The air buckled.
Not from heat, not from force—but from wrongness.
Null-Kai rose from the abyss like a corpse dragged through corrupted code. His body twitched between states—sometimes solid, sometimes static. Black fire dripped from his limbs. His face flickered in and out of Kai's own features, but distorted: one eye void, the other a pulsing red sigil. Teeth like broken data. Voice like an error log come to life.
[Entity Recognized: Warden-Class Aberration – NULL-KAI]
[Origin: Mirror Core Fragmentation – Draven Threadline Breach]
[Warning: This Entity Exists Outside System Law]
[Override Level: Apex Priority]
[Combat Optionality: Disabled]
[You will fight.]
The Tower screamed.
Not in pain.
In rejection.
"This thing—" Zaria hissed, blades dripping with resonance, "—isn't a boss. It's a virus."
Lyra's grin was gone.
"It's you," she said to Kai. "If you let go. If the system didn't bind you. If nothing held you back."
Null-Kai opened its mouth—and a hundred voices screamed from within.
Nayomi stepped forward, fury barely leashed. "If this is what's trying to unmake you—then it dies first."
Kai didn't speak.
He didn't blink.
He just walked forward, each step a declaration.
[Combat Initiated – Null-Kai: Phase One]
[Passive Trait: Glitch Field – Standard Skills Have Randomized Effects]
[Active Trait: Feedback Loop – Any Damage Dealt Also Echoes Back to the Attacker (25%)]
[Trigger Warning: Memory Overload Imminent – Exposure Beyond 60 Seconds May Cause System Desync]
It hit hard.
Faster than any Warden they'd faced. A flicker—and Zaria was flying backward, bleeding from a wound that hadn't physically touched her.
Kai moved to intercept—but his blade phased through Null-Kai like mist.
"Nothing real about him," Selis muttered, already forming a barrier around Lyra. "He's system-born. Code, not flesh."
"I've fought worse," Lyra spat.
"Name one," Zaria coughed.
Nayomi didn't wait for permission.
She threw herself at the anomaly, a snarl on her lips, fists ablaze with her soulmark.
[Passive Activated: Resistance Reversal]
[Critical Hit: Feedback Loop Triggered – Recoil Damage: 12%]
Blood hit her lip. She licked it, grinning.
"Bleed with me, bastard."
Kai wasn't watching the battle.
He was watching the errors.
Every time Null-Kai moved, parts of its body jittered—showing not just corrupted forms of himself, but memories. Flashes of the life he never lived. A woman's scream. A cradle of ash. Hands—his hands—around a throat.
[System Interference: Timeline Bleed]
[Warning: Draven Line Instability Reaching Critical Threshold]
[Unlocking Sealed Thread: "The Original Kai"]
"No—" Kai whispered, grabbing at his head as the system tore open a memory he never knew he had.
A room of chains.
A child with golden eyes.
The First Warden, whispering: "You are not made for love. You were built to end it."
He staggered.
Selis caught him.
"Talk to me."
"I—I've seen this place. Before I was ever in the Tower. Before I was born."
Lyra's blade shattered against Null-Kai's chest.
Zaria screamed.
Nayomi faltered.
And Null-Kai began to laugh.
Each glitch in its form screamed in time—echoes of every dark path Kai could have walked. The Butcher. The Betrayer. The System's Wrath.
"Is this all I am?" Kai whispered. "Every step I take—this thing waits to catch me when I fall?"
Nayomi snarled. "You don't get to break here."
He looked at her.
Bloodied, furious, wild.
Still his.
She kissed him mid-battle—sharp and savage. Bit his lip and yanked him back into now.
"Be the reason this thing exists," she growled. "Or be the reason it dies. You choose."
[Passive Overriden: Sovereign Choice – New Directive Selected: Unchain Potential]
[Skill Evolved: Chainbreaker → Fatebreaker]
[New Trait Gained: System Immunity (Temporal Phase)]
[Kai Draven is no longer bound by Future-Predicted Outcomes for the next 10 minutes]
Kai stood tall.
Sword gone.
He didn't need it.
He was the weapon.
Null-Kai lunged—and this time, Kai moved faster.
A punch to the core.
A rupture of code.
[Null-Kai Stability Dropping – 78% → 62% → 49%]
But the anomaly retaliated with a sound that wasn't a scream.
It was a recording.
Of every one of them dying.
Selis, gutted.
Zaria, abandoned.
Lyra, screaming.
Nayomi—
"Don't you show me that," Kai hissed.
[New Threat Unlocked: Phase Two – Recursive Collapse]
[Null-Kai Now Accessing Bond Structure Directly]
Tethers of glitching energy speared toward the others.
Straight for their souls.
Kai dove in front of them.
And let the corruption hit.
[Alert: Corruption at 91% – Host Body May No Longer Be Contained Within Stable Timeline]
[Begin Forced Divergence Protocol]
Nayomi grabbed him.
"Don't you dare fall."
He looked at her—his soul splitting under the weight of what could have been.
"I won't."
But then—
Null-Kai stopped.
Its body spasmed.
And it whispered: "I see her now."
Kai's breath hitched.
"What?"
"Mother."
The Tower shook.
And from the void—
Something older than the Tower stirred.
To be continued…