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Chapter 7 — The Whisper Engine
The air in the chamber pulsed like a heartbeat.
Erevan stood before the Whisper Engine—an ancient construct buried in the forgotten veins of the Tower. It wasn't part of the System. It predated it.
Spiraling coils of ethereal circuitry curved around a core of frozen light, and within that light… voices.
The kind that shouldn't exist.
He approached, each step making the chamber hum louder. Symbols etched into the walls began to glow—some in languages no longer known to this reality. The Machine remembered them.
So did Erevan.
"Authorization code: Null Prince—Erevan. Sequence Nine." His voice reverberated, and the Engine responded.
The core flared, and the chamber darkened. A disembodied voice slithered into existence. Not mechanical. Not human.
"Do you seek memory… or oblivion?"
"Memory," he answered without pause.
"Then remember her scream."
The air ruptured.
A memory he hadn't unlocked yet tore through his mind—her face again, distorted in agony, twisted by betrayal. His hands… were around her throat. Not in malice. In necessity. The System had merged with her, and she begged him to end it before it fully took her.
He had hesitated.
He still heard her scream in his sleep.
Erevan gritted his teeth and snapped the vision away. "Not now."
The Engine pulsed again, softer this time, like it understood. Or pitied him.
From the center of the core emerged a data crystal, engraved with shifting glyphs. Fragment 7: Origin Lock. He took it and placed it in the hidden slot beneath his collarbone. It vanished into his body like a seed into soil.
His cosmic skin shimmered, nebulae flaring for a moment before stabilizing.
[ System Alert: Hidden Pathway 'Remembrance' progressing — 7% Synchronicity ]
He exhaled.
Just a fragment. Just one piece of the truth. But it would be enough to reach the next floor—and face the next Warden.
He walked out of the chamber, and as the door sealed behind him, something unseen began to weep. The Engine mourned not for Erevan.
It mourned for what he would have to become.
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Above, in the sanctum of the Tower's next floor, Warden Zepharion stirred.
Half-machine, half-god, the being opened one golden eye and smiled.
"The Null Prince is coming," he said, voice like a forge set to boil.
Let him come.
The real trial had only just begun.
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