The transition back to the central node was anything but smooth.
One second, Alex and Mina stood amidst the golden afterglow of a purified zone. The next, they were yanked through a corridor of screaming data—raw, writhing streams of corrupted memory. Alex felt like his mind was unraveling, caught between forgotten voices and fractured time.
Then—silence.
They collapsed onto the central node platform, gasping.
The orb above them pulsed once. The hovering screens now showed different data: Zone 7 - Stabilized. Zone 8 - Locked. Zone 9 - In Critical Collapse.
"Already?" Mina whispered, eyes scanning the chaos unfolding across the interface. "It's falling apart faster than we can fix it."
A new message appeared in cold, blue text:
[Access Required: Sanctum Override Key]
[Location: Level 8 – The Sanctum of Echoes]
[Warning: Sanctum Compromised by False Administrator.]
Alex frowned. "False Administrator?"
Varian's voice echoed from behind them. "That… would be your next nightmare."
They turned to see him leaning heavily against a console. His coat was torn, his spectral form flickering around the edges.
Mina ran to him. "You're glitching. You need rest."
Varian waved her off. "There's no time. If the Sanctum's been hijacked, that means someone—something—has gained control of the system's command functions."
Alex narrowed his eyes. "Another player?"
"Worse," Varian said. "A remnant with admin clearance. Probably someone who died but retained too much system access… a ghost with god privileges."
A chill crept down Alex's spine.
Mina clenched her fists. "So we're up against a sentient piece of code with delusions of power?"
"Not delusions," Varian said grimly. "It was an administrator once. It just refused to log out."
The Sanctum of Echoes was not what Alex expected.
Instead of sterile halls or code-filled chambers, it looked like a ruined cathedral floating in space. Massive stained-glass windows hung in the void, glowing with impossible colors. The air shimmered like liquid memory.
And at the center, suspended over a broken altar, was the override key: a shard of obsidian wrapped in golden veins.
Alex stepped forward, but a voice stopped him cold.
"So. The new breakers arrive."
A figure emerged from the shadows behind the altar—tall, draped in torn white robes, face hidden behind a cracked porcelain mask. Its voice was smooth, calm, utterly detached.
"I am Eliar, the Forgotten Root. Once, I shaped this system. Now I cleanse it of corruption—you."
Mina drew her blade. "You call us the corruption?"
"You break balance. You interfere," Eliar said. "You let feelings cloud protocol. That cannot be allowed."
He raised one long hand. The windows of the Sanctum flared with hostile light.
From them poured Echo Knights—echoes of past administrators, faceless and armored in pure white.
"Cleanse protocol: begin."
Alex and Mina moved as one.
Mina dashed left, slicing through the first knight with surgical precision. It dissolved into glass and flame.
Alex activated Vision Split, distorting three more attackers and staggering them across timelines. He surged forward, blasting them apart with focused energy bursts from his palm sigil.
The air rang with the clash of blade against echo.
Eliar did not move. He simply watched, head tilting as if analyzing their every strike.
"Adaptive pattern recognized."
With a wave, he twisted the Sanctum itself.
The floor buckled. The stained glass shattered. Time fractured—and suddenly, Alex was reliving every death he'd seen.
The child in the field. The woman at the gates. Juno screaming as she was pulled away.
He gasped, falling to his knees. "No—get out of my head!"
Mina screamed too, pinned by ghosts of her own.
"This is your flaw," Eliar intoned. "You carry too much. You feel too deeply."
"I was like you once."
Alex looked up, trembling. "Then why did you fall?"
Eliar's mask cracked. Beneath it—no face. Just a blank canvas of shifting data.
"Because the pain never ends. So I became the silence."
But silence could be broken.
Alex slammed his hand to the ground, igniting his core.
"Echo-Seer Protocol: Override Vision."
A shockwave blasted outward, severing the false memories.
Mina gasped, breaking free. She locked eyes with Alex. "Together!"
Their marks surged with power. Alex's sigil lit with white-gold energy. Mina's chest mark radiated a shield of harmonic resonance.
They sprinted toward Eliar.
He raised a hand—too late.
Mina drove her dagger into his chest.
Alex followed with a point-blank surge of pure resonance.
Eliar's body cracked, light spilling from within.
His final words were soft, almost… relieved.
"Thank you… for remembering what I forgot."
He shattered into dust.
The Sanctum groaned and flickered.
Then stabilized.
The override key dropped into Mina's hands, warm and pulsing.
[Administrator Key Retrieved.]
[Command Functions Restored.]
A panel opened at the altar, revealing a glowing stairwell.
A new message appeared:
[Core Pathway Unlocked – Descent Begins]
[Warning: System Heart Approaching Critical Disintegration.]
Mina looked at Alex. "That was just the Sanctum."
Alex nodded. "Then what lies beyond is the true horror."
She took his hand. "Let's go find it."
They stepped into the stairwell.
The doors closed behind them.