On his first night in the Black File, Elias dreams — not a memory, not a vision, but something closer. The Emperor appears, not as a voice, not as a god, but as a towering silence made of fire and judgment. The System reacts strangely. Elias wakes changed — something invisible now follows him.
----
The bunk was harder than the floor.
No sheets. No blanket. No comfort.
The Black File didn't pretend to be human.
Elias lay in the dark, arms folded across his chest, journal beside him, heartbeat slow. The rest of the squad had already gone silent — either asleep or lost in their own rituals of non-rest.
Even Bit had vanished, folded into the vents like smoke.
Only the faint clicking of Lirae-4's data-cog stirred now and then — a low, electric whisper that felt more like breathing than machinery.
The System was quiet.
But Elias couldn't sleep.
His body still ached in places that hadn't healed. The chakra in his veins felt cold, not dead — just dormant. Like something else had taken its place.
Then something shifted.
Not inside him.
Around him.
A pressure.
Subtle at first. Like a weight in the air. Like a room that had one too many people in it.
Elias sat up.
The room was still dark.
No alarms.
No movement.
No sound.
But he wasn't alone anymore.
The pressure increased.
It didn't hurt.
But it commanded.
His vision blurred slightly.
He felt… distant from his own skin.
And then—
The bunk vanished.
He stood in an endless, lightless void.
No floor. No sky.
But he didn't fall.
He simply stood.
And far ahead of him…
A single point of gold.
It wasn't a man.
It was an impression of one.
Broad. Towering. Fire-wreathed. Cloaked in broken wings and impossible light. Not moving — but in motion, like all space bent toward it.
A face masked in radiance, unreadable.
Not the Emperor as painted on cathedral walls.
Not the corpse-king.
This was something older.
Something awake.
And it was looking at him.
Elias didn't speak.
Didn't breathe.
He simply looked back.
And in that stare, something passed between them — not words, not images.
Only one thing:
"I see you."
And the System reacted.
Not with approval.
Not with recognition.
But with something close to uncertainty.
> SYSTEM STATE: ANOMALY DETECTED
> ENTITY: "UNKNOWN"
> Classification: Incompatible
> Adjusting threat profile…
Then, without transition, the vision ended.
Elias gasped, sitting bolt upright in the bunk, cold sweat running down his chest.
The lights in the bunk room were still off.
The others still silent.
But he knew — something was different.
His breathing slowed.
He looked down at his hands.
No visible change.
But under his skin?
Something felt marked.
The System remained quiet for a full minute.
Then—
> Internal Marker Detected
> Trace Signature: [Golden]
> Effect: Undetermined
> Passive System Synchronization Degraded: -3%
> WARNING: Presence noticed
Elias stared at the ceiling for a long time.
Sleep was no longer possible.
He turned slowly and opened the journal again.
The ink from the last page hadn't dried.
He wrote:
"There's something older than the System watching now."
"And I think it remembers me."
[END OF PART 4]