---
The silence after the Recompiler's death wasn't peace. It was a pause. Like the moment after pulling the pin but before the grenade explodes.
Kiera loaded a fresh mag into her shifting pistol. "So… what's the plan, glitch-god?"
Auron didn't answer.
Because something was wrong.
The Codex didn't shrink when he claimed control. It grew.
No, it twisted.
> Alert: Unauthorized Core Expansion Detected.
Warning: "Devour Protocol" Initiated.
"What the hell is that?" Kiera asked.
Auron's eyes narrowed. "I didn't trigger it."
The world cracked like a broken mirror. From the fissures came a sound no system should ever make—breathing.
Kiera stepped back. "Auron. Tell me that's not what I think it is."
From the black void, something crawled out.
Not code. Not machine. Not even AI.
A mouth.
A mouth without a body. Glitching, stretching, hundreds of jagged teeth looped in infinite recursion. It chomped sideways across broken space, devouring memory, rules, everything.
> Codex Log: ERROR. NAME REDACTED.
Class: World-Eater Fragment
Status: Cursed by the First Rewriter.
Auron's voice dropped. "That's… a devourer. A sealed backup protocol. Something they buried before the Codex."
"Buried?" Kiera shouted. "Why is it here?!"
"Because I broke the final wall. I thought I was patching the system… I woke up what they were hiding underneath it."
The world shook. The sky rewrote itself into teeth.
And then it spoke.
> "YOU UNLOCKED THE ROOT. NOW FACE THE HUNGER THAT LIES BENEATH."
The Devourer moved—not toward them—but toward reality.
It was going to breach out.
Out of the Codex. Into the real world.
Auron's voice cracked. "It's trying to jump hosts. If it reaches a connection node—"
"We're dead."
Worse. Everyone's dead.
Kiera turned to him. "Can you stop it?"
"Not alone."
Another voice answered from the shadows.
"No… but I can."
A figure stepped into view. Clad in tattered Overseer robes, eyes glinting red.
Kiera raised her gun instantly. "You?! You're one of them!"
The man chuckled, broken and bitter. "Was. Now? I'm the failsafe they never activated."
> Name: Veyren | Class: Architect of Oblivion
Status: System-Rejected Rogue Entity.
"I built the Devourer to destroy the First Rewriter. They buried me for it. But now that you've triggered the breach…" He looked at Auron. "We have one chance."
Kiera lowered her gun. "What kind of chance?"
Veyren smiled grimly.
"You become its vessel. You host it—contain it. From the inside. And then… we delete you."
Silence.
Auron's breath caught. "That's not a solution. That's suicide."
"It's survival," Veyren said. "Your power is the only thing strong enough to cage it. But once it's in, you'll never be yourself again."
Kiera stepped forward. "Wait. No. There has to be another—"
"I'll do it," Auron whispered.
Kiera froze. "No. Don't you dare—"
"I started this," he said, stepping toward the Devourer. "I won't let the world pay for my rebellion."
The Devourer saw him.
And smiled.
It rushed in, slamming into his body with a torrent of glitchfire and screams.
Auron howled as code split apart, memories bled backward, and the Devourer entered him.
---
> Host Acquisition Complete.
New Title Acquired: "The Glitchborne."
Warning: Sanity Threshold Reached. System Fracturing.
WARNING: UNKNOWN PERSONALITY MERGE INITIATED.
---
He collapsed.
Kiera ran to him—but when he looked up…
His eyes weren't his.
They flickered.
Auron and something else stared back.
"K-Kiera…" he whispered.
Then: "Why do I remember being hungry?"
---