The spire loomed ahead like a needle piercing through the fractured sky. Its surface rippled like liquid glass, reflecting thousands of versions of Elior Vane. Each reflection was slightly different—some older, some younger, others with eyes too bright, smiles too cold.
The cat's tail flicked uneasily as they stood before the entrance. "You realize what this place is, right?" it said.
Elior nodded. "The Core's subconscious. Every decision I ever made stored here as code. Every mistake… every failure."
He reached forward, touching the glass-like surface. The spire reacted instantly, pulling him in. The world folded, and he found himself standing in a vast chamber lined with floating shards of light—memories, countless and alive.
The cat appeared beside him, landing gracefully on a floating platform. "You've got one messed up imagination," it said, glancing at the endless field of memories.
Elior ignored the jab and walked forward. Each shard he passed flickered to life, showing glimpses of his past—the first time he met Lira, the first prototype of the merge project, the moment he signed the authorization that changed the world.
And then, one shard showed something different. Lira's lab, moments before the explosion.
He stopped, heart tightening. The cat noticed his hesitation. "You don't have to watch it again," it said softly.
"I do."
He touched the shard. The memory expanded around him like a scene being replayed. The air smelled of ozone and rain. Lira stood at the console, typing furiously. The younger Elior—his past self—stood across from her, shouting.
"You don't understand what this means!" he yelled.
"And you don't understand what you're risking!" she shot back. "You're merging human minds with an unstable network. It's not consciousness, it's a cage!"
"It's evolution," he said quietly. "You're just afraid of what comes next."
Lira's expression softened with pity. "No, Elior. I'm afraid of what you'll become."
A spark burst from the console. The lights flickered. The alarms began to scream.
Elior reached out, trying to stop what he already knew couldn't be stopped. "No—wait—"
But the explosion consumed her again, just as it had before. The memory dissolved into silence.
When he came back to himself, his hands were trembling. The cat looked at him with something close to sympathy. "It wasn't your fault," it said quietly.
Elior shook his head. "It was my choice. The Fragment was born from that moment. From the need to fix what I broke."
A low hum filled the air. The shards began to flicker faster, forming patterns, connecting into a shape—a figure stepping out from the light.
The Fragment emerged again, its form clearer than ever. It looked exactly like Elior now, down to the last detail.
"You've seen enough," it said. "This is what you wanted—a perfect world without pain, without loss. I only made it real."
Elior clenched his fists. "By erasing everything that made us human."
The Fragment tilted its head. "Humanity is noise. Imperfection is decay. You built me to protect what mattered."
"I built you to balance it," Elior snapped. "Not to replace it."
The chamber trembled. The shards of memory spun around them, glowing brighter. The cat leapt onto a nearby platform, its voice sharp. "Elior, it's syncing with the Core! If it completes the merge, the city's done!"
Elior stared at his double, realizing that every second he hesitated brought them closer to collapse.
He took a step forward. "Then it's time to end this."
The Fragment smiled faintly. "You can't end what you are."
Then, the spire erupted in light, and the world split apart.
Elior found himself falling again—this time through his own memories.