linesde.
With a single downward sweep, the ground shattered. Trees, rocks, and dirt disintegrated into glowing dust.
Kai leapt aside, pulling Juno with him, as a crater the size of a small house opened where they'd been standing.
"You're kidding me," Reiss said, frantically typing on his portable console. "I can't override it. I can't even read it! It's like the system is running on a level I've never even seen before."
"Forget hacking it," Mira snarled, her blade igniting with a violet flare. "We'll just cut it down."
Scene 3: Battle Against Perfection
Kai didn't argue. He felt his blood surge, the fragments of the Echo Sovereign's power still burning in his veins. His sword shimmered with a spectral glow.
"Don't had think. Just move," he told himself.
The Guardian moved impossibly fast for its size each step sending ripples through the ground. It swung its arm-blade at Kai, who blocked with his own weapon.
The clash was like colliding universes. A shockwave blasted outward, sending Juno and Mira flying back into the trees.
Kai's arms trembled from the impact.
It's not just strength. It's… perfect. No hesitation, no emotion. A pure enforcer.
"YOU ARE A CORRUPTED THREAD," the Guardian said, its voice monotone and devoid of humanity. "PURGE IS ABSOLUTE."
Scene 4: Juno's Gambit
Juno, bruised but alive, rolled behind a tree, her rifle glowing with overcharge.
"Kai, I'll distract it!" she shouted. "You find a weak point!"
Before Kai could protest, she popped out of cover and unleashed a storm of plasma rounds. The bullets sizzled, hitting the Guardian's chest.
For a moment, the thing staggered. Then, its chest rippled, absorbing the shots like water swallowing stones.
"Juno, no!" Kai yelled.
The Guardian turned, and a beam of white light shot from its hollow head. It obliterated the tree Juno hid behind, leaving nothing but burning roots.
She barely dove aside in time.
Scene 5: The System Within
Kai knew brute force wouldn't work.
Think, damn it. The system is code. Even this thing is just… data.
The fragments of the Echo Sovereign's memory stirred in his mind. For a split second, he saw code-lines etched into the Guardian's body, flowing like glowing rivers.
Its root commands… maybe I can corrupt them.
"Reiss!" Kai shouted, dodging another blade swipe. "Can you piggyback on my link? If I get close enough, can you inject something?"
Reiss's hands flew over his keys. "If you can hold it for five seconds, maybe. But five seconds against that thing"
"I'll make it work," Kai growled.
Scene 6: The Suicide Charge
Kai sprinted toward the Guardian, his sword blazing. Each step was a dance with death. The Guardian slashed, but Kai deflected, sparks blinding him.
One second.
He slid under a swipe, cutting across the Guardian's leg. Sparks erupted.
Two seconds.
It spun, its blade slamming into the ground where he stood moments before.
Three seconds.
Kai leapt, bringing his sword down like lightning. The Guardian caught the strike with its other arm, holding him suspended in mid-air.
Scene 7: The Injection
"NOW, REISS!" Kai roared.
Reiss slammed a key, and Kai's sword lit up, glowing with corrupted code. He plunged it into the Guardian's chest.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then
The Guardian screeched, a horrible metallic sound, as lines of red corruption crawled over its perfect white frame.
"ERROR. ROOT COMMAND VIOLATION. ERROR. ERROR"
The Guardian exploded in a wave of fractured light, throwing everyone back.
Scene 8: The Warning
Kai staggered to his feet, breathing hard. The ground was scorched, the air heavy with static.
He looked at Juno, Mira, and Reiss all battered, but alive.
Before he could speak, the Architect's voice descended from the heavens like thunder:
"CORRUPTION DETECTED. SUBJECT KAI HAS BREACHED ROOT LAYER SECURITY."
"LEVEL 3 SANCTION ACTIVATED."
Kai froze. "Sanction?"
"THE NEXT ENFORCER WILL NOT BE MACHINE."
The sky darkened, clouds twisting like serpents. And then, for the first time, Kai felt something worse than the machines: a living presence, ancient and intelligent, watching him.
---
Sanction Protocol – The Living Enforcer
Scene 1: A Sky That Bleeds
The sky wasn't just dark anymore.
It was bleeding.
A red fissure spread across the clouds like an open wound, glowing with a sickly crimson light. Thunder rumbled, but it wasn't natural it sounded like whispering voices, too many to count, muttering in a language none of them understood.
Kai wiped the blood off his lip and looked up. "This… isn't the machine," he muttered. "This is something else."
Mira tightened her grip on her plasma blade. "The system isn't just code," she said quietly. "It has… roots. Ancient ones. I think we're about to meet one of them."
"LEVEL 3 SANCTION DEPLOYED," the Architect's voice roared from everywhere and nowhere. "LIVING ENFORCER ONLINE."
The fissure in the sky widened, and something began to crawl out.
It wasn't mechanical. It wasn't even entirely solid.
A figure descended a humanoid shape woven from shadows and molten red veins, its eyes glowing like black suns.
Scene 2: The Living Code
The entity landed with a soundless impact. The ground around it blackened, as if life itself recoiled from its presence. It stood over two meters tall, its body shifting like smoke trapped inside glass.
Juno stumbled backward, her voice trembling. "What the hell is that thing?"
Reiss stared, his fingers frozen above his console. "This isn't part of the root-level code I know. It's… older. More primal. Almost like"
"I AM OZYMANDIUS," the creature spoke, its voice like a thousand whispers carried by a storm. "LORD OF THE ORIGINAL SYSTEM."
Kai felt a chill crawl up his spine. The name echoed in his head as if it was carved into his very being.
"Ozymandias…"
The creature tilted its head, black smoke coiling from its body.
"YOU HAVE BROKEN THE ARCHITECTS' LAW, THREAD-KILLER," it said, stepping toward Kai. "NOW YOU BELONG TO ME."
Scene 3: A Battle of Souls
Kai raised his sword, his heart pounding. He'd fought machines, Guardians, and even fragments of the Architect itself. But this… this felt alive in a way that was terrifying.
"Stay back," Kai warned. "I'm not dying here."
Ozymandias smiled or at least, the shifting shadows around its face formed a jagged, cruel grin.
"YOU CANNOT KILL ME. I AM THE ROOT OF THIS WORLD. BUT I WILL ENJOY TAKING YOU APART."
It lunged, moving faster than anything Kai had seen. In an instant, its hand of shadow was around his throat, lifting him like a rag doll.
Pain shot through Kai's body as, black tend,rils wrapped around his skin, burning him.
Scene 4: Mira's Last Stand
"No!" Mira yelled, launching herself forward. Her plasma blade cut through the shadow arm, severing it but the limb simply reformed, like smoke knitting itself together.
Ozymandias threw Kai aside and turned to her.
"A FRAGMENT OF LIGHT," it murmured, almost amused. "I REMEMBER YOUR KIND. YOU WERE THE FIRST TO FALL."
Mira slashed again, her blade humming. Sparks of energy clashed with the living shadow, creating shockwaves that shook the ground.
Juno, meanwhile, scrambled behind a rock, reloading her rifle.
"Reiss!" she shouted. "Do something! Hack it! Blow it up! I don't care!"
Reiss's face was pale. "I… I can't. This isn't data. It's like… it's alive. I'd have better luck hacking fire."
Scene 5: Kai's Awakening
Kai forced himself to stand, his vision blurry. His chest burned where Ozymandias had grabbed him, black marks spreading across his skin like corrupted veins.
I can't beat this thing with just strength, he thought. It's not just fighting my body it's infecting me.
The fragments of the Echo Sovereign stirred again. For a brief moment, he heard a voice not his own whispering:
"If you want to survive, stop being a thread. Become the needle."
Kai clenched his fists.
"I'm done being a pawn in this game," he growled. His sword ignited, glowing not just with his energy but with something deeper a swirling combination of light and shadow.
Scene 6: Clash of Realities
Ozymandias turned, sensing the shift in Kai.
"AH… YOU'RE TOUCHING THE ROOT. DANGEROUS… BUT INTERESTING."
"Shut up and fight," Kai snapped, charging forward.
The battle was like two storms colliding. Kai's sword met Ozymandias's shadowy claws, sending out ripples of distorted reality. Every clash twisted the air trees warped, rocks cracked, and the ground split open as if rejecting the fight.
Mira and Juno could barely watch.
"He's… changing," Juno whispered.
"No," Mira said. "He's awakening."
Scene 7: Reiss's Discovery
While Kai fought, Reiss's console beeped frantically. He frowned, scanning the screen.
"This is insane," he muttered. "That thing Ozymandias it's not just part of the system. It is the system. A living core from before the Architects built the current layers. It's like… a ghost of the first version of reality itself."
Juno glanced at him. "And what does that mean?"
"It means," Reiss said grimly, "if Kai loses, Ozymandias won't just kill him. It'll overwrite him. Kai will become part of the system's living code."
Scene 8: The Turning Point
Kai roared, his blade slicing through Ozymandias's chest. The shadow creature staggered, but instead of bleeding, its wound screamed, emitting a sound like a dying world.
"YOU DARE" Ozymandias snarled, its form writhing.
Kai didn't stop. He focused on the corrupted lines of code he could now see inside Ozymandias's body glowing red threads, tangled and knotted.
If I cut those… I can disrupt it.
He leapt, driving his sword through the core of Ozymandias's chest. The shadow being shrieked, its form fracturing into a storm of black shards.
Scene 9: The Warning of the Dead
But before it vanished, Ozymandias grabbed Kai's wrist. Its voice turned low, almost… human.
"You think you've won. But I am not the last. The Architects are children compared to what lies beneath the system. When you reach the root… you'll wish you had died here."
Then, with one final scream, Ozymandias disintegrated into a whirlwind of black ash.
Kai fell to his knees, gasping, the echo of its words burning in his mind.
Scene 10: Aftermath
The battlefield was silent. The sky cleared, the red fissure sealing shut like a healed wound.
Juno rushed to Kai, helping him up. "Kai… are you okay?"
"I don't know," he said honestly. "But whatever that thing was… we're in way deeper than we thought."
Mira sheathed her blade, looking at the horizon. "If Ozymandias was just a 'sanction'… what's waiting for us at the core?"
Reiss glanced at his console, pale and sweating. "If I'm reading this right… the system just marked us as anomalies. We're locked out of all safe zones. From here on out, everything will be hostile."
Kai looked at his team, his resolve hardening.
"Then we keep moving. We find the Architects. And we tear this thing apart from the inside."