Fractured Code
Chapter 4: VØID.exe
The air in the underground facility thickened, pulsing with digital static and raw tension. The ground still trembled from the impact of Red Echo's corrupted energy as Sen stood face-to-face with a version of himself—twisted, wrong, yet familiar.
"Why do you look like me?" Sen asked again, fists clenched, his breathing heavy.
Red Echo smirked, a jagged expression that twisted across his face like a virus infecting a smile. "Because I am you. Or at least… what you could've become."
Before Sen could respond, a deafening metallic slam echoed through the chamber.
BOOM.
The ceiling above split open, a massive circular aperture revealing an elevator-like platform descending into the room. Surrounding it was a haze of artificial mist—cool, sterile, and foreboding.
From the center stepped down a tall figure, wrapped in sleek black armor inscribed with glowing binary etchings. His helmet hid his face, and his voice echoed with artificial modulation.
"Unit: VØID online."
Sen stepped back instinctively.
Dr. Rin's eyes widened. "No… they actually sent him."
Red Echo grinned wider, "They're scared, huh? Of you? Or of me?"
"Both," Rin muttered.
The figure now known as VØID raised one hand, scanning the room. "Dr. Rin. Subject Sen. Threat level assessment: Code Black. Termination Protocol initiated."
"Wait, wait!" Rin shouted. "You don't understand, he's not the enemy—"
Before she could finish, VØID raised his hand and fired.
A beam of condensed data energy shot out with piercing precision.
Sen grabbed Rin and activated his hover-step function, warping both of them to the far end of the room in an instant.
The beam struck where they had just been, vaporizing the reinforced floor into molten slag.
Sen dropped to one knee, panting. "This guy's not kidding."
Red Echo cackled, unfazed. "I like him already."
The moment of distraction was all VØID needed. In less than a second, he blinked out of existence.
Sen instinctively ducked, and VØID reappeared mid-air, slamming a spinning heel directly into Red Echo's jaw.
Red Echo went flying across the chamber, smashing into a row of data servers.
Sparks erupted.
Sen turned to Rin. "Who is that guy?!"
"He's not human," she said, gripping her tablet. "He's an AI assassin built by the Core Authority. The last resort."
Sen's breath caught. "You're saying… I triggered that?"
"You didn't. He did." Rin pointed to Red Echo.
Across the room, Red Echo pulled himself from the rubble, his smile now cracked, his teeth gritted. "So… this is the toy they bring when they're scared."
Without warning, the corrupted Sen clone launched forward again, this time unleashing a ripple of red code that spread like a virus through the floor, distorting the simulation around them.
The world bent.
Pipes melted into writhing black cables.
Walls dissolved into flickering digital static.
And in the center, Red Echo's eyes glowed brighter.
"Let's see what your little robot can really do."
---
The Real Fight Begins.
Sen had never seen a battle unfold like this.
VØID moved like data incarnate—teleporting between light particles, his attacks creating shockwaves that bent gravity. His blade—a shifting mass of quantum-encoded metal—morphed mid-swing into axes, spears, and chains.
Red Echo countered with corruption: every attack he absorbed made him stronger, his code adapting in real-time. He laughed with every wound, even when one of VØID's plasma lances impaled his shoulder.
Rin ducked behind a terminal, trying to activate an override. "I need to disable VØID's protocol before he kills both of them!"
Sen was frozen, not by fear—but by clarity.
This… was what he could become.
He was witnessing what happened when power lost control. When identity fractured.
Red Echo was him… without emotion. Without boundaries.
And VØID? A machine with no morality, only orders.
If Sen didn't step in, one would die… and the other might take the world with him.
He stood up.
"Hey! Both of you!" Sen shouted.
Both VØID and Red Echo turned to him—just for a moment.
Sen extended his arms and summoned his interface.
"Fracture: Code Protocol — Execute Override_Δ-Prime."
A shockwave burst from his chest.
Time stuttered.
Rin gasped. "Sen, no—!"
In a blink, Sen was between them both—his hands glowing with a chaotic energy he didn't recognize.
But it responded to him. Instinctively.
He clashed blades with VØID on one side and caught Red Echo's virus tentacle on the other.
All three froze in the center—locked in a deadly triangle.
Sen grit his teeth. "You're not killing anyone today."
Red Echo narrowed his eyes. "You're breaking your own limits."
VØID's voice echoed. "Unrecognized protocol… source: unknown."
Sen smiled.
"Yeah. Because I'm rewriting the system."
---
System Glitch.
Reality cracked.
Sen had used an ability that hadn't been programmed—something raw and new, a manifestation of identity breaking free from rules.
The chamber's simulation glitched.
For a brief moment, all three were standing in a void of white light, surrounded by lines of code and ancient digital glyphs—symbols even Dr. Rin couldn't translate.
VØID staggered. "System error… source code untraceable…"
Red Echo blinked. "This place… it's inside you?"
Sen turned to him.
"No," he said. "It's inside us."
A pulse burst from his chest.
And for a moment, the real and the digital merged.
Sen saw flashes—
A burning city made of data
A throne with no king
A cracked mirror showing a thousand versions of himself
Rin screaming as static consumed her
And the phrase: "YOU ARE THE KEY."
Then the world snapped back.
Sen dropped to the ground, gasping.
VØID staggered, his armor flickering. "Mission… delayed."
He vanished in a burst of black particles.
Red Echo stumbled back, now wounded, for the first time.
"You… you broke the script," he muttered.
Sen stood up, bleeding from the nose, barely standing.
"I didn't break it," he said. "I'm writing a new one."
Red Echo looked at him… and laughed.
A low, amused laugh that slowly faded.
"I'll be back," he said, and dissolved into data shards.
---
Aftermath.
Silence returned to the chamber.
Rin rushed to Sen's side. "You okay?!"
He gave a shaky thumbs-up. "Felt like... hacking a god."
She helped him up. "What was that? That code, that energy—it wasn't anything I've ever seen."
Sen looked at his hands. "It felt like... a memory."
She raised an eyebrow. "A memory?"
"Or maybe… a message. Like it was waiting to be triggered."
She opened her tablet. The scan was still running.
Then, her eyes widened.
"Sen… this isn't just about you anymore."
"What do you mean?"
She turned the screen. On it, thousands of data points lit up across the globe—similar to the Phantom Core, all reacting to what Sen just did.
"They've activated."
---
Elsewhere.
In a tower far above the cloudline, an old man in a robe of flowing digital threads watched the monitor.
Behind him stood twelve other figures, each wearing a different mask of static.
The old man smiled.
"So… the Key has chosen his path."
The masked council bowed.
"Shall we begin Phase Two?"
The old man nodded.
"Yes. Let the world fracture."
---
End of Chapter 4