Rael steps back.
The thing wearing his face doesn't move.
No eyes.No breath.Just code shaped like guilt.
A husk made of everything he tried to forget.
It grins anyway.
Lips stretched too wide. Skin peeling at the corners.
"I was the first to break," it says. "Before the mask. Before the system. Before you called yourself Rael."
The screens behind it flicker.
Footage plays.
Not battles. Not victories.
Failures.
Him… curled on a floor, screaming.
Begging some unseen god to let him die in peace.
Her face… eyes filled with trust…right before he left her behind.
"I was the memory you buried to survive," the figure says. "Now I've clawed my way back."
[Internal Fragment Detected – Subconscious Rejection Failed][Designation: ORIGIN NULL][Threat Level: Unquantifiable]
Rael narrows his eyes.
"You're just a glitch."
The thing laughs.
"No. You're the glitch. I was the original. You're the shadow they made after I broke."
Its hands twitch.Crack.Stretch.
Becoming weapons. Mirrors. Chains.
"Give me back the name," it says. "Give me back the pain."
It lunges.
Rael doesn't flinch.
He's faster now.
Smarter.
But this enemy?
It doesn't play by rules.
Every punch Rael throws is caught by a hand that shouldn't exist.
Every shadow he summons is eaten by a mouth that opens in the walls.
This fight isn't about strength.
It's about memory.
And Origin Null remembers everything.
How many he let die.How many promises he broke.How many times he said he'd save her… and didn't.
The guilt is weaponized.
The tower flickers.
Reality bends inward.
Rael feels himself splitting again.
Like before.
Like when the system first took him.
[Splinter Cascade Imminent – Reintegration Required]
But he won't go back.
He won't.
He slams his fists together—The shadows crack.
Then—
He rips his own chest open.
Reaches inside.
Pulls out something glowing.
Small.
A memory.
The first one.
Her.
Before the system.Before the mask.When she called him by a name no one else remembers.
He throws it.
Straight into Origin Null.
And the figure screams.
Not in pain—
In fear.
It starts to collapse.
Like a puppet realizing it has no strings.
"You're not the original," Rael says, voice calm.
"You're just the pain I didn't know how to hold."
Origin Null crumbles.
No explosion.
Just dust.
Gone.
Silence.
Then—
[Reintegration Complete][Subconscious Aligned: 100%][You Are Whole.]
The tower shakes.
Then breathes.
Real breath.
A pulse through the walls.
And somewhere, far above him—
Footsteps.
Someone else is already climbing.
And they're not alone.
[New Player Detected – Clearance: UNKNOWN][Name: VICTOR][Affiliation: NULL PATH]
Rael stands.
Wipes the blood from his mouth.
Looks up.
And smiles.
"Finally."
The game is over.
But the war?
It just climbed into the light.
To be continued…