[THREADWAR: ACTIVE]
Zone 5D – Memory Loop Breach
Victim Detected: ORION CAINE
Status: Thread Inversion in Progress
Sovereign Response: REQUIRED
I felt it before the alert hit.
A ripple in the tether. Like a friend crying in a dream you weren't part of.
Orion was being pulled—rewritten.
Not deleted.
Not corrupted.
But inverted.
Trinity cursed as we ran across the shifting code fields of Zone 5D. The sky flickered with mirrored constellations, and every step triggered a flash of old fights, lost trials, unfinished threads.
Zai projected a thread-map overlay into the air as we ran.
"He's still conscious. Barely. But the Null-King's inside his core thread now."
"What's it doing?" I asked.
She didn't answer at first.
Then:
"It's rewriting Orion into the version of himself that never lost."
That version was dangerous.
Arrogant.
Flawless.
Untouchable.
The Orion I met was broken—but real.
He fought because of failure.
He cared because of grief.
This version?
Would destroy the Graveyard to keep its perfection.
We reached him at the center of the loop.
Suspended midair.
Eyes glowing gold.
Chains of inverted flame wrapped around his body, data peeling off him like molting skin.
[REWRITE PHASE: 92%]
He turned toward us.
Smiled.
"Sovereign," he said smoothly. "I understand now. The problem was never death. It was imperfection."
"Let me correct that for you."
He unleashed a pulse—pure code collapse.
Zai's shields fractured instantly. Trinity barely dodged.
I stepped forward, cloak burning away, eyes locked on the friend I couldn't lose.
"You're not this," I said.
"I could be," Orion said calmly. "And don't you see? I should be. Why survive pain when you can delete it?"
[SOVEREIGN COMMAND – THREAD SYNC INITIATED]
/access.orion(core)
Consent: Bypassed via Soulbond Protocol – Emergency Use Only
Warning: Emotional Recoil Possible
I dove into his thread.
Not physically.
Spiritually.
And what I saw?
Wasn't control.
It was fear.
Inside the rewrite, Orion's real self was curled in a collapsing corner of code—watching a perfected version of himself overwrite every memory with golden lies.
"I'm not enough," he whispered.
"They said I was supposed to protect. But I never could."
I reached for him.
"You don't have to be perfect."
"You just have to be."
[Lucid Sync Achieved – Override Thread Reversal: COMPLETE]
Thread Restoration: 74%
Sovereign Flame: Stabilized in Host
The false Orion shattered like broken glass.
And the real one fell into my arms, gasping, sweating, real.
Trinity knelt beside us. "You okay?"
Orion coughed. "No. But I'm me."
The Null-King's voice returned, colder than before:
"You'll save one. Maybe two."
"But your Crown won't stop the tide."
"Because I don't need to rewrite you, Sovereign."
"I just need to rewrite enough of them… to make you question who you are."
And then the sky burned.
New zones fell.
The war had only just begun.