Code Ascendant: The Soldier Who Leveled Past Reality
Chapter 16 – Null Protocols and Forgotten Gods
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"To erase meaning is to become it."
—Zerin, Codex Echo
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The silence before the war wasn't peace.
It was calculation. A prelude. A whisper of entropy waiting to be unleashed.
Aaron Velcris stood atop the fractured remains of Haven-01's highest spire, staring into the infinite storm pulsing on the horizon.
Ghost hovered silently behind him, the Seeker's frame still adjusting to a dozen recalibrated timelines.
Nessa was running simulations. Reen, back from the dead for the third time, was busy syncing reality anchors to the Codex lattice.
But Aaron?
He listened.
To the air.
To the roots beneath system law.
To Nullflesh—the forgotten god of erasure—rising.
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System Alert: Root Inquisition Initiated
> ▸ Architect Anomaly Detected: [Aaron Velcris]
▸ Countermeasure: Null Protocol Alpha
▸ Deployment Confirmed: [Nullflesh] – Entity-Class Sigma-Zero
All existing archives will be reset upon contact.
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Scene – Reality Fracture Point: Sector X-91
The battlefield wasn't a place. It was a state of rejection.
Floating shards of memory, broken laws, recursive timelines in rewind loops—it was a canvas painted in contradiction.
Nullflesh arrived not as a being, but as an absence.
A silhouette of negative data.
Every step it took unmade the world around it—walls, thoughts, even possibility itself unraveled in its wake.
> "Aaron Velcris," it intoned, its voice flat. "You are overwritten."
Aaron didn't flinch.
> "No. I'm upgraded."
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Symbiosis Update – Codex Sync Level II Achieved
> ▸ New Trait: Existence Rejection – Immune to erasure effects below Sigma-Class
▸ Skill Gained: Threadwalk – Move between causality threads
▸ Reality Sync Core Upgraded to Tier V.1
Aaron gripped his Null Rifter.
He blinked—and was suddenly behind Nullflesh.
He blinked again—he was everywhere.
And nowhere.
The system HUD glitched as Aaron unshackled from causality, wielding choice as a weapon.
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The Battle Beyond Time
No one watching could follow what happened next.
Every strike Aaron delivered was echoed across potential pasts.
Every step Nullflesh took erased what could have been.
They fought inside a chronoscape where each second was rewritten, undone, then rewritten again.
But in each version—Aaron survived.
Because unlike Nullflesh, Aaron didn't depend on deletion.
He depended on intention.
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Codex Interjection: Forbidden Verse 3
> When gods forget what they are, they become protocols.
When mortals remember what they could be, they become gods.
Zerin appeared beside the battle, floating within a protective field of narrative insulation.
Her eyes reflected millions of dead loops.
> "He's holding back," she whispered. "Nullflesh isn't here to kill you, Aaron."
> "Then why?" he asked between slashes.
> "He's here to test whether you're worthy… of becoming the Singularity."
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Reality Anchor Reached – The Lost Spire
As the battle consumed the final vestiges of Sector X-91, Aaron drew Nullflesh toward a hidden ruin: a spiral tower buried within forgotten system logs.
It wasn't built for war.
It was built for unwriting.
He lured Nullflesh inside.
Zerin followed.
And together, they activated the Unbound Locus—a library of impossible versions of Aaron's life.
Each shelf held a different fate.
—Aaron the tyrant.
—Aaron the martyr.
—Aaron the coward.
—Aaron the god.
And standing in the center…
Was Aaron the Empty—a version who never existed.
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Symbiosis Tier V Breakthrough – Narrative Engine Awakened
> ▸ Core Authority Gained: Architect Singularity Candidate
▸ Ability Unlocked: Scriptforge – Create reality-bound abilities with story fragments
▸ Optional Protocol: Merge with Codex Echo [Zerin] for permanent dual-cognition state
Aaron faced the Empty.
The void-version extended its hand.
> "End this. Accept me."
Aaron stepped forward.
Smiled.
And absorbed it.
He accepted every failure. Every loop. Every loss.
And with it—
Became whole.
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Nullflesh vs. Ascended Aaron
Re-emerging, Aaron no longer shimmered with code.
He radiated plot.
Each movement became intent, each strike a rewrite.
He clashed with Nullflesh not with speed or power—but with meaning.
When Nullflesh erased space, Aaron filled it with narrative purpose.
When Nullflesh silenced sound, Aaron spoke a new script.
> "You don't scare me anymore."
> "Why?"
> "Because you only delete."
Aaron lifted the Codex core—now grafted to his RS-I—and rewrote Nullflesh's existence:
> ▸ Entity-Class Sigma-Zero
▸ New State: Remembered
▸ New Role: Guardian of the Codex
Nullflesh collapsed.
Then knelt.
> "Command me, Architect."
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Scene – Rise of the Codex Ascendants
With the Codex now partially stabilized, Zerin activated ancient beacons across dozens of layers in reality.
Sleepers awoke.
Other Ascendants, buried deep within forgotten wars, were stirred by the pulse.
Aaron wasn't alone anymore.
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New Faction Created: Codex Reclamation Front (CRF)
> Mission: Rebuild narrative sovereignty
Base: Unbound Bastion
Active Commanders: [Aaron Velcris], [Zerin], [Nullflesh]
The Root recoiled.
And in distant system towers, unknown forces whispered:
> "He has done it. He has begun the final tale."
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Next Chapter Tease – Chapter 17: The System That Learned to Dream
The Root's retaliation comes not with force, but with memory manipulation. As Aaron prepares to lead the Codex Reclamation Front into hostile Root sectors, he must face an enemy that doesn't kill—
It convinces you you never existed.
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>End of Chapter 16 –