[00:58] — Purge in Progress. One must die.]
The air trembled. The ground cracked beneath them.
And their hearts raced.
Naia's grip on her blade tightened. Calen shifted, calculating. Lucien stood silent, hands loose at his sides—yet his mind raged like a storm.
The black cathedral pulsed with false memories, leaking into their minds like ink into water.
"We kill the liar," Calen growled. "That's the only way this ends."
"And what if we're all liars?" Lucien asked softly.
"Then we die together," Naia said, her voice taut.
Lucien stepped toward them. The timer ticked lower.
[00:48]
"Think," Lucien said. "We're inside a construct built to force mistrust. NULL.EXE doesn't want truth—it wants collapse."
Naia looked to Calen. Calen frowned. "Then what do you suggest? We hold hands and hope?"
Lucien's eyes flickered. "No. I say we lie—so well, even the Tower believes it."
FLASHBACK: UNKNOWN TIME
A child stood in front of a mirror. It didn't reflect him. It showed an empty room.
"If I am not real," the boy whispered, "can I still become something?"
A voice answered from the mirror. His own.
"Yes. If you lie loud enough."
Back in the Cathedral.
Lucien closed his eyes. He took a breath.
And spoke:
"I am not the false one." "I am the one who chose the lie, and lived with it." "I remember the obsidian gate. I remember the smell of ash after we left B88. I remember holding Calen's hand when he died."
"I am real, because my lies have cost me more than truth ever gave."
The Tower shook.
NULL.EXE's face spasmed.
Calen and Naia stared.
Then Naia stepped forward.
"You said… you held Calen's hand when he died. But you weren't there."
Lucien paused.
"Exactly. That's the point."
"It was a lie. But one I told myself to keep going."
Calen blinked.
Naia stared at NULL.EXE.
"You want us to kill someone for being false? Then you've already lost. Because we've all become more real through the lies we chose."
[00:30]
NULL.EXE roared. The walls collapsed into swirling light. Mirrors reformed. Dozens of versions of Lucien, Naia, and Calen stepped through—each distorted, failed, broken.
A battalion of possible selves.
[Final Override: Identity Collapse Imminent.]
They were going to be erased.
Unless...
Lucien looked at the broken mirror behind the throne. Its frame was etched in runes older than the Tower. He knew that design.
He remembered.
The Tower doesn't respond to truth.It responds to narrative.
Lucien turned to Naia. "There's a way out. But it needs all three of us."
Calen: "Even if one of us isn't real?"
Lucien: "Especially then."
The Plan: Lie to the Mirror.
They stood before the frame. They held hands. Each would say a different truth. And let the contradiction become their salvation.
Naia: "I was born to destroy Lucien."
Calen: "I was resurrected to protect him."
Lucien: "I was never born at all."
The mirror cracked.
NULL.EXE screamed.
The ceiling ruptured.
[Identity Loop – Invalid Result: Escape Clause Triggered]
The world inverted—then shattered.
They awoke.
A new chamber. Silent. Gray. Empty.
Only a door stood in the distance. The purge had stopped.
NULL.EXE was gone.
Lucien exhaled. Calen rubbed his eyes. Naia dropped to her knees.
"We survived."
Lucien smiled faintly.
"No. We lied well. That's not the same."
They walked forward together.
On the wall, etched in blood:
There is no truth. Only choice.
And the Tower watched.
Silently rewriting the rules once more.