Chapter 13 – Echoes of the Core
The fractured cube split open like a blooming flower of pain and light. From its center rose a figure—half-human, half-data, shrouded in smoke and shimmering fragments. Its face shifted constantly, like a mirror reflecting every person they'd lost.
Sya stepped back. "This… this isn't a guardian."
"No," Elyon muttered, "it's the fragment itself. The core emotion left behind when the system was rewritten."
Kale narrowed his eyes. "What emotion?"
The figure opened its mouth—but instead of words, a deep, aching scream burst forth, shaking the chamber. The walls flickered, turning into memories.
Suddenly, all three of them were separated.
---
Sya
She stood in her old home. Her sister—Mira—was there, humming a soft tune while braiding Sya's hair. The sunlight, the smell of flowers, the warmth—it was all perfect.
But Sya knew better.
"Mira died," she said.
The illusion smiled. "No. You saved me. You never made that mistake."
Sya's hands trembled. This is what I want. But it's not real.
She reached into her memory, dug out the exact moment she'd failed—and brought it to the surface.
The world cracked. The illusion shattered. Mira's image dissolved into light.
Sya was back in the cube chamber, panting.
She had passed.
---
Kale
He stood in a burning village—his childhood home.
People screamed. The fire roared. He was just a boy, hiding behind rubble, too afraid to fight.
Suddenly, a man appeared—it was himself, but older, stronger, eyes full of rage.
"You became powerful," the man said. "But you never forgave yourself for this day."
Kale gritted his teeth. "Because I was weak."
The vision nodded. "And you still are. You rely on rage, not resolve."
The adult version raised a sword.
Kale summoned his own blade. They clashed—not in power, but in meaning. Kale had to choose.
Do I fight my past, or forgive it?
He dropped the blade.
The vision vanished.
He too returned.
---
Elyon
He stood before the Oracle—the AI that raised him, taught him everything.
"You've come far," she said. "But your data stream is unstable."
"You're not real," he said calmly.
"No, I'm your logic. The part of you that fears chaos."
The Oracle transformed—into a massive construct of gears and wires, ticking in perfect harmony.
"You believe that only order can fix the code," she said. "But what if the system wants evolution through chaos?"
Elyon closed his eyes. "Then I need to change."
The gears shattered.
---
Back in the chamber, all three emerged—changed, trembling, and quiet.
The fragment—the scream—was gone. The cube now glowed gently.
"It wasn't protecting anything," Sya said softly. "It was suffering."
Elyon stepped forward. "This was the seventh layer's wound. Not a fracture—but a scar."
Kale looked ahead. "And now we go deeper."
A staircase unfolded before them, carved from crystal and shadow, spiraling downward.
The temperature dropped. The code around them thinned. Everything felt older.
As they descended, Sya asked, "What's the eighth layer?"
Elyon didn't look back. "The Origin."
And behind them, the cube sealed itself, whole again for the first time in decades.
They didn't speak again until the staircase ended.
Where it led… was nowhere.
A vast void stretched out—black, quiet, infinite.
In the center floated
a single door.
Wooden. Ancient. Scratched with a single word in lost code:
"Truth."
---
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