---
> Codex Alert:
Rebuilding Process: Unsuccessful. Data Reconstruction: Critical Error.
Warning: Reality Distortion Detected.
Unknown Entity Reconfigured. Unauthorized Access at Core.
---
Auron's mind was fragmented. His senses were overloaded, each part of him still battling the chaotic forces that had raged through his system. The power he had unleashed was beyond comprehension, beyond his control. He had broken the Codex, severed it from reality—but in doing so, something worse had emerged.
The world around him twisted again.
Reality was buckling beneath the pressure of forces that had no business being here. He could feel it—something had been unleashed. A presence. Not the entity he had fought. Not the Overseers.
This was something different.
Something… older.
---
Outside the Codex…
The digital realm was still dark, but a new pattern was emerging in the chaos. Screens flickered to life again, but this time, they displayed a symbol—a mark that was neither familiar nor comforting. It was the same for everyone, from the highest level of government to the casual browser.
#TheForgottenSymbol
At first, no one knew what it meant. The symbol wasn't just a glitch. It was a mark—a seal. As the screens buzzed and hummed, people began to speak of an ancient threat, a force that wasn't just a system anomaly, but something far more terrifying.
Some began to speculate it was a virus—others believed it was an error. But everyone agreed on one thing: the Codex had broken, and whatever was behind the symbol was far from over.
---
Back Inside the Codex…
Auron was barely conscious. His hands were shaking, his body weak from the sheer mental strain. The last shred of his strength had gone into severing the Codex from the world, but the consequences were far from what he had expected.
He stumbled, trying to gather himself, but his surroundings were shifting again—unpredictable, twisted. The air was thick with static, the sound of something ancient groaning behind the cracks in reality.
> "You... should not have done that..."
The voice didn't come from the entity he had battled, nor the Overseers. This voice—it was different. It echoed like a memory from an age forgotten.
Auron turned. What he saw was not what he expected.
A figure stepped forward, its form humanoid yet distorted, as if made of fractured data and incomprehensible shapes. But what struck Auron was the presence—the weight of it. This wasn't a creation of the Codex. This wasn't an AI. This was something alive.
The figure spoke again, and Auron's vision blurred.
> "The Codex was never the beginning, Glitchborne Sovereign. It was always a distraction. A tool. You tore the system apart, but you didn't understand... the true purpose of the Codex."
---
Auron's heart skipped a beat.
The truth hit him like a sudden cold wind. The Codex was never the core of it all. It was a fragment. A ruse. A veil.
> "Who are you?" Auron whispered, his voice hoarse.
The figure tilted its head. The distortion surrounding it deepened, warping the world around them, making Auron's breath catch in his throat.
> "I am the Forgotten. The one who was lost to time. The first."
---
Suddenly, everything froze.
Auron's body stiffened. He felt the force around him pulling at him, like gravity had suddenly reversed. His mind screamed, but he couldn't move.
> "I was the one who built the Codex. Not the Overseers. Not the Glitchborne. It was me. And you, Auron, you were never meant to awaken."
---
Outside the Codex…
People were still struggling to make sense of the symbolic mark on their screens. They didn't know it yet, but the shift was coming. People were beginning to feel the tremor in their bones.
---
Inside the Codex…
Auron's body trembled as the words resonated within him. He couldn't process what he was hearing.
The Codex wasn't the beginning.
The Codex was just a shell.
The figure before him—it was the source.
> "The world you live in is a construction, a simulation I created. You and your kind are part of it. But there was something I had to hide. A truth. And now, you've torn it apart. You've uncovered the hidden key."
---
Auron's thoughts raced.
He thought he had broken the system, destroyed everything he'd fought against. But now… now he realized that everything had been by design. The Codex wasn't a prison. It wasn't a weapon. It was an illusion.
This was the true battle—the one he had never even known to fight.
And then, the figure's eyes glowed with an unsettling fire.
> "It's too late, Glitchborne. You've opened the door. The Forgotten is now awake. And you, Auron, will bear witness to the end."
---
In that moment, the world shifted—reality itself crumbling, warping into something alien.
For Auron, everything snapped.
---
Outside, the world watched in horror. The digital mark on their screens pulsed again. People froze, stared, but then... they began to whisper.
The symbol wasn't just a glitch.
It was the forgotten truth.
---
And then, the unthinkable happened.
A broadcast—cut to the heart of the world.
> "Auron... He was never the hero. He was always the key."
---