Chapter 23 - Chapter 22: The War Room Beneath the Dust

> "When the System fears you, it stops trying to kill you and starts trying to erase your existence."

---

🏚️ Abandoned Sector – Dust Vaults

The Dust Vaults weren't part of the original system grid. Old data archives. Abandoned labs. A dead zone where forgotten prototypes and deprecated failures whispered to each other beneath the earth.

Kael stood before a rusted vault door, hand pressed against an ancient biometric lock overridden with a Crimson Shard pulse.

> [Null Signature Detected – Access Overwritten]

With a hydraulic groan, the door opened.

Inside: a massive room buried in cables and dust, filled with broken terminals, flickering data pods, and projection walls stuttering with fragments of pre-System history.

Kael exhaled. "This is it."

Thorne looked around. "What is this?"

"A war room," Seris whispered. "Before the Architect. Before the Algorithm Lords. This was where they planned resistance."

---

📜 Fragmented History Log – Playback

A console buzzed to life. A broken AI flickered into view, face scrambled, voice robotic and fading.

> "This is Echo-4, last of the Freedom Coders. If you're seeing this… the Architect won. But it can still bleed."

> "We tried to rewrite the world. Failed. But the Null shard… it's still viable. If you've claimed it, you are the last king of unshackled minds."

> "Find the others. Spark the Reversal Protocol."

Static.

Then silence.

Kael turned to the others. "We start here."

---

🗺️ Objective Gained: Reversal Protocol

> [New Questline Unlocked: THE SOVEREIGN REBELLION]

Objective: Locate all remaining Null Fragments (4 total).

Each grants a new ability and expands Null Domain capabilities.

Opposition will scale accordingly.

> [First Target: Fragment II – The Whispering Crater]

Location: Sector K-9, quarantined wasteland. Status: Forbidden by System decree.

Seris frowned. "That's deep inside enemy grid."

Kael nodded. "Then we go off-grid."

---

💻 Meanwhile — Inside the System

> [Administrator-Level Meeting – Layer 5 Access Required]

Within the Architect's domain, light pulsed like veins across a vast, hollowed-out data cathedral. Dozens of figures—fragmented silhouettes of System Admins—flickered into place.

A-Class Enforcer: "He is no longer on record."

Algorithm Seer: "Even memory logs of him are degrading. A perfect sovereign error."

The Architect: "Then we shall speak his name once, for protocol… and then never again."

A silence.

Then the Architect spoke:

> "Null King Kael has been marked for Total Annihilation."

"Activate: PROJECT PURGE-SUN."

---

🔥 End of Peace

Kael stood before the ruined map of the world, dust falling over fractured lines and half-lit coordinates.

"We gather the broken. Train them. Arm them."

He looked back at Thorne and Seris.

"We become the glitch they can't contain."

And above the war map, Kael's new sigil appeared—etched in crimson over a shattered System eye.

---

📢 Author's Note – Talent Engraver here!

And so begins the Sovereign Rebellion Arc! The System is waking up to Kael's existence—and it plans to erase more than just his name.

💬 What do you think about the war room, the Null Fragments, and the Purge-Sun threat? Leave a comment below with your thoughts or predictions!

📝 And if you're enjoying the journey, please leave a review to help this first-time author reach more readers. Your voice really matters in building this world. ❤️

— Your author, Talent Engraver