The field was quiet again.
Too quiet.
After the Gatekeeper fell and the system pulse faded, everything went still. No sound, no ambient static, no data tremors. Just white stone underfoot and a sky that no longer flickered.
The team stood in a loose circle. Breathing. Watching.
Jaden stared at the fractured light pillar where the core had been. Nothing moved.
Rowan lowered his scanner. "It's flatlined. I'm not getting anything. No error pings. No system calls. It's like the world... turned off."
Aya crouched beside a crack in the stone. "Or it's holding its breath."
Silas didn't respond.
He was still staring upward.
---
Niko adjusted her cloak and moved to Jaden's side. "You okay?"
Jaden nodded slowly, but he didn't answer right away. His body felt steady, but something inside him hadn't stopped buzzing. The moment he touched the core, something else had touched back and it hadn't let go.
"I'm fine. Just… grounded," he said finally.
Kael flopped onto a broken slab of stone with a groan. "If that was grounded, I don't want to see you unleashed."
Silas finally turned around, eyes sharper than usual. "We're not safe yet."
"Why not?" Rowan asked, glancing around. "The Gatekeeper is gone, the system's quiet—"
"That's the problem," Silas cut in. "It's too quiet. It's not sleeping. It's watching."
---
They started moving again, traveling across the field of light with no clear direction, but a shared sense that forward was better than still. With each step, the world remained stable, but the silence pressed tighter.
Eventually, they reached the edge of the white expanse. And beyond it finally something else.
A corridor.
Long. Dark. Glitch-streaked. Its walls pulsed like veins. Unlike the purity of the field, this place felt raw. Like a nerve exposed.
Jaden stepped forward.
> Access Granted: Layer 3 - Disruption Path
Silas's eyes narrowed. "This isn't a zone anymore. We're walking inside the System itself."
Kael squinted at the corridor. "So… what's the plan? Same as always? Break whatever's trying to break us?"
Rowan glanced at Jaden. "Depends. You still leading?"
Jaden looked down the corridor, then back at his team.
"I'm not a chosen one. But I am the one they keep targeting. That's close enough."
He stepped through first.
---
Inside the corridor, the light faded to violet. Dim code ran across the walls like slow blood. The space twisted without moving, like walking through an echo of something broken.
Aya whispered, "I hate this place."
"Good," Niko replied softly. "Means it's real."
They walked for minutes maybe hours, time was impossible to track here before they reached a chamber at the end. In the center floated a ring of data. Flickering. Whispering.
> LOCALIZED RECORD POINT
DO YOU WISH TO VIEW SYSTEM LOG?
Before anyone could respond, the log activated on its own.
Images bloomed in the air. Not of enemies. Not of war.
But of them.
Of Jaden. Alone in a ruined city. A younger version. One the others hadn't seen before.
He was running. Bleeding. Holding something no, someone. A child, wrapped in cloth.
"What is this?" Rowan asked.
Jaden didn't move. His mouth opened slightly. He had no memory of this.
But the System did.
---
The image shifted.
That same Jaden knelt in front of an altar. The child was gone. His eyes were empty. His hands were shaking.
Silas took a step forward. "These aren't just memories. These are erased possibilities."
Kael's voice dropped. "They're showing us what could've happened."
Jaden's hands clenched.
"But I don't remember this. I never carried a child. I never saw that altar."
"That's because you weren't meant to," said a voice.
Everyone froze.
---
A figure stood behind the data log.
Not born of light. Not glitched.
Human.
Or close.
They wore tattered clothes stitched from zone fabric, their face obscured by a black veil and static haze. But their voice was smooth. Calm. Ancient.
"I've been watching."
Rowan raised a hand toward his spell scroll. "Who are you?"
The figure stepped into the fading projection light.
"The System calls me Observer."
The word struck something in Jaden's mind.
"You've been tracking me."
The Observer smiled behind the veil. "No. I've been preparing you."
Silas moved protectively in front of Jaden. "For what?"
The Observer's voice lowered.
"For the real world. This isn't it."
---
End of Chapter 27 False Quiet
Author's Note :Chapter 27
Me: "Let's give the characters a break ."
Chapter: has them walk into a living glitch corridor
System: "Hey, wanna see a memory you don't remember?"
Jaden: "That's not me."
System: "It is now."
Observer: materializes like a final boss teaser wearing thrifted zone fabric
Stay wet
-sky_xyn
Lol