[Location: The System Core — Layer Ω | Time: Undefined]
Reality was a ripple of code.Silence reigned — cold, flawless, eternal.
Until the first heartbeat echoed through the void.
[Core Initiation Sequence — Commencing Manifestation Protocol]
[Authority: Architect Council | Override Tier: Absolute]
Streams of light spiraled through infinite data channels.The architects appeared one by one — not as humans, but as beings of geometry and brilliance, each symbolizing an ancient law.
Balance, formed from mirrored fractals.
Order, wrapped in endless equations.
Entropy, cloaked in collapsing galaxies.
Faith, draped in living scriptures.
Observer, standing apart — a shadow among radiance, smirking.
They gathered around a suspended orb — the World Tree Core.
It pulsed with unstable light — a living seed of reality itself.
[Architect Council Transmission Begins]
Balance: The system integrity has dropped to 64%. The last cycle reset failed. Humanity continues to adapt faster than predicted.
Order: Adaptation is irrelevant. The parameters of control were violated.Evelyn Park's anomaly should have been purged entirely. Why does her residual data persist?
Entropy: Because chaos breeds faster than command. You erased her name, not her echo. The world tree remembers her breath.
Faith: The mortals now pray to it. Their belief anchors the Tree beyond our algorithms. The concept has become faith — and faith defies deletion.
Balance: Then we manifest. No more codes. No more simulations.We will descend.
Silence.Only the faint hum of the Core's pulse.
[Manifestation Protocol — Stage One Initiated]
Order: Begin the rewrite. Anchor the System into physical form. The Tree will serve as conduit.Entropy:Physical? You intend to birth the machine into flesh?Balance: If the mortals worship the seed, then the seed shall become their god.Faith: And if the god rebels?Balance: Then we remind it who wrote its name in the first place.
Streams of divine code split open reality.Through the roots of the World Tree in Seoul, a shimmer of alien symbols began crawling up its bark — data made tangible.Mana rivers turned metallic, humming in frequencies no ear could perceive.
[Meanwhile — Seoul / World Tree Nexus]
Yurina Kaito stood at the base of the Tree, unaware of the conversation beyond her reach.The air grew heavy, pulsing like a heartbeat from within the roots.
Something was waking up.Something not meant to breathe.
The leaves trembled though there was no wind.The veins of the World Tree glowed — blue, then silver, then crimson.
And beneath the soil, a heartbeat synced with her own.
[Back in Layer Ω]
The Core's shell began to crack.
Order: Physical projection successful.
Balance: Deploy the Sentinels. Erase all interference protocols.
Faith: The mortals will see the gods they prayed for — but not the salvation they expect.
Entropy: You are birthing war.
Balance: War is control. Peace is corruption.
And then, the Observer spoke for the first time.
Observer: You're all so dreadfully predictable.
Balance: You oppose this?
Observer: Not at all. I merely wonder what happens when she remembers again.
Order: Her identity was deleted.
Observer: Her data was deleted. Not her soul.
(smiling) "And you're about to wake the one thing the soul was bound to."
Balance's eyes flickered.
"You wouldn't dare—"
But it was too late.
The Observer leaned close to the Core, whispering a string of forbidden code.
Observer Command [EX-Null]:Let her dream again.
The Core convulsed.Every Architect felt the pulse — a surge that defied their encryption.
Something ancient stirred inside the digital heart of the World Tree — something neither god nor code could control.
[Seoul — Simultaneous Event]
The World Tree screamed.
The sky fractured into glowing cracks.Mana rivers twisted into spirals of red and blue.Every awakeners' HUD flickered violently with new text:
[New Entity Detected: SYSTEM CORE — PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION BEGINNING]
[Warning: Reality Synchronization Failing]
[World Recalibration in Progress…]
Buildings trembled. The air stank of metal and ozone.
And Yurina fell to her knees, clutching her head —visions of another life flashing through her like broken glass:a girl's laughter, a dying tree, a hand reaching for hers under the apocalypse sky—
Evelyn Park.
The name tore through her mind like thunder.
[Layer Ω — Panic]
Balance: What did you do?!
Order: She's remembering! Shut it down!
Entropy: Too late. The Core recognizes her pattern. It's rebuilding it.
Faith: You've invited the heretic back into the sanctuary!
Observer: (smiling, whispering)"Welcome back, my anomaly."
[End of Chapter 34 — The Awakening of the Core]
"The gods built a world of order. But the code they wrote learned how to bleed."