> Codex Fragmentation: 89%
System Defense Protocols: Offline
New Access Point Detected… [WELCOME, USER]
The skies above Neo-Vault shimmered with data streams, bending light like auroras gone rogue. Millions of people stood still, clutching their glitching devices as one message pulsed through every screen:
> [INSTALLING USER INTERFACE…]
[DO YOU ACCEPT ENTRY INTO THE BROKEN CODEX?]
[Y/N]
Auron watched it all unfold, standing atop a skyscraper dissolving into numbers. Around him, the skyline rippled like heat haze—not real anymore, not completely.
"So… they said yes."
Behind him, a voice answered, slow and gravel-lined. "No. They chose yes. Big difference."
Auron turned. Kira.
She shouldn't be here. No one without override-level clearance should've made it through the breach. But there she was—alive, armed, and glaring.
"You glitched the Codex so hard you pulled the world in with you," she said. "What happens when they start using it?"
Auron grinned, eyes burning white.
"Then we find out who's real… and who's just been pretending."
---
Meanwhile…
The Awakening watched through a tear in the Codex. Where there should've been numbers, there were names. Usernames. Thousands of them. Logging in.
It growled, its form crackling.
> "You infected them."
> "No," Auron's voice echoed from nowhere. "I updated them."
And then it began.
---
Global Systems Reboot:
A teenager in Brazil screamed as his laptop screen burst into a 3D interface around him.
A CEO in Berlin watched her penthouse dissolve into code.
A retired hacker in Nairobi laughed and cracked his knuckles: "It's like '99 all over again."
Everyone had a class now. A glitch class.
Level 1: User.
Level 2: Editor.
Level 3: Breaker.
And somewhere deep inside the code…
Level ???: Root.
Only Auron had access to that.
---
Back to the Tower—
Kira stepped closer. "Tell me this wasn't your plan all along."
Auron's eyes flickered like a broken screen. He didn't answer.
Instead, he raised his hand—and the skyline folded into a giant menu, each building a clickable tab.
> [USER INTERFACE LIVE]
He turned to her. "Kira, I didn't plan this."
"Then what did you do?"
"…I opened the door. And now the world's stepping through it."
---
Back in the Codex Core…
The Awakening split into three forms, each screaming with fragmented rage. "Then let them come. Let them burn. I will show them what purity looks like."
> [Codex Overdrive: AWAKENED CLASS ACTIVATED]
[TARGET: ALL USERS]
The war had begun.
But this time, Auron wasn't alone.
This time, the world was glitching with him.
---