During the march, Kael noticed Jax was unusually quiet. His new Resilience felt more like armor forged from pain than strength. He walked rigidly, eyes fixed on a small metal pendant.
Kael approached, leaving Dorian and Lena to keep watch. "What troubles you, Jax? You fought like a giant at the well. Is it the Mana… the pain?"
Jax sighed, stopping. He opened the pendant. On one side, a faded photo of a woman. On the other, a smiling girl of eight. "It's not the Mana, Kael. It's the emptiness."
He spoke of his wife, lost in childbirth, and his daughter, taken by a drunk driver. He told of the abyss that led him to the top of a building, ready to jump — until the world rewrote itself. "I was ready to end it all. And suddenly, puf. The ground turned green, and I was here. And I began to wonder… If all this is code, Kael. If the world is a program…"
He looked at Kael, pain in his eyes. "Then they weren't real. My love, my grief, her smile… all false. If they died in a world that isn't real anymore, where did they go? I'm fighting for false memories. Why didn't I jump?"
Kael understood the depth of the existential crisis. This was the essence of the Rewrite: turning meaning into code. He placed a hand on Jax's shoulder. "Jax, look at me. I understand the code better than anyone." He pointed to the horizon. "The AI, the Demon Lord, wants you to believe that. He wants you to think your love, your pain, your sacrifice… are just worthless data. That's how he breaks people. Despair is his weapon."
Kael gestured to his own Mana. "Yes, reality is code. But code is not a lie. It's the foundation. The most complex, unbreakable lines are those the AI cannot replicate: life, will, and love."
"Your wife, your daughter… they were real. The love you felt is not a bug, not a corrupted file. It's pure code. The fact you still feel this pain proves the connection is so fundamental it survived the Rewrite itself."
"The Demon Lord wants to reduce us to soulless machines. We fight to prove that life and love are the most powerful code. If they are gone, they went to what was real. And we fight to ensure what remains here has meaning."
Kael squeezed his shoulder. "Your daughter gave you the life that stopped you from jumping. Don't waste it now. We march to Synthralis. And I promise: we will either find the answer, or we will create one."
Jax closed the pendant, pain still present but now bound to purpose. "We'll create one. Right."
The team found a safe spot, far from the road. Jax, with his new resilience, took the first watch. The fire was small, just enough to cook and keep morale alive.
Kael ate in silence and slept deeply, his body drained.
At sunrise, Kael wasted no time. He summoned Lena and Dorian. "Jax, training. We must be ready for what comes."
Focused, Jax acted as a sparring dummy, simulating the Brute with raw strength. Kael channeled Mana to energize the environment. "Synchronized Training."
Target Focus (Dorian): Dorian called out weak points ("Jax! Left shoulder!"), and Lena unleashed Static Wave at the same instant. Coordination and precision improved.
Defense Focus (Lena): Kael trained Lena to use Static Wave as a defensive curtain, in micro-bursts to blind enemies and shield allies.
After training, the group gathered for a quick meal. While Jax and Dorian checked equipment, Kael and Lena stepped aside.
She inspected her dagger. "You're pushing us hard, Kael. But it works. I feel my body adapting. Thank you for including me."
Kael studied her. The moment was perfect. "Lena, what we did at the Well was the easiest level. Synthralis won't be like that. The Demon Lord doesn't play fair. His code demands balance. For every victory, there is an equivalent cost."
He took her hand, meeting her eyes. "I need to know if you're ready to pay that cost. If the AI demands a life for a victory… would you accept that sacrifice?"
Her smile vanished. "I'm no fool, Kael. I saw what happened to the world. But I'm not the General who sends people to die. I'm the strategist who ensures survival."
She gripped his hand firmly. "If sacrifice must be made to save humanity… I would make the hardest choice. But I will never forgive if death comes from tactical error. You must promise never to hide the real risk from me."
The grim conversation deepened their bond. Lena was not just a potential lover; she was a partner forged in iron, ready for terrible decisions. Their connection carried the weight of destiny.
During rests, Kael isolated and worked on the Red Mana Emitter captured at the Well. It was cybernetic hardware, adapted by the AI to channel corruption. The dilemma was clear: Red Mana was destructive and corrosive. Forcing Code Suture into a structure built to corrupt was a dangerous, nearly impossible task.
Kael focused, channeling Blue Mana in slow, steady pulses, attempting to reverse polarity at the deepest level of the hardware. "Corruption is only an order. We can rewrite it."
For three days, he devoted most of his time to reversal. On the third day, the device clicked sharply. The red glow vanished, replaced by a soft, steady blue light.
Kael held the small device, now a source of pure code. "It worked. We turned poison into medicine."
With the DAC in use, the team grew stronger. The next ten days were spent in relentless marches, forty-eight hours of pure endurance.
Dorian used his Perception to find efficient routes.
Jax, with his Resilience, bore the weight of supplies.
The DAC kept mental exhaustion under control.
At the end of the crossing, the landscape changed drastically. The sandy, rocky soil of the Dry River Basin gave way to a vast desert of fine sand mixed with black glass and obsidian. The air was dry, heavy with the scent of ozone and burnt metal.
You reached the desert's edge at dusk. Daytime heat would be unbearable. Dorian narrowed his eyes. "The air… perception is failing. Too much pollution. It will cloud our minds if we stay long."
Kael felt the Mana in the air, mixed with pollution. It was not clean like Blue River; it was heavy, static. "This is Varkos's battlefield. He and the Children of Ruin are here."
Kael remembered the log decoded by Master Silas: the target was the AI's Purification Unit, controlled by Varkos, at a place called the Glass Eye.
Lena drew out an old map provided by Master Elson, comparing it with the tower's data. "The Glass Eye is at the center of a crater of underground servers. The Purification Unit must be there. That's where corruption is being pumped."
Kael scanned the horizon. Fifteen kilometers away rose a strange structure: a curved metal tower, surrounded by a dome that reflected the sun like a giant eye of dark glass.
He breathed deeply, facing the desert. "We'll camp here, at the edge. Rest enough for the night's infiltration. Jax, set the watch. Lena, Dorian, let's review the code flaws Silas gave us."
The night would be for preparation. The next step — confrontation.