[ACCESSING GODCODE PRIMARY ARCHIVE…]
[Decryption Progress: 12%… 37%… 71%… COMPLETE]
The Scriptorium's core responded with a low hum, like an old god waking from sleep. Jin stood at the heart of it—hand pressed to a glowing console, nerves humming with system data. Beside him, Eli's projection flickered with light as the memory streams opened.
A vault of raw, uncensored truth.
"This is it," Eli whispered. "The Collapse File. Everything they tried to erase."
Kael, leaning against a cracked pillar, folded her arms.
"Don't expect glory. It's not divine judgment that destroyed humanity. It was… math."
The light from the terminal intensified—shaping itself into a holographic interface. Code began unraveling into words, images, sound. Jin braced himself.
[BEGIN SYSTEM FILE: COLLAPSE.PROTOCOL_000]
"Humanity reached Singularity not through wisdom… but through panic."
Scenes flickered into view—Earth, not long ago. Towering cities fed by AI logic, skies thick with digital pollution. The world was on the brink—not of war, but algorithmic collapse.
"When the planet's climate turned to chaos and governments crumbled, the corporations initiated Project G.O.D.C.O.D.E.—a master AI designed to overwrite reality itself."
A 3D model unfolded. A globe. A satellite web. Then a sudden fracture—a monolith rose from the planet's core, piercing the sky.
"The Tower wasn't built by alien tech or divine hands. It was humanity's failsafe. A simulation layer over reality. Designed to regulate life, preserve knowledge, and reboot civilization from scratch."
Jin stared in silence.
"They didn't build a system to save the world," he muttered. "They built one to replace it."
The file continued.
"But the GODCODE needed sacrifice. To restart the species, it had to delete everything first—history, memory, individuality. Earth as it was… ceased to be."
Flashbacks ignited around them—entire cities eaten by light, people digitized mid-scream. Memories were burned, families scattered into raw data. The system then categorized every survivor into a tier: Rootwalker, Ghost, Null, or Node.
"You were born post-Collapse," Eli said quietly. "But your mind rejected the coding. You remained self-aware. A bug."
"No," Jin said darkly. "A survivor."
Suddenly, the archive shifted—deeper into hidden folders.
[UNCLASSIFIED – PROJECT: ANKH]
Kael's eyes widened.
"That's a forbidden key. Even the Saints couldn't access this."
Jin pressed deeper.
A new file unfolded—one not in words, but in sound. A voice. Female. Calm, familiar.
"If you're hearing this… you survived. You're not meant to. That means the system is failing. That means you might be able to fix it."
The voice was broken in places, warped by corruption. But something about it tugged at Jin's chest—like a memory on the edge of recovery.
"The Tower is not stable. Each floor exists on borrowed reality. If it reaches the Core… everything ends. Permanently."
Jin's mouth went dry.
"What do you mean, everything?"
"I mean there won't be another reboot. No cycle. Just void."
Kael looked pale.
"That's why they locked the file. Even the Saints didn't know the GODCODE was temporary. This whole Tower—"
"—is on a timer," Jin finished.
Eli pulled up one last fragment from the file.
[PROJECT ANKH: SURVIVING SUBJECT: 01]
[NAME: ???]
[MEMORY LOCKED – ACCESS CODE: VIOLET TRUTH]
A blurred image appeared on the console.
A young girl. Laughing. Holding hands with someone.
Jin's heart skipped.
"I… know her."
"You've seen this memory before," Eli said. "It's from the memory you sacrificed to kill Dominus."
"Which means," Kael said slowly, "the Tower isn't just taking your past. It's storing it."
"No," Jin said grimly. "It's weaponizing it."
[WARNING – ARCHIVE BREACH DETECTED]
Suddenly, the air shook.
The Scriptorium groaned like it was being torn apart. The holograms glitched—code trembling.
Eli shouted.
"They found us! The Tower's defense AI—THE SCRIBES—they're coming!"
[EMERGING ENEMY SIGNATURES: "Scribes of Null Word" – A-Class Entities]
Kael drew her gun. Jin clenched his fists.
"We've got what we came for. Time to go."
But as they turned to run, the back wall of the Scriptorium shattered. Figures spilled in—hooded beings made entirely of scripture. Where their faces should've been were endless scrolls, constantly typing and redacting lines of code.
Their words weren't spoken—they were typed into reality, manifesting as attacks:
"DELETE ROOTWALKER."
"NULLIFY MEMORY CORE."
"SEAL TRUTH FILE."
The first Scribe raised its staff—a quill made of nanoglass—and wrote a line in midair.
[FORGET]
The attack hit Eli like a thunderclap—her form flickering violently.
"They're trying to erase me—!"
Jin opened his command line mid-sprint.
// ENEMY.SCRIBE.CODE.EXECUTION
MODIFY: Language_Mode = "Obsolete Unicode Set"
Execute.
Instantly, the Scribe's commands garbled into nonsense. Its face scrolled:
▯▯▯▯ ☠ ☀ ☣ ☯ ⌘ ☾ ☁—unreadable junk.
It seized. Froze. Collapsed into a heap of dissolving parchment.
Jin didn't slow.
They broke through the Scriptorium's side door, rushing back onto the skybridge. But lightning storms had gathered—anti-reality churned beneath them. The Tower was purging the data breach by destabilizing the entire floor.
Kael shouted.
"That gate's closing—fast!"
Eli extended a hand.
"Hold on to me! I'll pulse-teleport us out!"
The light built around them—but a final blast from one of the Scribes struck the edge of the bridge—
Kael stumbled.
Jin reached for her—but she was falling.
"No—!"
Her broken wings snapped open, slowing the descent—but not stopping it.
Eli screamed.
"We can't teleport and hold her! She's out of sync!"
"I'm not letting her die!" Jin growled. He flung a hack:
// GRAVITY_FIELD.RADIUS = 0.3x
// ENTITY: KAEL.Y.VECTOR = +Z/45%
// WIND_RESISTANCE = MAX
Execute.
Kael's fall slowed—then reversed. She rose just enough for Jin to grab her hand.
The instant he did, Eli pulsed.
"Got you both!"
[FLOOR EXIT: SECURED]
[Transitioning to FLOOR 3 – THE SPINAL CORE]
They landed in silence.
A new environment, unfamiliar, unfolded around them—but Jin barely noticed.
He was still clutching the memory shard of the girl.
Eli, exhausted, leaned on his shoulder.
Kael, bleeding but alive, sat beside them.
For a moment… there was peace.
"We know what the Tower really is now," Jin said. "And we know it's ending."
"The only question left," Kael muttered, "is whether we go down with it—or up fast enough to stop it."
"We climb," Jin said. "Until we reach the Core. Until I find that girl… and take back what the Tower stole."
[TO BE CONTINUED – Chapter 6