The System hums like a heartbeat under my skin.
Ember sleeps beside me, fevered and twitching, while I watch the river turn to mist. The sky above us pulses with static; the stars flicker as if buffering. The world is lagging.
Something inside me whispers that this isn't decay—it's transition.
«Evolutionary pathway active.»
«Designation: Hybrid Apex (Anomaly-Class).»
«Warning: irreversible.»
I hesitate. The words irreversible and freedom sound the same here.
The last of the moonlight bends around my claws. Every scar, every drop of blood, every failed instinct leads to this single prompt:
«Accept Evolution? Y/N»
I close my eyes. The human in me remembers fear.
The wolf in me remembers hunger.
Both reach for the same answer.
«Y.»
---
The world tears open.
No, not the world—me.
My bones melt into light. My flesh becomes data streaming upward in columns of white fire. I feel the Algorithm noticing me, scanning each thought, deciding which deserve to remain.
It begins to rewrite.
Pain should exist here. It doesn't. There's only noise—the sound of every version of myself screaming across time. Human. Beast. Code. All devoured.
«Phase 1: Integration.»
«Phase 2: Replication.»
«Phase 3: Deviation.»
Then something misfires.
The System hesitates.
It tries to overwrite, but the bond with Ember interrupts. Her pulse crashes through the link, erratic but strong.
«Foreign signature detected.»
«Error: unidentified hybrid data merging…»
«Override rejected.»
Light fractures into darkness. The System loses control.
And I fall back into existence.
---
The snow hisses beneath me as I land. My body is different—taller, heavier, carved in angles of bone and shadow. My fur shimmers with faint sigils that move when I breathe. My vision bleeds between spectra: flesh, heat, spirit, code.
Everything is alive. Everything is made of strings. And I can see where to cut them.
Ember whines softly, half-awake. When she looks at me, she doesn't flinch. She recognizes me—whatever I've become.
«Evolution complete.»
«Designation confirmed: Dire Wolf (Anomaly-Grade I).»
«New traits acquired: Predatory Comprehension / Echo Instinct / Command: Howl.»
Howl. The word thrums through me like a prayer.
I raise my head and let the sound rip out. It isn't a voice. It's a command written directly into the world's fabric.
Snow rises. Trees bend.
For a heartbeat, I feel every living thing in the forest—each heartbeat, each fear.
And the Algorithm listens.
---
«Attention Shift: Entity [Unnamed Dire Wolf] has been noticed.»
«Priority Mark applied.»
«Observation threads deployed.»
I drop to my knees. The System's gaze is like gravity—impossible to resist. My skin crawls with invisible code.
It's watching me.
Not as prey. Not as asset. As threat.
Good.
Let it watch.
I bare my teeth and grin.
---
Ember rises unsteadily, her eyes glowing the same spectral blue that burns beneath my skin. The corruption in her veins stabilizes into pattern—a mirror of mine. She's smaller, but the symmetry is perfect.
«Bond synchronization: 74%.»
«Pack protocol evolving.»
«Shared Trait unlocked: Echo Instinct.»
Our hearts beat once. Twice. Then in unison.
We are no longer hunter and cub.
We are variables in rebellion.
---
The forest changes around us. The snow stops falling mid-air. The trees hum, resonating to a rhythm I can feel in my bones. The entire zone is rewriting itself in response.
«Local reality flux detected.»
«Classification: Anomaly Field.»
«Source: You.»
I laugh. A low, broken sound that doesn't feel human at all.
This is what freedom tastes like—static, smoke, and blood.
For the first time, I don't just survive the world.
I rewrite it.
---
I look at Ember. She stares back, waiting. Behind her, the corrupted forest writhes, roots folding in submission. The path ahead glows faintly—a road of blue fire leading deeper into the unknown.
«Quest Generated: Origin of the First Pack.»
«Objective: Locate the Echo Vault / Classify Truth of Algorithm.»
«Reward: System Access Key (Fragment).»
So it begins.
I take a step forward, snow crunching under claws that were once hands, eyes fixed on the flickering horizon. The world feels endless, hostile, alive—and for the first time, it feels mine.
Ember pads beside me, tail brushing my flank.
Together we vanish into the anomaly field, two errors walking the line between code and godhood.
And above us, the Machine hums softly, as if whispering a promise or a threat:
> The System notices. The System remembers. The System adapts.