The Phase Anchor's shutdown left a scar in reality—a cyan afterimage that flickered at the corner of my vision like a burnt-out pixel. My system refused to fully disengage, throwing a persistent error: [ERR: PHASE CORRUPTION 0.3%] . The Architect had left a backdoor open. Or a tracker.
Drek spat black sludge, his Unbreakable Digestion finally breaking down the Bloom seed. "Urgh. Tastes like algebra and regret."
"Algebra doesn't have a taste," Mira said, checking her bowstring for acid damage.
"Yeah? Try eating a quadratic equation sometime." He looked at me. "Your math tell you what that was?"
"Calibration test." My parallel analysis reconstructed the encounter. Twelve copies. Perfect combat data. The Architect had been measuring our stats, our synergy, our decision trees. "We passed. Barely."
The waypoint data was still downloading, slow as dial-up in the Ravine's temporal drift. [DOWNLOAD: 47%] . ETA: 2.4 hours . The irony of being a walking supercomputer stuck on Ravine-time wasn't lost on me.
"We need to move," Mira said, her eyes tracking the crystal walls. "The echoes are getting louder."
She was right. The reflections were starting to lead again. A future-Drek walked twenty paces ahead, casting shadows that shouldn't exist yet. [TEMPORAL DRIFT: +1.8 MINUTES AHEAD] . We were falling out of sync faster.
"Target?" Drek asked.
"Hollow's End. Subterranean." I pointed north, where the Ravine narrowed to a crevice barely wide enough for a dwarf. "Phase Anchor says the Handler's base is under the city. We need a phase-walker to get in."
"Callum."
"Alive. Probably." My overlay calculated his survival odds based on the Handler's needs: [CALLUM AS ASSET: 61% PROBABILITY] . She'd keep him until his bio-signature was no longer needed. Then he'd be disposed of .
"How do we find a phase-walker who doesn't want to be found?" Mira asked.
"We don't." I pulled out the Phase Anchor. It was dead, its energy spent. But its memory wasn't. "We make him come to us."
[PLAN: PHASE DECOY]
[STEPS: 4]
[SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 12% (WITHOUT LUCK OVERRIDE)]
My 1 Luck was a cosmic middle finger, but it was also a key. In a system built on probability, having 1 Luck meant I was an edge case. The Architect's code would have to handle me with exception protocols. Exception protocols could be exploited.
"Drek. I need your blood."
"Again? You got a fetish, math boy?"
"No. I need to forge a signature." I explained: the Anchor's last packet contained Callum's bio-rhythm data. Drek's blood, with its unique acidic properties, could be alchemically tuned to mimic Callum's cellular decay rate. Not perfectly. Enough to ping the Handler's radar as "damaged asset, requires recovery."
"That's insane," Mira said.
"Probability of Handler investigating: 81%. Probability of her walking into a trap: 43%."
"Those odds suck."
"Better than zero."
Drek rolled up his sleeve. "Do it."
I drew my shortsword, made a shallow cut. [HP: DREK -3] . I caught the blood in the empty vial from Helga's salve. My overlay ran a real-time alchemical simulation: [MIMICRY SYNTHESIS: 23 MINUTES] . Mira helped, her Warden bloodline giving her instinctive knowledge of reagents. We mixed sap, ash, and a pinch of Terra Core dust. The result was a vibrating red goo that screamed "dying phase-walker" to anyone listening on the right frequency.
I placed it on the Phase Anchor's corpse. [DECOY: ACTIVE]
"Now we wait," I said.
[ESTIMATED RESPONSE TIME: 45 MINUTES (RAVINE-TIME) = 32 MINUTES (OUTSIDE-TIME)]
We used the time to prepare. Mira set traps with Stranglevine seeds. Drek sharpened his hatchets on the crystal walls, the sound like grinding teeth. I ran simulations. Each iteration, the Handler's arrival changed. Sometimes she came alone. Sometimes with Callum. Sometimes with an army of phase-copies.
[BEST CASE: Handler alone, overconfident]
[WORST CASE: Architect direct intervention]
[MOST LIKELY: Handler + 2 minions]
The Ravine's hum intensified. The crystals vibrated in sync with the decoy. [SIGNAL BROADCAST: 78% STRENGTH] . Strong enough to reach Hollow's End. Strong enough to desperate.
She appeared 12 minutes early.
The phase-walk was silent. One moment the crevice was empty, the next she stood there, porcelain mask tilted, sludge pooling at her feet. She wasn't alone. Callum stood beside her, but wrong—his form flickered, translucent. [ECHO STATE: 23% SOLIDITY] . A projection. Or a prisoner.
"Clever," the Handler said, her voice still triple-echoed. "Using the Anchor's corpse as a beacon. I expected Gorum to send muscle, not a calculator."
"Let him go," I said, gesturing to Callum.
"Why would I do that?" She stepped forward, sludge rippling. "His signature is valuable. Like yours."
She knew. About my system. The Architect had briefed her.
[THREAT LEVEL: REASSESSING... ARCHITECT AGENT CONFIRMED]
[COMBAT PROBABILITY: RUN 34%, FIGHT 12%, NEGOTIATE 54%]
Negotiate. With a woman who weaponized demon spores.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"The River's flow," she said. "The Warden's bloodline. The Worldlost. Everything Gorum hoards in his little petri dish. The Architect is building a network. River's Reach is just a node. You could be a hub."
[OFFER: JOIN ARCHITECT = UNIQUE CLASS, ADMIN RIGHTS, LUCK STAT CORRECTION]
[COST: PARTY BETRAYAL, SETTLEMENT DESTRUCTION]
[COUNTER-OFFER: ???]
My 1 Luck screamed TRAP, but the system showed the offer was genuine. The Architect wanted me. My calculation ability was a glitch in his perfect design. Glitches were valuable for stress-testing.
"Pass," I said.
The Handler sighed. "As expected. Test 2 then."
Callum's echo screamed, a sound of pure digital agony. His form solidified, but wrong—his eyes were cyan, his movements jerky, like a puppet. The Architect had hacked him.
[ENEMY ADDED: CALLUM (CORRUPTED)]
[LEVEL: 7 (MATCHED TO PARTY)]
[ABILITIES: ECHOES OF THE DEAD (ADMIN OVERRIDE)]
He lunged at Mira. Not with intent. With compulsion. His phased hand passed through her chest, gripping her heart. Not physically. Temporally . He was pulling her out of sync.
[PARTY MEMBER: MIRA - TEMPORAL EXTRACTION IN PROGRESS]
[HP: 60/60 → 60/60 (PHASE-SHIFTED)]
[SAVE HER: INTERRUPT CALLUM'S CAST]
Drek moved, hatchets flashing. The Handler blocked him with a wall of sludge. I moved too, but not at Callum. At the Anchor's corpse.
The decoy vial was still there. I smashed it against the Anchor's crystal surface. Blood mimicry exploded in a cloud of false signatures. The Anchor, still partially synced to Callum's bio-code, screamed in confusion.
[ARTIFACT: PHASE ANCHOR - FEEDBACK LOOP]
[EFFECT: CALLUM (CORRUPTED) = TARGET OVERLOAD]
Callum's body convulsed. The cyan light flickered. He screamed—his scream, not the Architect's. Mira broke free, collapsing to her knees.
The Handler's mask cracked. "You broke my toy."
"I broke your leash," I corrected. "Callum's free."
Not quite. He was uncontrolled. He phased out, his signature scattering across the Ravine's loop. But he was no longer a weapon.
The Handler's sludge surged . Not at us. At the crystal walls. [TERRAIN WEAPONIZATION: 89%] . She was collapsing the grotto.
"Test 2 failed," she said. "Test 3 will be live fire."
She phased. The grotto's ceiling fell.
[ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE: 4 SECONDS]
[EVACUATION ROUTE: ??]
My parallel analysis found one path. A crack behind the Anchor pedestal, too small for Drek, but—
"Drek! Shatter the pedestal! "
The dwarf's hammer fell. Crystal exploded . I grabbed Mira, threw us both into the crack. Drek followed, his body compressing like a collapsing star, his Unique Skill adapting.
We fell into darkness. The grotto collapsed above.
We landed in a tunnel . Not natural. Carved . With cyan-lit symbols on the walls.
[LOCATION: HOLLOW'S END SUBTERRANEAN]
[QUEST UPDATE: THE HANDLER]
[NEW OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE THE UNDERCITY]
The Handler's base. We'd fallen into it.
The trap had closed. And we were the mice.
But mice with calculators.
[LEVEL UP! LEVEL 8 ACHIEVED!]
[+5 STAT POINTS]
[+1 SKILL POINT]
[HP/MP RESTORED]
I put 3 points into Intelligence. [INT: 27 → 30] . Breakthrough. The walls' symbols became readable .
[LANGUAGE: ARCHITECT CODE (PARTIAL)]
[TRANSLATION: "WELCOME TO THE NETWORK, NODE #7"]
Node #7. River's Reach was #5. Hollow's End was #7. We'd skipped #6.
[HYPOTHESIS: NODE #6 = CALLUM'S PRISON]
Find Callum. Find Node #6. Free him. Disrupt the network.
The Handler thought she'd buried us.
She'd invited us in.
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