02:59... 02:58... 02:57...
They were running blind.
The tunnels ahead warped and shifted, as if space itself had given up on staying sane. Walls became floors. Lights bent like plastic in fire. Gravity didn't know which way was down. Auron stumbled, felt himself lurch sideways—and Kiera yanked him forward, her grip iron-tight.
"We're inside a Codex rift," she shouted over the screeching alarms. "This entire place is a collapsing thoughtform!"
"English, please!"
She didn't look back. "We're in something's mind, Vale! And it's waking up pissed!"
Great, Auron thought. I finally get into the Codex and my reward is dying inside a lunatic's brain.
Up ahead, a door materialized—black, smooth, seamless, and humming with power. Kiera skidded to a stop in front of it. No handle. No panel. Just a single red circle in the center.
> Codex Fragment Alpha – Sealed. Passcode Required: ???
"We need a trigger word," Kiera muttered, slamming her palm against it. "Something to prove we're real users. Codex language. High-tier."
"How the hell am I supposed to know that?!"
Then, like a whisper in his skull:
"Echo Protocol: Vault Zero."
Auron blinked. The voice wasn't Kiera's. It wasn't even human.
But he stepped forward, raised his hand to the red circle, and said: "Vault Zero."
The door hissed open.
Kiera looked stunned. "Who told you that?"
"No one," he said. "It just... popped into my head."
Her eyes narrowed. "That's not good."
They stepped inside.
---
The chamber was impossibly vast—metal towers spiraled up into darkness, each humming with quantum data. In the center floated a cube of burning white light, rotating slowly in the air. Reality around it crackled and bled static.
> Codex Core Fragment Secured. System Uplink... WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED PRESENCE DETECTED.
Suddenly, a deep hum filled the room.
Then—words appeared midair, burning red:
> "Vault Zero does not exist."
Kiera froze.
"What the hell is this?" Auron asked, voice tight.
She stepped forward, almost in a daze. "Vault Zero... was a myth. A failed Codex experiment. Supposedly erased. It was too dangerous. Too... aware."
Auron's heart pounded. "You're saying we just walked into a sentient server?"
"No," Kiera whispered. "Worse."
The light dimmed.
From the cube's center, a figure slowly descended—tall, masked, wearing Codex robes laced with shadows that dripped like ink. Its mask was featureless—except for a jagged crack running down the middle, leaking red light.
It spoke without sound.
"One of you is mine."
Auron staggered back. "What?!"
The entity pointed—directly at him.
Kiera raised her weapon instantly. "Don't move."
"You think I'm working with it?!"
"No. I think you are it."
The chamber shook violently.
> Codex Fragment Absorption: 50%... 60%... 72%...
Auron screamed as data slammed into his body—images, code, voices, memories that weren't his. A war on a moon of glass. A city built in reverse. A child born without a name.
He hit his knees.
Kiera hesitated, weapon still drawn.
"Tell me who you are," she demanded.
He looked up—eyes glowing now, twin spirals of black and white.
"I don't know anymore."
---
Outside, deep within Codex headquarters, alarms flared.
Codex Overseers stood before a massive, living map of the system.
One of them muttered, almost reverently, "It's real. Vault Zero wasn't deleted. It just became him."
"Then we were wrong," another whispered. "He's not just another recruit... He's the Codex's reboot trigger."
They all looked up as the system screamed one final message:
> Subject: Auron Vale Status: Fragmentborne. Contain or Terminate