The world past the wooden gate was wrong
No light no sound just existence stripped bare
It wasn't darkness
It was nothingness that refused to be filled
Aya blinked and saw colors that had no name
Reiss took one step and dropped to his knees
He muttered something she couldn't understand a language buried in instinct
The air felt like memory
Old forgotten emotion pressed against their skin
Aya's shard went silent
No signal
No interface
They were alone
Truly alone
The ground formed beneath their feet slowly like it was building itself just to let them stand
Shapes floated in the distance jagged symbols massive eyes blinking once every few minutes then disappearing
Reiss stood up his voice shaking
This place is older than Zerach
Older than the Rewrite Protocol
Aya nodded
It's where it all started
They walked forward past a broken throne made of bones and old scrolls that kept rewriting themselves
A whisper slithered through the space
Low heavy filled with pain and purpose
Not Zerach
Something else
Forgotten
Abandoned
Watching
You step where no code lives
You bring noise to a silent world
Aya raised Rewrite Edge
I'll bring more than noise if you test me
The whispers laughed
Mocking
Then the floor cracked
A figure rose
No face
No limbs
Just presence
Like fear shaped into mass
It didn't move yet Reiss was already bleeding from the eyes again
Aya's knees buckled
This thing wasn't part of the system
It was the reason the system was built
To lock it away
Aya whispered
Zerach was protecting us from this
Reiss wiped his face
Then why did he open the path
Aya clenched her fist
Because he thinks we can survive it
The presence tilted forward
As if curious
The throne behind them shook
And then
A word was spoken
Not heard
Felt
Like it was etched into their bones
Begin