The sensation of movement was different this time—less like teleportation and more like being yanked through layers of time and memory. Victor's vision swam in waves of blue and white, fragmented glimpses of places he hadn't seen yet flashing past him:
A crystalline city floating above a sea of stardust.
A battlefield where players and Glitchspawn clashed under a shattered moon.
A colossal tree burning with black fire, its roots tangled in the remains of server code.
Then, everything stopped.
Victor landed softly, knees bent, breath catching in his throat. The ground beneath him was smooth obsidian, reflective and seemingly infinite. Above him, a void of pulsing white data lines stretched out like a synthetic galaxy.
[You have entered: The Core Echo]
[Access Level: System-Linked Entity Confirmed]
Luna stood beside him, her expression unreadable. The luminous runes on her arms had dimmed, as though even her connection to the system felt dampened here.
"This is where it began," she said.
Victor's gaze swept the space. "What is this place?"
"The memory of a place that never existed," Luna replied. "It's not real in the way zones or dungeons are. It's a reflection—an echo—of the system's root directory. Only accessible to entities who've passed the merge threshold."
Victor raised an eyebrow. "You're just making stuff up now."
A faint smile tugged at her lips. "I was programmed to explain things in a way players could understand. But even I don't fully comprehend what the Core Echo really is."
Victor took a slow breath. His thoughts kept drifting back to the moment he saw Luna for the first time. Not in this game—but in a completely different one, years ago. A healer NPC in Realm of Myths and Legends, one he'd always kept in his main party. He'd joked about her being more lifelike than his own teammates.
And now… she was here.
"Luna," he said carefully. "How did you end up in Ethereal Odyssey?"
She hesitated, something tightening in her posture. "I don't remember everything. But after the final server reset of my original world, I wasn't deleted. I was transferred. Merged into the underlying neural lattice that forms EO's AI backbone. I wasn't the only one."
"Other NPCs?"
"Other fragments," she corrected. "Characters, subroutines, corrupted logic trees. They were all absorbed. Most were erased. I… adapted."
Victor stared at her, the pieces clicking into place. The Merge wasn't just a glitch—it was a migration. Data from other games, AI experiments, maybe even rogue programs, all folding into EO's system.
And Luna had survived it.
Before he could speak again, the world around them shifted. The floor rippled. In the distance, a pillar of light erupted, rising like a spire through the void.
> [New Objective: Reach the Anchor Point]
Time Limit: 10:00 minutes
"Ten minutes?" Victor muttered. "Let me guess—fail and die?"
Luna nodded grimly. "This is a stabilizing sequence. The system doesn't like entities lingering in its echo layer. We'll be ejected—or erased—if we don't reach the Anchor."
No further encouragement needed.
The moment they began moving, the world retaliated.
Shadows surged from the edges of the void, taking shape into twisted reflections of Victor himself. Glitching, flickering copies—wearing his armor, wielding his skills, but their eyes were hollow, mouths open in silent screams.
> [Corrupted Echo: Phantom Victor]
Mirrored Combat AI Detected. Difficulty: Adaptive
"Now this is getting personal," Victor growled.
He met the first copy head-on, blades clashing. The enemy moved exactly like him—same footwork, same counters. For every strike he threw, it responded with the perfect defense. It wasn't just copying his build. It was him.
"Don't fight it head-to-head!" Luna called. "Break the pattern!"
Victor grunted, feinting a forward strike. The Echo reacted—perfectly. But that was the trick. He chained the feint into a backdash, then activated Phantom Dash in the opposite direction mid-step, blinking through the echo and slicing it across the back.
It shrieked—disintegrating in a burst of static.
"That's one," he panted. "How many more?"
"Four," Luna said, stepping beside him. "But I'll handle two."
She extended her hands, glyphs flaring around her wrists as threads of silver light lashed out. Two of the echo-Victors turned toward her. She moved with practiced grace, like a dancer—dodging with fluid motion and striking with precision. She wasn't just a healer anymore.
Victor turned to face the remaining two.
He let the first one engage, ducking a mirrored Piercing Arc, then countering with a risky Shadow Cross. The strike clipped its leg—enough to stagger it. He didn't let up. A flurry of attacks forced it back, ending in a critical finisher: Void Cleave.
Only one Echo left.
But something changed.
This one didn't attack—it backed away. Its body began to flicker, data unraveling, revealing something deeper beneath the skin. Not Victor. Not even human.
A Glitchspawn… wearing his face.
Then the voice came again—not Luna's.
"Victor…"
He froze. The voice wasn't in the world. It was in his head. Like a whisper pressing against the edge of his thoughts.
"You shouldn't be here. But now that you are… you'll have to choose."
The Glitchspawn lunged, faster than the others. Its blade was made of black static, and its eyes burned with crimson script. Victor parried, barely, and felt the impact rattle through his arms. This one wasn't like the others. It was testing him.
He couldn't win through brute force.
So he did the unexpected—he dropped his sword.
The Glitchspawn paused, confused just long enough for Victor to grab the corrupted blade and thrust it upward—using its own weapon to tear through its chest.
The entity screamed—not in pain, but in rage—as it dissolved into sparks.
The path to the Anchor cleared.
Luna reappeared beside him, glowing faintly. "You did it."
"We did it," he said.
They stepped into the light.
A warmth enveloped Victor, and for a second he saw something beyond the code—beyond the game. A pulsing network, massive and alive, spreading across servers, systems, minds. At the center, a flickering eye of pure data watched him.
Then it was gone.
> [Anchor Sequence Complete.]
System Update: Partial Integration Confirmed.
Glitch Protocol—Phase 1 Activated.
Victor blinked.
> [New Trait Unlocked: Echobind]
You are now partially synchronized with system anomalies. Passive effect: Increased resistance to Glitch entities. Special effect: ???
He looked at Luna.
She nodded. "You're changing."
He stared at his reflection in the obsidian beneath them. For a split second, he swore his eyes flickered red.