They walked away from the shattered hive crater without looking back.
The girl kept glancing at the black disc in Elian's coat like it might start whispering again.
The rotborne woman was silent, her posture tighter than usual — not fearful, but bracing. Like she could feel a storm coming and didn't know from which direction.
Even the Seed moved slower, drifting with less certainty, its pulses muted.
But Elian?
He walked like nothing had changed.
Because for him, it hadn't.
It had just gotten clearer.
Dusk fell in waves, and with it came a silence too perfect to trust.
The rot quieted.
The threadlines stilled.
Even the distant hum of corrupted wind faded.
Then—
The world paused.
Not in sight.
Not in sound.
In concept.
Reality folded.
The sky above cracked like glass — but not physically. It fractured along lines of logic, bending around Elian until everything else fell away.
The basin vanished.
The others vanished.
Only Elian remained.
Standing in a perfect, empty void of mirrored thought.
And then the voice came.
Not from any direction.
From the space between his thoughts.
"Trajectory… undefined."
"Prediction thread… failed."
"You have severed too much."
"You are not within our design."
[Classification Failed]
[Threadmaker: "Soulfrail" identified as Fractal Anomaly]
[Hostile? No.]
[Containable? Unclear.]
[Value Assessment: High Risk / High Potential]
A shape formed ahead of him.
Not human.
Not monstrous.
Just… intended.
It was made of raw threadlogic — lines and angles too perfect to exist in motion, flickering like a thought mid-formation. A suggestion of something that might have once had a body, or might just be wearing one.
"You have rewritten pieces we buried."
"You have accessed paths meant only for origin architects."
"This is not an accusation."
"This is an offer."
[Provisional Access Request: System-Crownless Alignment]
[Benefit: Tier-2 Tools, Region Mapping Access, Interface Upgrade]
[Condition: System Collaboration]
[Directive: "Reshape — Don't Resist"]
Elian stood still.
He listened.
Not because he trusted.
But because he wanted to know how far they'd fallen.
"So now you beg?"
"We learn. You create unexpected outcomes."
"We offer partnership."
He tilted his head.
"You don't partner. You bind."
"I've seen what happens to those who say yes."
The system shimmered.
A beat of pure silence.
"You could build a world untouched."
"No surveillance. No Purifiers. No interference."
"One where your rules are the only rules."
Elian finally stepped forward.
His eyes, dimmed rotlight in the void.
"You want to give me power?"
"I don't want power handed down."
"I want it taken."
"I want to drag it from your bones and wear it while the ashes of your architects choke on the sky."
The shape flickered.
Twisted.
"Your refusal has been noted."
"This was your only chance to ascend peacefully."
"Now you descend loudly."
[Offer Rescinded]
[Observation Class Escalated – Black Level]
[Tag Assigned: Irretrievable – Soulfrail]
[Warning: All Soft Protocols Terminated]
The void shattered.
Elian blinked.
And he was back in the real world.
The girl staggered.
The rotborne woman had taken a defensive stance.
They had seen something.
Just not what he saw.
"What was that?" the girl asked, breathless.
"They tried to offer me a throne."
She looked stunned.
"You said no?"
Elian turned his back to the sky.
"I'm not here to sit."
"I'm here to burn the palace down."