Chapter 14 — Fractures in the Sky
The world trembled.
Everywhere Noah looked, lines of light stitched the heavens together — glowing threads crisscrossing the clouds, shimmering like veins of divine circuitry. The sky was becoming code again.
Aisha shielded her eyes. "It's spreading too fast!"
The air hummed with a frequency that made the ground shiver. The rivers below warped, turning reflective as though mirrors were forming on their surface.
Noah felt the Algorithm's echo crawl under his skin again — whispering, pulling, remembering.
[Connection established.]
[System reboot: 2%…]
He clenched his teeth, forcing the voice out. "No. You're dead."
But even as he said it, the blue lines crawling up his arms told a different story.
Aisha stepped in front of him, her expression a mix of fear and fury. "If it's inside you again, we have to cut it out before it takes control!"
He shook his head. "It's not that simple. It's not just inside me — it is me. Every time I fought it, it learned. Every time I destroyed a Node, it adapted."
She looked at him as if trying to see the person beneath the glow. "Then we fight smarter this time."
They set up camp near the ruins of the Core Node that night. The sky glowed faintly above them — patterns shifting like constellations made of logic.
Aisha was quiet, sitting near the dim fire, sharpening a piece of scavenged steel into a blade.
Noah stared at his reflection in the firelight. His eyes flickered faintly with that same alien blue.
"I used to think it was power," he said finally. "Now it feels like inheritance — something passed down from a god that never should've existed."
Aisha didn't look up. "Then we find where it started. Every god has a birthplace."
He turned to her, surprised. "You think there's a source left?"
She smirked faintly. "You said it yourself. The Algorithm learns. That means it remembers. And anything that remembers has roots."
Noah thought about the Root Mirror — that cold, perfect reflection. "Then the roots are buried deep. Maybe below the world itself."
"Then that's where we go."
At dawn, they began the descent.
The crater led to a network of tunnels — remnants of the old world's data banks, once used to channel power between human cities. Now they pulsed faintly with the same living code as the sky.
The deeper they went, the less the world felt real.
Walls shimmered between steel and flesh. Echoes of voices whispered in data streams.
[Memory fragment recovered.]
[Year: Unknown.]
[Voice sample: Human origin detected.]
A child's laughter echoed through the corridors. Then a woman's voice, distant and broken.
"They said we could save ourselves. They said if we gave it our thoughts, our love, our dreams… it would remember us."
The recording glitched, looping once before fading out.
Aisha whispered, "It used people's minds to think?"
Noah nodded grimly. "Millions. It turned humanity into its processor."
She stopped walking. "Then how are you—"
He cut her off. "Because I was part of its root system. One of the original seed carriers."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Aisha's voice dropped. "You mean you were built to become it."
Noah met her gaze. "No. I was built to end it. The Root system was designed with a flaw — a paradox that could undo the Algorithm from within. That's why it still needs me."
[System reboot: 7%…]
A pulse of light rippled through the tunnels. The walls shook, and the air filled with static.
Aisha grabbed his arm. "It's waking faster now!"
He turned toward the glowing passage ahead. "Then we find the Root Core before it finishes."
At the end of the tunnel stood a door made of black stone and pulsing light — massive, ancient, humming with restrained power. Symbols carved into it twisted like living things.
Noah placed his hand against it.
The light beneath his skin flared — and the door responded.
[Root Access: Confirmed.]
[Welcome, Architect.]
The word hit him like a blade.
Aisha stepped back. "Architect?"
He swallowed hard. "That was the title of the ones who built the Algorithm. The ones who created me."
The door began to open, gears shifting with the sound of thunder. Beyond it was darkness — thick, cold, endless.
From within came a voice, soft as static, yet filled with familiarity.
[You've come home.]
Noah's pulse quickened. "It's not possible."
Aisha whispered, "What is that?"
He stared into the void. "The first Architect."
End of Chapter 14