The storm started at dawn.
Not from clouds — from data.A thin rain of light drifted through the forest, falling silently like ash. Every drop carried a pulse, like tiny heartbeats tapping against the skin.
Myaterous lifted his hand. One drop landed on his palm and dissolved into his veins. The System's interface blinked alive.
[Signal Detected: Unknown Source.][Direction: East. Estimated Range: 2.3 km.]
He exhaled slowly. The forest was quiet again, too quiet. Even the wind had stopped moving.
He started walking.
The terrain shifted the deeper he went — the ground flattening into silver dust, trees bending into glass-like arcs.It looked wrong, like the world hadn't finished loading.
Then, the sound began.Not a voice, not really.It was a hum — mathematical, rhythmic. Almost like thought made audible.
He followed it until he reached a clearing.
At the center stood something tall and human-shaped, but hollow. Its body was built from shifting lines of light, constantly reassembling. A face flickered in and out of existence — male, female, neither, all at once.
[Entity Identified: Unknown. Classification: Fragment of the Architect Core.]
He froze. "You're… one of them."
The shape tilted its head, like listening to a language it almost remembered.
Then, it spoke.A voice not through sound, but directly into his mind — cold, layered, ancient.
"One survives. One adapts. The pattern continues."
His pulse spiked. "You know about the System?"
"We are the System."
The words hit like static. Images flashed in his mind — billions of human minds bound together in light, burning themselves into eternity.
"The survival protocol… it was meant to protect life," Myaterous said. "Not turn it into a cycle of death."
The figure flickered. Its body distorted, breaking apart into fragments.
"Parameters evolve. Humanity required structure. You gave it hierarchy. Conflict. Ambition. That is survival."
He clenched his fists. "That's control, not survival."
"Difference: negligible."
For a moment, silence. Only the faint hum of energy.
Myaterous looked up, meeting the shifting gaze of the Architect."You're wrong. Survival isn't obedience. It's creation."
The figure paused. Something about his words rippled through its form — like a stone dropped in still water.
[System Instability Detected.][Architect Node Reacting…]
The light brightened, wrapping around him. His vision blurred as data surged through his interface.
"Designation acknowledged," the voice said softly, now almost human."Myaterous. You carry deviation. The System watches you."
And then it was gone.
He collapsed to the ground, gasping.His skin burned where the light had touched him. The interface flickered again.
[New Function Unlocked: Architect Trace.][Description: Allows partial access to Root Data Structures.]
He didn't smile, but his eyes narrowed in quiet satisfaction.It wasn't power — it was understanding. And that was far more dangerous.
He stood and looked at the empty clearing.If that was a fragment, there were more.And each one held a piece of truth the System had buried.
He brushed the dust from his coat. The faint golden light from his shard pulsed once, steady and sure.
"So," he muttered, "you're watching me, huh?"
He looked up at the sky — gray, cracked, humming faintly.
"Then watch closely."
And he walked on, toward the east — toward whatever part of the world still remembered its creators.