"Let get this straight," Jay said, adjusting his loose uniform collar as he stepped into the teleportation chamber. "We’re heading to a forbidden ruin to find a superpowered dropout nad Echo... who may or may not be rewriting the laws of magic using an experintal system like mine?"
Alicia, now equipped in light travel armor embroidered with royal runes, sighed. "Yes. And we’ve got permission to intervene only if he poses a global threat. Which, by the way, he does."
Jay looked skeptical. "Can we define ’global threat’? I cause sinkholes and no one bats an eye."
"Jay, you cause sinkholes accidentally. Echo turns cities into recursive ti loops on purpose."
"...So he’s like . But motivated."
> [New Area Unlocked – "Ruins of Saekorr."]
[Warning: Interference Detected. System stability 82%. Proceed with caution.]
The teleportation rune lit up beneath them.
"Try not to nap mid-teleport," Alicia warned.
Jay yawned. "Too late."
---
Ruins of Saekorr – The Ghost Code Zone
The air shimred.
Reality here wasn’t quite... real.
Cracked towers floated sideways. The ground occasionally pulsed with old binary code—ancient magical technology buried under layers of broken ti.
Jay stepped onto the distorted floor and imdiately tripped over a floating logic cube.
> [Environnt Hazard: Inverted Gravity Detected.]
"Cool," he muttered, floating sideways.
Alicia grabbed his collar mid-spin. "Focus."
"Focusing is against my religion."
She was about to argue—when the sky blinked.
And soone stepped out of a mirror that wasn’t there a mont ago.
---
Enter: Echo
White hoodie. Slanted violet eyes. One arm was entirely chanical, the other traced with glowing tattoos.
His voice was calm. Dead calm.
"Jay Arkwell."
Jay blinked. "You know ?"
Echo gave a faint smile. "The system rembers itself. I’ve seen your blueprint."
Alicia reached for her sword. "You’ve been tampering with world-code. Folding tilines. Why?"
Echo looked at her like she’d asked the wrong question.
"I’m fixing what they broke. The Systems were never ant for balance—they were ant for control. You think Jay’s gift is a coincidence? He was engineered to be lazy so he’d never ask questions."
Jay’s smirk vanished.
Echo walked closer.
"You have 999x Intelligence, Jay. Start using it. Ask the right question."
"...Which is?"
Echo leaned in.
"Why did they make more than one of us?"
---
System Alert – mory Surge
Jay’s System flared red.
> [Warning: Locked mory File Attempting to Sync—]
[Origin Thread: "Project Genesis Loop."]
[Host Suppression Instinct Activated.]
His head throbbed.
He saw images—flashes of labs, children wired into floating coffins, glowing data trees branching endlessly into other versions of himself.
> "Only the most apathetic mind can survive omnipotence."
---
Back to Reality
Jay dropped to one knee, sweat pouring down his face.
Alicia summoned a magic circle. "What did you do to him!?"
Echo raised a hand. "Nothing. He unlocked it himself."
Jay slowly stood, his voice hoarse but steady.
"Echo..."
"Yes?"
"...You suck at naming files."
Echo actually chuckled.
Then his face turned serious again.
"I’m leaving this ruin, Jay. And you can’t stop ."
Jay tilted his head. "Wasn’t planning to."
That surprised everyone.
"You’re not... arresting ?"
"Nope. I ca to see if you were crazy or right. You’re both. So I’ll wait."
Echo narrowed his eyes. "Wait for what?"
Jay looked up at the fractured sky.
"For the mont soone even worse than you shows up."
> [System Ping: Unknown Signature Detected – Codena: "ERROR."]
[Location: Vija Magical Academy – West Wing.]
Jay froze.
"...Uh, Alicia?"
"Yes?"
"We might need to teleport back."
"Now?"
"Right now."
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