There was no path.
Only motion.
And even that felt like a lie.
Nox ran because his body remembered how. Because the girl with no shadow kept pulling him forward. Because behind them, the world was trying to catch up — to correct itself.
But this place didn't want to be corrected.
The void twisted with each step. Floors turned to static. Walls bled half-formed glyphs that blinked and whispered curses he didn't understand. Every breath he took felt like it passed through someone else's memory before reaching his lungs.
Reality was sick here.
And somehow… it felt like home.
---
[LOOM PURSUIT STATUS: JAMMED]
Commander-Level Trace Displaced
Estimated Lock Recovery: 5 minutes 44 seconds
[CAUTION: NULLSPACE THRESHOLD BREACHED]
Pattern Density: 0%
Threat Response: DISABLED
Welcome, Unwritten.
---
He stumbled to a stop when she finally did.
No command. No signal. She just… stopped.
Nox nearly crashed into her. His chest heaved. His legs burned. But she stood still, like a blade frozen mid-fall.
She hadn't said a word since they escaped.
She didn't seem out of breath.
Didn't even seem like she breathed.
Around her — broken threads hovered in the air like dead leaves in zero gravity. Glyph fragments hung mid-glitch. The whole pocket of space bent toward her.
Not like gravity.
Like fear.
Nox opened his mouth — but she turned, her eyes meeting his.
They were strange.
Not glowing. Not void-black.
Just… quiet. Like they had seen too much to bother reacting anymore.
---
"Null-type," she said at last. "Still functional. Huh."
"Okay," Nox gasped, clutching his ribs. "Start explaining."
She tilted her head slightly.
"What part?"
"The part where I'm being hunted by a sword-wielding avatar of system law," he snapped. "The part where I apparently shouldn't exist. The part where you pulled me out of a collapsing system with a weapon that shouldn't exist. Take your pick!"
She didn't flinch. She didn't blink.
Instead, she raised a finger and pointed upward.
---
He followed her gesture.
Above them — through the half-shattered ceiling of Nullspace — floated threads.
Not glowing.
Not taut.
Just… suspended. Like veins cut mid-flow.
And among them, drifting: a memory shard.
It shimmered faintly.
Inside it — his face.
Sleeping. Eyes closed. Surrounded by red threads that writhed, trying — and failing — to bind him.
---
"That," she said, "was your beginning."
"I don't remember that."
"You weren't supposed to."
She stepped toward the shard and tapped it with a finger.
The surface rippled, then cracked.
A whisper leaked out — no words. No sound. Just feeling.
Loss. Regret. A name said too late.
---
"Kiris," Nox whispered.
He didn't know why. But the name spilled out like blood from a reopened scar.
Elira froze.
"You remember her?"
"I… no. I don't know her." He pressed a palm to his forehead. "But that name—it echoes. Like a warning."
"She's the reason you're here," Elira said quietly. "Or rather, the version of her that still believed in broken things."
---
For a moment, silence returned. Not calm — expectant.
Nox stared at her. Really stared.
"Who are you?"
She didn't answer right away.
Like she was calculating if he deserved the truth.
"Elira," she said finally. "I used to have a longer name. But the system cut it."
"You're not with the academy?"
She looked away.
"No one who remembers the truth stays with the academy."
---
The air trembled. A thin, metallic whine echoed from above — not loud. But angry.
The system was rebooting.
And it had found them again.
---
"You said I'm Null-type," Nox said softly. "What does that even mean?"
Elira looked at him the way someone looks at a flickering flame — unsure if it'll burn out… or ignite everything.
"You weren't born from a threadline. You weren't bound. You weren't chosen. That makes you dangerous."
"Why?"
"Because the system doesn't know what you'll become."
---
[SYSTEM INTERRUPTION: 60 SECONDS TO REALIGNMENT]
[WARNING: THREADSIGNATURE REBOOT IMMINENT]
All anomalies will be targeted.
You are an anomaly.
---
She stepped closer.
Her presence pressed against his like the weight of a forgotten future.
"Listen to me, Nox. You have about a minute before the Loom finds you again. When it does, it won't just send Rin. It'll send… what it keeps beneath her."
He swallowed.
"Then what do I do?"
She didn't answer with words.
Instead, she reached out — and touched his chest, just above his heart.
It burned.
His back arched.
Something ignited inside him.
Not pain.
Recognition.
Like a lock being undone.
---
[UNWRITTEN CORE — ACTIVATED]
THREADSIGNATURE: NULL_01
ACCESS: DEEPROOT LEVEL 0.01
You have no fate.
Therefore… you may choose one.
---
His vision blurred. But not from strain.
From memories that weren't his.
A girl crying in a white room.
A machine rewriting its own core.
A blade forged from absence.
A thread screaming as it was ripped from the Loom itself.
And a voice.
Not Elira's.
Not Rin's.
Something older.
"Nox."
A name spoken like it had been forged… not given.
---
She released him.
He dropped to his knees, gasping.
"What did you do to me?"
"I unlocked the part of you they sealed."
---
Then the Loom roared.
This time not with static.
But with recognition.
It had found him again.
And now it remembered.
---
Somewhere high above — something stirred.
Not a commander.
Not a warning.
But a weapon.
A function.
---
[PROTOCOL: ECHO EXECUTION INITIALIZED]
[ASSET: NULL_01 — TERMINATION AUTHORIZED]
[DEPLOYING: PROTOTYPE ZERO]
---
The ceiling of Nullspace ruptured.
Not broken.
Not shattered.
Erased.
Like an eye had opened in the sky — and blinked.
And when it did, everything tilted.
---
[NEW THREADSIGNATURE REGISTERED]
[PROTOTYPE ZERO: ONLINE]
Status: Core-Stable
Threat Level: UNDEFINED
Message:
"If it walks outside the Pattern… remove the Loom."
---
It descended.
No face.
Only a threadmask — smooth, featureless, faintly blue.
Its body shimmered with mirrored fabric, pulsing with a million micro-instructions.
A sword floated at its back — not held. Just… anchored by rules.
It didn't walk.
It rewrote space beneath its steps.
---
Elira stared.
"No…" she whispered. "They deployed it this early…?"
Her hand reached for her ripper blade.
But even she looked unsure.
Because standing across the void now…
was Prototype_00.
And its HUD flashed only one thing:
TARGET LOCKED: NULL_01
BEGIN THREAD SEVERANCE IN 10
9
8
7…
---
Nox turned to her.
"What happens if it catches me?"
She didn't look away.
"If it severs your thread…"
Her voice dropped.
"…you don't die."
He blinked.
"Then what?"
She met his eyes.
"You're rewritten."