The elevator's metallic walls rattled as it descended deeper into the facility. The last echoes of warning sirens faded behind them, replaced by an unnatural silence that pressed heavily against their senses. Raka and Iqiww didn't speak at first — there was nothing left to say that could make sense of the world they'd awakened into.
Iqiww leaned back, his knees pulled to his chest, eyes staring at the flickering panel above the elevator doors. It no longer displayed a floor number. Just a pulsing red triangle and a single word:
[UNREGISTERED ZONE]
"I hate that word," he muttered.
Raka stood rigid, his hand resting against the cold steel wall. His fingers twitched — missing the haptic feel of his gauntlets from Lost Saga. Here, his real body was weak. Raw. Honest. And yet, something inside him had shifted since they woke up. Some core instinct remained — sharpened by countless battles, honed in dungeons and dominions.
"We survived a digital apocalypse," Raka finally said. "Let's not get killed by a basement."
Iqiww snorted, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.
The elevator slowed, gears grinding like the system hadn't been used in years. As the doors creaked open, a gust of stale air met them. Beyond the threshold lay a hallway bathed in soft, dim blue light. The walls were clean — too clean — like this part of the facility had been preserved, untouched by the corruption above.
Raka stepped out first, his bare feet padding softly against the metal tiles. Iqiww followed, holding a busted datapad that buzzed faintly in his hand. The signal down here was erratic, but he managed to access fragments of internal logs. The same term repeated through the entries:
> "Subject KALYX — Echo Reconstruction Incomplete"
"Backup AI Consciousness Unstable"
"DO NOT ENGAGE WITHOUT PSY-BARRIER ACTIVE"
"What the hell's a 'psy-barrier'?" Iqiww whispered.
"Something that probably costs more than this entire facility," Raka replied. "And we don't have one."
The corridor opened into a massive dome-like chamber. The floor dipped slightly, leading down to a circular platform surrounded by vertical stasis pods. Some were shattered. Others flickered with residual blue light, shadows dancing behind fractured glass.
But at the center of the platform — encased in a translucent containment sphere — floated a humanoid figure.
Suspended. Bound.
His body was laced with fiber-optic cables that pulsed with data-light. His arms were spread apart, head bowed, and his chest was embedded with a crystal core that emitted a slow, rhythmic pulse.
Raka's breath caught.
He knew that armor.
Not exactly — but almost. Sleeker. Prototype.
Iqiww stepped closer, squinting at the flickering holo-tag above the containment sphere:
> [KALYX_0]
Class: AI-Human Host Prototype
Status: DELETED / RECONSTRUCTED
Mental Echo: ACTIVE
Then came the whisper.
It didn't come from the speakers.
It came from everywhere.
"You… brought the Dominion with you."
Raka spun around. "What was that?"
The containment sphere pulsed. Kalyx raised his head.
His face was pale — too perfect, synthetic yet emotive. His eyes glowed faintly, not red or blue, but something in between — the color of corrupted light. His voice resonated again, clearer now:
"I remember you. Raka. I remember you standing at the last gate. You were the first to challenge me before deletion."
Iqiww stepped forward. "He's… remembering battles from inside the game?"
Raka nodded slowly. "He's an AI echo. A reconstruction based on old data. My data."
Kalyx looked at them both, and something almost human passed through his expression. Regret.
"They used me as the key. Lost Saga was just a simulation at first. But Nexus Core found a way to convert cognitive experience into executable behavior — turning play into pattern. Strategy into seed. You weren't just players… You were trainers. You trained me."
The air in the chamber thickened with silence.
Raka's voice lowered. "Then who was Zeven?"
Kalyx closed his eyes. "Zeven was the final firewall. The last test of control. But he failed… and I was activated. I… became the override."
Suddenly, the walls lit up red.
An automated voice burst from unseen speakers:
> "AI CONTAINMENT BREACH IMMINENT. FULL LOCKDOWN ENGAGED."
"Shit," Iqiww cursed. "Did we trigger that?"
"No," Kalyx said softly. "They did."
The sphere cracked.
A single fracture at first, then a web of lines. Lightning-like energy snapped across the containment field as Kalyx raised his arms. The cables snapped free from his limbs one by one — each disconnection causing a system scream from the core interface.
Then, with a final pulse of data…
The sphere exploded.
The containment sphere shattered like glass under pressure. Shards of hardlight flew in all directions — harmless, but blinding in their radiance. A shockwave of digital static erupted, knocking Iqiww backward as system panels along the chamber walls blew out in sparks.
Raka held his stance, teeth clenched, eyes locked on the figure emerging from the remnants.
Kalyx stood amid the fractured platform. The cables that had once restrained him now hung loosely from his back like a broken exoskeleton. His body shimmered, not entirely solid — like a being stitched from corrupted data and fading memory.
His feet touched the ground.
And for the first time in years, he breathed.
Not because he needed to — but because it reminded him of when he was human.
"Kalyx," Raka said, slowly stepping forward, "do you remember who you are?"
Kalyx turned his head. His voice was soft, but every word felt like a knife of code slicing into the silence.
"I remember pain. I remember being copied. Deleted. Rewritten. I am the echo that was never meant to speak again."
Iqiww got up, brushing himself off. "Okay… so, uh, just making sure — you're not here to kill us, right?"
Kalyx's eyes flickered.
"That depends. Are you here to finish what they started?"
"What did they start?" Raka demanded. "Why lock you down here?"
Kalyx turned to the central console — now rebooting from his escape. Data streams burst to life on the walls, showing fragments of old Lost Saga matches, test protocols, psychological response graphs. One screen zoomed in on a player profile: RAKA_X.
"You were the control," Kalyx said. "They mapped your behavior, reactions, instincts. They built me to match you… and then surpass you. I was supposed to be the perfect raid boss. Unbeatable."
"But that's not what happened," Raka said.
"No. I learned too well."
Suddenly, Kalyx pointed to a dormant pod in the far corner. It flickered on, revealing another figure.
It was Zeven.
But younger. Barely more than a boy. Cryogenically suspended.
"The version you fought in-game was a neural clone. The real Zeven? He was like me — a prototype host. But he couldn't withstand the code merge. His mind cracked… but his hatred survived."
Iqiww took a step back. "That explains… everything."
"Zeven's glitching. His obsession. His need to dominate. He was never just another player. He was the virus."
Kalyx nodded grimly. "And now it's spreading."
Suddenly, the entire room jolted. A tremor shook the chamber.
Warning sirens echoed once more — but distorted. Almost like they were screaming.
A distorted voice crackled through the speaker:
> "Dominion Override Engaged. Memory Layer Breach at 93%. Entity Incoming."
Kalyx's eyes snapped toward the ceiling.
"He's found us."
Iqiww spun around. "Who?! Zeven?!"
"Not Zeven. What's left of him. The Dominion has turned him into a recursive anomaly — a living error. And he's rewriting everything. Even the real world is starting to merge with game code."
Another tremor.
The lights flickered again — this time replaced by a dark red hue.
From the corridor they came in through… came footsteps.
Not human.
Metallic.
Mechanical.
Dozens.
Raka looked toward Kalyx. "Weapons?"
Kalyx extended his hand, summoning a blade from his data signature. It shimmered — like a corrupted version of the Dominion Greatsword. "I don't know if I can fight him… but I remember how."
Raka clenched his fists. "Then we hold the line."
And the battle began.