The storm began with silence.
Not thunder. Not wind.
Just silence — the kind that swallows entire worlds before they die.
Aiden stood at the heart of the rift — a void carved between reality and the code beneath it. Around him, the world shuddered and peeled apart like paper set aflame. Data poured from the sky in luminous streams, descending like molten glass. Each fragment burned with whispers — fragments of the old Architect code, the scraps left behind after eons of forgotten resets.
The very air hissed with power.
> "[Warning: Reality Layer Instability Detected.]"
"[Containment Failing.]"
The system voice trembled. Even it sounded afraid.
Aiden's cloak of code rippled in the void-light. His expression was unreadable — neither rage nor serenity, but something stranger. The exhaustion of being infinite.
He whispered, "So this is what they left behind."
