The moment Root stepped through the next threshold, he felt it.
Not pressure. Not gravity.
Resistance.
The Rift didn't want him here anymore.
The air pushed back against his skin, like walking through a tide of barely-contained fury. The walls were no longer random textures or crumbling bones—they were uniform now. Clean. Black stone etched with moving red glyphs—code that watched him as he walked.
No simulations. No monsters.
Just a hallway built for elimination.
[ Alert: Null Class Entity Detected in Core Layer ]
[ Executing: Adaptive Enforcer Manifestation ]
[ Objective: Remove Anomaly "Root" ]
Root stopped.
"Did it just say my name?" he asked out loud.
Veyr appeared beside him, slower this time. His mask was darker now—sigil pulsing less like a heart and more like a countdown.
"It did."
Root turned his head. "The Rift never spoke names before."
"It doesn't speak to players."
"It speaks to threats."
The hallway dimmed.
A low vibration crept up from the floor. It wasn't sound. It was intention—a warning built into the code of the Rift itself.
Then it arrived.
From the far end of the corridor, the Adaptive Enforcer stepped into view.
It wasn't large.
That made it worse.
Human height. Sleek. Wrapped in mirrored armor that constantly reshaped itself—folding, re-bending, reflecting every contour of the Rift like a glitch caught mid-load.
Its head was a blank mask. No eyes. Just a ring of blood-red light spinning around its skull like a halo made of code.
Its arms ended in hollow blades—not attached, but floating inches from its wrists, orbiting them like obedient moons.
Root didn't move.
Neither did the Enforcer.
Not yet.
[ Enforcer Protocol: Match Anomaly's Signature – In Progress ]
Analyzing Null, Gravity, Veinbind Traits…
Analysis: Unstable. Mimicry Impossible.
Fallback Pattern: Suppression Initiated.
The blades snapped into place.
Veyr stepped between them both, his voice low.
"It can't copy you. That's rare."
"Good," Root said, drawing his blade.
"No. That means it has permission to kill you instead."
The Enforcer blinked forward, skipping reality in a single frame of motion—appearing inches from Root's face.
Root dropped back, eyes wide, and—
[ Gravity Press – Activated ]
The space around the Enforcer bent.
But it didn't stop.
It tilted, mid-air, blades swinging at angles that shouldn't have worked—but the Rift held it up like a puppeteer refusing physics.
Sparks flew as Root blocked with the edge of his blade. One hit, two, then three in rapid succession—each one faster, more calculated. The Enforcer wasn't fighting to win.
It was fighting to correct.
To erase.
Root staggered back as the blades nicked his ribs. Not deep, but enough.
The Enforcer raised both hands—and the stone beneath Root began to lift, forming a cage around him.
[ Enforcer Skill: Echo Containment Field ]
Prevents escape. Collapses internal stability in 30 seconds.
Root reached inward—toward Veyr.
"If you've got something for this… now would be nice."
Veyr didn't move.
But the glow in his chest pulsed once.
And everything went still.
[ Null Vein Limit Break – Temporary Sync Achieved ]
✦ Passive Overwrite: Rift manipulation reduced by 50% in active radius.
✦ Duration: 6 seconds
Root's cage collapsed into dust.
The blades froze in midair.
Even the Enforcer stuttered—its movements no longer buffered by the Rift's laws.
Root stepped forward.
And pressed.
Root pressed.
The space between him and the Enforcer compressed in an instant. No spell circle. No fanfare.
Just reality folding inward.
The gravity spike hit hard—denser than before, sharper. The air groaned. The corridor cracked beneath their feet.
The Adaptive Enforcer reeled—its footing disrupted for the first time. The floating blades dipped for a moment, as if caught in invisible sludge.
[ Gravity Press – Amplified by Sync: +40% Effectiveness ]
[ Enforcer Movement: Impaired for 2.2 seconds ]
Root surged forward.
Blade drawn.
One cut—across the mirrored armor. The edge skipped, then bit. Not deep. But real.
The Enforcer staggered.
Not much.
But it had to correct itself.
Root didn't give it time.
He flipped sideways, planting one hand against the ground, and activated Gravity Pull—but this time, not on an object.
On the Enforcer itself.
It jerked forward, pulled by the distortion. The blades spun to catch themselves—but Root anticipated the correction.
[ Null Vein Reaction: "Rift Tether" Formed ]
✦ Passive: If two gravity abilities are used in sequence within a 5-second window, the Rift may form a localized bind point.
The air snapped.
A thin black line formed between Root's palm and the Enforcer's chest—barely visible, pulsing like a vein made of shadow.
The Enforcer twisted, trying to sever the connection—but the tether had latched onto its signature. It couldn't blink. It couldn't phase.
Root's eyes widened. He could feel it.
The Rift had linked them.
"That's it," Veyr said softly. "You're becoming fixed."
Root didn't like the sound of that, but he wasn't about to waste the moment.
He lunged forward—blade leading.
The Enforcer parried, barely. Sparks burst from the mirrored steel. Root twisted, slicing low, then reversed upward with momentum borrowed from his own pull.
[ Hollow Point Earned: +1 – Adaptive Threat Damaged ]
[ Null Vein Growth: 47% ]
The Enforcer tried to reset.
Its body shimmered—attempting a rift skip.
Root yanked the tether.
And held it in place.
The skip failed.
Its left blade spun wildly, glitching in and out of visibility, unsure of which plane to return to.
"You're not fighting it," Veyr whispered. "You're canceling it."
Root's voice came low through gritted teeth. "Good."
And then he pressed again.
The corridor cracked wide. Stone ruptured under the forced field. The Enforcer's feet crushed downward, locked in place. The force was no longer localized—it spread through the Rift, dragging the immediate area into false collapse.
[ Warning: Rift Stability 67% ]
[ Rift Response: Defensive Override In Progress… ]
The Adaptive Enforcer's body twitched.
Then it burst into fragments of red light—collapsing mid-frame like a corrupted file force-deleted before finishing a thought.
Root stood in the quiet aftershock.
Breathing steady.
No victory fanfare.
No system praise.
Just this:
[ Status Updated: Null Veinbind – Confirmed Irreversible ]
[ System Response: "Root" is now classified as a Fixed Anomaly. ]
[ Passive Effect Gained: Rift Echo – Entities who've seen you may remember you between resets. ]
Veyr reappeared beside him, mask cracked slightly along the edge. The glow in his chest had dimmed.
"You've broken containment."
Root didn't respond.
Because he knew what that meant.
From now on… there would be no forgetting.
And no going back.
The dust hadn't even settled before the air changed again.
Not with heat.
Not with pressure.
With awareness.
Root stayed still, every instinct screaming that something—someone—was looking at him. But there was no presence, no sound. Just an emptiness so vast it felt personal.
The corridor, once cracked and flickering, now sat in perfect silence.
Too perfect.
[ System Alert: Anomaly "Root" marked as Fixed. Access tier adjusted. ]
[ Current Tier: Observation Layer Access – Temporary ]
[ External Process Detected… ]
"Veyr?" Root asked, quietly. "What's going on?"
Veyr's voice didn't come from beside him this time.
It came from inside his mind—flat, unreadable.
"We're not alone anymore."
Root's pulse slowed.
"I thought we weren't before."
"That was the Rift," Veyr corrected. "This isn't."
Ahead of them, the Rift opened a doorway—no effects. No glyphs. No loading animation.
Just reality sliding aside, like it had been told to step away.
Root approached carefully.
Beyond the threshold wasn't another chamber. It was a void—pitch-black, no floor, no ceiling. Just a silver thread suspended in the air, leading into the nothing.
And in the distance…
A light.
Not warm. Not inviting.
A fixed point—watching back.
[ Observation Layer Active ]
[ Echo Host Presence Detected: (Redacted) ]
[ Advisory: Do Not Engage. You Are Being Recorded. ]
Root stood frozen. "…The Rift has observers?"
Veyr finally reappeared, beside him again, but somehow smaller. Dimmer. His sigil pulsed low.
"The Rift is a maze."
"But mazes are built by architects."
Root narrowed his eyes at the distant light. "So… there's a hierarchy?"
"No."
"There's a story."
"And now you've been written into it."
A pulse echoed through the corridor.
Not sound.
A signal.
[ Passive Triggered: Rift Echo ]
The light remembers your name.
The light remembers your Null.
The light will remember what you do next.
Root stepped back.
The door didn't close.
It waited.
Veyr turned to him.
"You can leave. For now."
"But know this—next time you come this far…"
"You won't be the only one writing."
Root turned away slowly.
Behind him, the light did not fade.
It just continued to watch.