The moment the First Seal shatters, the world forgets how to make sound.
For a heartbeat, I exist in perfect white silence.
No timer.
No Codex voice.
Just the raw static of my own pulse scraping against my ribs.
Then it collapses inward, like lungs emptied of air.
The world snaps back with a soundless scream—like thunder dipped in blood.
1. Afterglow
I'm on my knees. The floor beneath me glows like burning glass. Red cracks spider out in every direction.
The masked figure is there, standing on unbroken ground—cloak rippling in a wind that shouldn't exist.
> SYSTEM // FIRST SEAL BROKEN
ALIGNMENT: UNRESOLVED
Secondary protocols initializing...
The Codex's glyphs stutter across my HUD like corrupted code. They feel… furious.
"Still breathing," I mutter, staggering upright. "Guess that's a win."
"Breathe later," the stranger snaps. "Run now."
They point behind me.
I turn.
The horizon is burning.
A wave of data-static barrels toward us, devouring everything in its path. Stone becomes smoke. Code becomes void.
"Fault Sweep," the stranger mutters. "The Codex is purging unstable sectors."
"And we're standing in one," I say. "Perfect."
2. Open Circuit
We run.
Platforms manifest underfoot a second before impact—then vanish the moment we leap. The Codex is building the bridge and erasing it at the same time.
My lungs scream. Muscles tear. Data Phasing: still cooling. Time Window? Thirteen minutes.
This is raw survival.
"Where are we going?" I shout.
"Somewhere the Codex hasn't rewritten. Yet."
"That's comforting."
A void opens ahead—too wide to cross. Instinct kicks in.
I snatch a floating code shard mid-run, hurl it forward. The shard explodes into a ramp of fractal light.
We vault.
The Fault Sweep obliterates the last platform behind us.
3. Downlink Heart
We crash into a cavern of black code—walls carved from obsidian logic. Doors slam shut. Silence.
The masked figure removes a glove—revealing fingers etched with circuitry. She touches a plinth. The room answers, humming alive.
Seven crystal hearts hover above the altar.
One is cracked.
"The Observer Hearts," she says. "Anchors. Each of us has one."
"Us?" I echo.
She taps the fractured one. It flickers.
"The second Observer is waking. But the Codex is confused now. You broke sequence."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the system doesn't know which of you to erase."
4. Identity Glitch
I lean against the altar, catching my breath.
"Enough riddles. I need a name."
The mask tilts upward.
No face—just a shifting reflection, like her identity's caught between versions.
"I was once called Liora," she says quietly. "Observer Six."
Six.
I just met endgame-tier this early?
"Why help me, Liora?"
She hesitates.
"Because I remember what it felt like to still hope."
Before I can speak, the Codex slams a new alert into my HUD.
> ALERT: OBSERVER SIGNAL DETECTED
Sector 47-K — HOSTILE CONTACT IMMINENT
Two pulses flare on a new map.
One yellow.
One red.
Converging.
Liora's mask shifts. "The system's sending a Culling Agent."
"How long?"
The ground shakes.
She doesn't answer.
She doesn't have to.
5. Fracture Choice
Cooldowns tick:
Data Phasing — seven seconds.
Time Window — eleven minutes.
I glance at Liora. The cracked heart. The trembling walls.
"You stay. Keep the Hearts stable."
"You won't survive alone."
"Then I'll improvise."
The floor reshapes—becoming a launch pad.
She steps forward, presses something into my palm.
An obsidian shard, humming warm.
"For when you start to doubt," she says. "It's a memory key. Yours. Not the Codex's."
Before I can ask more—
The platform fires.
6. Apex Descent
I rocket skyward—then drop.
Sector 47-K yawns below. A battlefield of fractured code.
Lightning. Storms.
A human figure fighting to survive.
A shadow rising from the fog—massive. Wrong.
Codex alarms wail.
But I feel… alive.
I flick the shard. It opens—a looping image:
Me. Laughing.
With someone whose face is glitched.
My throat tightens.
Hope, Liora said.
I pocket the shard. Focus.
The Agent unfurls its wings. Void-black. Bladed.
Observer Two is seconds from annihilation.
"Okay, Codex," I whisper.
"Let's rewrite some fate."
Data Phasing: ready.
I dive.
[Time Remaining: 06:43:12]
And falling.
End of Chapter 5