The guttural chanting intensified, vibrating not just through the air but seemingly through the very ground beneath Kaito's feet. The iridescent aura surrounding the glitched entities pulsed with an unsettling rhythm, and their composite forms, once appearing as random assemblages of biological parts, now moved with a terrifying, unified purpose. Their multifaceted eyes, a bizarre collection of reptilian slits, mammalian pupils, and insectile facets, fixed on the city gates with a chilling, ancient awareness.
Kaito felt his Debug Mode struggling to maintain coherence. The familiar lines of Elysian Fields' structured code were being overlaid and disrupted by the alien script emanating from the chanting and the entities themselves. It was like trying to read a corrupted file with a program designed for a completely different operating system.
[Warning: Foreign Code Interference - High Levels]
[Active System Processes: Compromised]
[Attempting Translation...]
[Translation Failure: Incompatible Syntax]
"The Old Tongue… the language of chaos before the Shaping…" the veteran guard stammered, his eyes wide with a primal fear that mirrored the dread gripping Kaito. "They said it could unravel the very fabric of existence…"
As the chanting reached a fever pitch, the flowing stone of the western gate began to warp and distort even further. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, and sections dissolved into swirling vortexes of grey and unnatural colors. The boundary between the structured reality of Aethelgard and the chaotic energy beyond seemed to be thinning rapidly.
Suddenly, a small voice cut through the oppressive atmosphere. "Look!"
Princess Lyra, defying King Theron's orders, had arrived at the western gate, her face pale but her eyes sharp with a focused intensity. She stood beside Kaito, clutching the small, leather-bound book she had been studying in the library.
"The symbols… on the gate… and on them…" she pointed a trembling finger at the pulsating stone and then at the shimmering aura surrounding the glitched entities. "They're like the ones in the old texts! The primal script!"
Kaito's head snapped towards the gate. Now that Lyra had drawn his attention to it, he could indeed discern faint, etched symbols within the flowing stone. They were unlike the elegant runes of Elysian Fields' magic, appearing more like jagged, primal carvings, radiating a raw, untamed energy. His Debug Mode, though unable to fully translate them, identified them as the source of the foreign code interference.
[Identifying Code Source: Primal Script]
[Syntax Analysis: Incompatible with Current System Architecture]
[Function: Reality Disruption, Entity Manifestation]
"The primal script…" Kaito murmured, a dawning understanding beginning to form. "They're not just glitches; they're being summoned or manifested using a language of creation that predates the current system."
One of the composite entities, a grotesque fusion of feline and avian features, let out a piercing shriek that seemed to bypass normal auditory processing, resonating directly within Kaito's mind as a raw, untamed command. The other entities stirred, their mismatched limbs preparing to breach the fractured gate.
"They're trying to come through!" a guard yelled, his voice cracking with fear.
Kaito knew that conventional magic and weaponry were ineffective against these beings, whose very existence seemed to flout the established rules of their reality. He had to fight fire with fire, or in this case, code with… older code.
He focused his Debug Mode, no longer trying to directly manipulate the entities with Elysian Fields' syntax. Instead, he attempted to analyze the primal script, looking for patterns, for vulnerabilities in its raw, unstructured nature. It was like trying to find a logical flaw in a language built on pure emotion and instinct.
"Lyra," Kaito said quickly, his mind racing. "You said you saw these symbols in the old texts. Do you remember anything about their meaning? Their function?"
Lyra's brow furrowed in concentration, her eyes darting between the writhing gate and the encroaching horrors. She flipped open the small book in her hands, her fingers tracing the faded symbols on its brittle pages.
"They… they spoke of a time when the world listened to intention, not to structured spells," she murmured, her voice barely audible above the guttural chanting. "A time when thought could shape reality directly… but it was wild… unstable…"
She pointed to a particular symbol in her book, a jagged spiral. "This one… it meant 'unraveling'… 'destructuring'…"
Kaito's eyes widened. "Destructuring… like breaking down the fundamental structure of reality?"
Lyra nodded, her gaze fixed on a similar symbol etched into the flowing stone of the gate. "And this one… it meant 'manifestation'… 'to bring forth from the void'…"
Understanding crashed down on Kaito like a physical blow. These entities weren't random glitches; they were being deliberately brought into their world using a primal language that bypassed the established rules of Elysian Fields' code. The chanting wasn't just background noise; it was the execution of this ancient script.
He looked at the glitched entities, their eyes now burning with a malevolent intelligence, and then at the fractured gate, a conduit between structured reality and primal chaos. He knew that simply trying to rewrite their current code with his Debug Mode was futile; he was fighting against a fundamental force that operated on an entirely different level.
He had to understand the primal script, find a way to counter its effects, to rewrite the very language of this ancient magic. And a young princess, with her forgotten knowledge gleaned from dusty tomes, might just be their only hope against the unraveling of their world. The battle at the glitched gates had just become a desperate race against a power that predated the very concept of structured code.