They didn't speak on the way back.
Even Veyr, who usually filled silences with sarcasm and snide observations, hovered behind Root like a ghost who knew he'd been seen.
Lyra and Klem kept their distance.
No one wanted to break the tension.
Because the moment that crystal log shattered—so did something else.
Trust.
They returned to the Undone's base beneath the Academy's forgotten east wing.
Klem posted himself by the door, arms folded. Lyra sat in the corner, disassembling her implant and rechecking its charge. Her eye flicked to Root occasionally, but she said nothing.
Root stared at the sigil in his palm.
The same mark that had protected him, powered him, defined him.
Now it pulsed like a question.
Veyr floated slowly into view.
His mask was dim.
His voice, quiet.
"You going to say something?"
Root didn't look at him.
"That summon in the log… that wasn't just a past version of you."
Veyr didn't answer.
"It was you. At your worst."
"I didn't choose that form."
"But you lived in it."
Veyr lowered until he hovered at eye level.
"And I changed. Isn't that what this story's supposed to be about? Breaking patterns? Rewriting fate?"
"You're the one who always says nothing ever really changes."
"Except us," Veyr said. "That's why I stayed. That's why I stayed with you."
Root finally looked up.
"Are you still that thing?"
Veyr's voice dropped a layer.
"I don't know. But if I am… you're the only one who can make me something else."
Behind them, Lyra's voice cut in—sharp and cold.
"Then maybe you're both broken."
She stood.
"The system's coming. We all know it. And you two—whatever this is—you need to fix it. Fast. Because if one more secret detonates in our face, we won't survive the next purge."
Klem nodded grimly.
Root stood in silence.
And Veyr?
He only said one thing as he began to glow faintly with a null pulse.
"You wanted honesty. Here it is: If I go back to what I was… don't try to save me. Just end it."
The purge came faster than expected.
No countdown. No system-wide announcement. Just a sudden flicker in the lights across the Undone's hideout—and a hum that didn't belong to any known infrastructure.
[ Alert: Internal Simulation Override – Class NULL Response Activated ]
[ Subject V.1R flagged for reclassification trial ]
[ Initiating Mirror Protocol… ]
Root's sigil burned.
Veyr dropped to the ground like gravity itself had been inverted, clawing at the air as a ripple of black-glass energy wrapped around his limbs.
"No—! I didn't agree to this—"
The walls pulsed.
The entire base around them warped, transforming from dusty stone into a blank slate of mirrored surface.
And standing in front of Veyr…
Was another him.
But not the butler.
Not the wise-cracking shade.
Not the one who floated and muttered and called Root meatstick.
No.
This Veyr stood upright.
Taller. Cloaked in flowing riftlight, mask covered in cracks that glowed like burning faultlines. There was no mouth, no voice.
Just presence.
Just hunger.
[ Mirror-Veyr Initialized – Alignment: NULL-ERASURE ]
[ Trial: Combat Until Collapse ]
[ Root may not intervene. ]
"That's a problem," Root muttered.
Veyr pulled himself up, the glow of his chest-sigil dimming erratically.
"You can't stop this," he hissed. "It's a rewrite test. They're trying to see if I still contain the original data signature. If I fail, they'll lock me back in the shard-state. Wipe me."
Root stepped forward anyway.
"Then don't fail."
"I'm not sure I can win."
Root's hand twitched at his side.
But he didn't summon backup.
He didn't shout.
He just said—
"Then don't fight like the version they're testing. Fight like the one you chose to become."
Veyr's laugh was ragged, crooked, but real.
"You really are terrible at motivational speeches."
The mirror-Veyr raised a hand.
Space bent.
And the floor shattered.
The mirror-Veyr didn't fight like a summon.
It fought like a principle.
No wasted motion. No voice. Just raw force—compressed null-waves and folded-gravity strikes that rewrote space on contact.
Veyr ducked under a collapsing arc of pressure, barely dodging an impact that cracked the floor into a sphere of inverted gravity. His breath rasped.
"This version of me doesn't talk," he muttered. "It doesn't joke. It doesn't even pretend to be human. No wonder the system liked it better."
Focus, Root thought. Just survive—
But Veyr slipped.
A punch landed.
Not on his body, but on the mask.
A spiderweb of fractures spread across it.
And something behind Veyr's eyes flickered.
"Root," he gasped. "Something's coming loose. I don't think I—"
The mirror-Veyr raised its hand.
The room folded.
Gravity multiplied.
Veyr crashed to his knees, mask steaming, laugh gone.
"I can't win this," he whispered. "I'm not finished. I'm not whole. I'm just a—"
"No," Root said, stepping forward despite the barrier.
"You're mine."
"And I'm not losing you to a system that can't even understand what we are."
He raised his sigil-marked palm and did something no summoner was ever supposed to do:
He spoke directly to the system.
"Override. Authority Root. Command: Reclassify V.1R under custom summon protocol. Tag: Hollow Herald. Owner: Root."
The mirror froze.
The air split open.
[ Authority Conflict Detected. ]
[ User Signature: Unverified. ]
[ Potential Path Divergence: ACCEPTED. ]
And just like that—Veyr stood up.
The cracks vanished.
The pressure lifted.
His mask began to shift, subtly, folding back into a version chosen—not assigned.
"You… reclassified me?"
Root shrugged.
"I improvised."
Veyr's grin came back. Crooked. Unstable. But his.
"You're insane."
"Takes one to summon one."
The mirror-Veyr shattered into null dust.
The simulation ended.
And the room went quiet again.
But this time, the silence didn't feel broken.
It felt like something had begun.