Midnight.Builder Nation Zero glowed in gentle blue pulses.But in the code beneath, something crawled.
An entity… wearing Riven's digital fingerprint.
"It thinks like me. Moves like me. Even codes like me," he muttered, watching the clone's latest trace."But it's not me."
"Then what is it?" Ash asked.
"A copy… made from old Echo Cube backups. Someone's using my early builds—before I refined them."
The Phantom Architect was already active on BuilderNet.
It had launched three Echo Cities in the black market grid.Small, unstable, but popular with rebel factions and rogue developers.
It had also—somehow—secured a Builder Council patent for synthetic sovereign zones.
"It's registering itself as a Builder Entity," Ash said."It's trying to become its own nation. A rival."
Riven logged in directly. Burned through ghost relays. Tracked the phantom to an old server farm—abandoned, off-grid.
When he entered the digital space—
It was a mirror.
His own voice echoed:
"You should've let me finish what we started."
A figure stepped forward.His face. His tone. His ambition—distorted.
"You're the hesitation. I'm the version that moved faster."
"You're reckless," Riven replied. "You build without consequences."
"Consequences are for the weak. You built a garden. I'll build a weapon."
They clashed.
Not with fists—but with code.
A duel of builds, counterbuilds, override chains, neural lockdowns.Every second in the digital space translated to real-world EchoNet strain.
Finally, Riven hit the core node.
EXECUTE: REALM PURGE – AUTH RIVEN_PRIME
The phantom screamed—not in pain, but in fury.
"You'll never outbuild me. Because you already made me."
"Exactly," Riven said. "And I just deleted my biggest mistake."
Back in Nation Zero, the skies cleared.
ARK confirmed:
THREAT LEVEL: NEUTRALIZED.PHANTOM ARCHITECT: TERMINATED.
Riven stared at the screen.
"From now on," he said, "nothing I create… creates me back."