Root didn't fall.
He was dragged.
One second, he was standing in the corridor beneath the glyph—staring up at the words he'd left.
The next, the ground rippled and folded downward, pulling him through layers of unrendered code, broken tiles, and memory-warped textures like old files collapsing into a black hole.
No prompt. No warning.
Just a whisper.
"You shouldn't be here anymore."
He hit the ground hard.
The world didn't stabilize.
Because there wasn't a world.
Root stood on a fractured plane—chunks of simulation geometry floating in slow orbit, bound by stray threads of energy. Platforms broke and rebuilt themselves mid-air. Gravity shifted every few steps. There were no walls. No sky. Just a storm of rejected data circling in every direction.
[ Rift Layer: F4 / Subclass: Dead Sector – Faultline ]
Purpose: Containment of Failed Constructs
Note: No trial paths available. No safe zones defined.
[ Survival Time Exceeds Protocol. Manual Expulsion Recommended. ]
Root exhaled slowly, flexing his hands. The air buzzed. Not with danger. With decay. This wasn't a test.
It was a landfill.
And something was moving in it.
Veyr reformed beside him, mask sharp, sigil dim. His voice was lower than usual.
"They threw you in with the trash."
Root glanced around. "And you?"
"I don't belong anywhere."
"So I follow the one who doesn't either."
Ahead, a floating mass of warped code drifted by—shifting rapidly between shapes: a door, a glyph, a shriveled corpse. None of them held. It flickered, groaned, and dissolved into static.
Root moved carefully across a broken path of levitating tiles, one step at a time. Each one reassembled underfoot just long enough to carry weight.
Then he heard it.
Breathing.
Not from behind.
From above.
He looked up.
High on a torn piece of sky code, a figure crouched.
It didn't stand.
It hung, like it had been nailed to the shard with rules Root couldn't see.
Its body was veined with red glyphs. Its face was wrapped in mirrored bindings. And in its chest burned a pulsing sigil—familiar, but bent.
[ Entity Detected: Forgotten Root – "Version 0.6" ]
This is an unstable prototype modeled after your build. It was abandoned.
Aggression Level: Passive – Until Noticed.
Recommendation: Leave Quietly.
Root stepped back.
But the moment his boot hit the next tile—
It turned.
Slowly.
The mirrored bindings on its face cracked open.
And from within, it spoke with his own voice:
"You didn't finish your code."
The thing called "Version 0.6" dropped.
No sound. No weight. Just a blur of silver-blooded motion crashing onto the unstable platform in front of Root.
Its eyes were Root's—but wrong.
Glassy. Rewritten. Rehearsed.
The mirrored bindings over its face peeled open like petals, revealing not a mouth, but a sigil socket—where code was meant to be poured in and never removed.
Root stepped back, blade in hand.
The creature didn't move.
"You never finished your code."
The words weren't mechanical.
They were sad.
Root narrowed his eyes. "I didn't write myself."
"No."
"You were written. Then corrupted."
"And when you broke pattern…"
The creature tilted its head.
"…they started again with me."
[ Warning: Mirror Construct Initiating Rift Reflection ]
Trait Scan in Progress… Matching Veinbind – 71%
Null Compatibility: Failed. Mutation Expected.
The platform below them rippled as the construct's body convulsed. Veins of red code flared down its arms. It screamed—a hollow, radio-static burst—and the broken floor surged upward like a spike trap made of data.
Root dove to the side, activating:
[ Gravity Pull – Activated ]
He didn't aim it at the creature.
He aimed it at a platform shard above, yanking himself upward—just barely missing the burst of corrupted tiles.
The construct blurred.
It didn't jump.
It glitched forward, blinking across reality.
Root blocked just in time—metal screeching against his blade as their weapons clashed.
The impact shoved him back into a flickering segment of floor that barely existed.
It collapsed.
He dropped.
Veyr appeared mid-fall, hand raised.
[ Null Field – Instinct Sync: Stabilizing Gravity ]
Root hit a solid patch of floor that hadn't existed a second ago.
Rolled.
Came up swinging.
But the creature was already above him.
Its chest opened—unfolding like a trap door.
Inside was a vortex of symbols—his own, from earlier trials. Fragmented, stolen, consumed.
It had eaten pieces of Root's discarded attempts.
It was trying to finish the build.
[ Mirror Construct Ability: Code Assimilation Attempting Override ]
Current Target: "Sigil Sight" Passive
Root's vision blurred.
The glyphs around him began to fade—his ability flickering, becoming unreadable.
He clenched his jaw.
[ Hollow Pulse – Emergency Trigger ]
Veyr Initiating Manual Defense
The construct recoiled as a ripple of void-black gravity exploded outward from Root's body—not pulling or pressing, just deleting.
For 0.7 seconds, the Rift stopped moving.
And so did the creature.
Root launched forward with the momentum, slicing across the thing's center.
Metal cracked.
Sigils burst.
But the construct didn't die.
It froze, eyes locked to Root's.
And whispered:
"They'll make another one."
"But none of us will ever leave."
Then it collapsed—disassembling mid-frame into a spiral of unfinished glyphs and broken bones.
The space around them dimmed.
[ Enemy Defeated: Prototype Root – Ver. 0.6 ]
[ Hollow Point Earned: +2 ]
[ Residual Trait Absorbed: Reflection Shell (Locked) ]
This fragment may activate in the presence of throne-bound copies or corrupted clones.
Root stood there in the glitching silence.
Breathing hard.
Looking at where it had vanished.
It wasn't fear anymore.
It was recognition.
The Rift wasn't deleting his failures.
It was keeping them.
Root stood over the last flickers of Version 0.6, his breath slowing.
The platform beneath him trembled—not from impact, but from release.
Something in the Faultline had let go.
Veyr hovered behind him, quiet, hands tucked behind his back as usual—but the glow in his chest had returned. Dimmer. Steadier.
"The Rift's script is repairing."
Root turned slowly. "Because I won?"
Veyr tilted his head.
"Because it doesn't need to hide this place anymore."
A stairway formed ahead—stone shifting out of fragmented tiles, forming a floating path that led upward into shadow.
Not bright.
Not safe.
Just open.
[ Exit Path Formed – Faultline Collapse Contained ]
[ Transfering to Upper Layer: Rift Layer 5 – Interim Core Loop ]
[ System Note: Elevated Anomaly Presence Detected Above ]
Root narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean?"
Veyr didn't answer at first.
Then:
"There's movement above. Too soon."
Root took the stairs.
Each step pulsed underfoot, reality knitting itself back together with every pace. Code. Stone. Texture. Memory. All regrowing around his presence.
Halfway up, a glyph appeared in the air.
Not Hollow.
Not hostile.
A marker.
[ External Layer Ping Detected ]
Source: Observation Node | Entity: REDACTED
Message Fragment: "THERE IS ANOTHER."
Root stopped walking.
The stairs kept forming behind him—but now the Rift pulsed like a drumbeat. Faster. More erratic.
[ Rift Layer 5 Status: Pre-Loading Additional Data Set ]
Estimated Arrival: 5 minutes
Veyr stepped beside him.
"You're not the only anomaly anymore."
Root turned to him. "You mean the observer?"
Veyr shook his head.
"No."
"The Rift is preparing… for another user."
Not a trial participant. Not a summon.
Another one like you."
Root clenched his jaw.
He took the final step.
Ahead, the new layer opened—not a platform, not a field.
A mirror corridor—walls shimmering with reflections of Root's past movements, his absorbed abilities, his discarded builds.
At the end of the hall was a gate marked with a jagged, red circle.
No name.
No glyph.
Just three carved words burned into the stone.
"THE SECOND IS COMING."