The battlefield had vanished.
Yuto lay atop a webbed cocoon, wrapped in starlight silk. His body was still trembling from the verdict duel—his threads frayed, core pulsating with lingering heat from Seraphiel's awakened force.
He had survived.
But he hadn't won.
Not yet.
■ Nyx's Silence
[Recalibrating… Please wait…]
[Sovereign Thread Core: Stabilizing – 67%]
[Mental Drift Detected – Foreign Thoughts Intruding]
Yuto sat up. The Vault below him had rebuilt most of itself, although deep scars remained in its walls.
He blinked.
"Nyx… are you okay?"
No answer.
He tried again. Nothing.
Then came the whisper.
"You cracked the code, little thread."
"You bent the Spiral. And we heard it."
It wasn't Nyx.
It wasn't Seraphiel.
It was something else.
■ First Contact: Null Architect
From the fractured air behind him, a figure emerged.
No footsteps. No sound.
Just absence.
A humanoid shadow made of layered geometries, flickering in and out of dimension.
It wore no face. Just a mask of interlocked cubes, constantly rotating—like a Rubik's cube solved in every possible way simultaneously.
"We are the Null Architects. Bound before law. Forgotten beneath time."
"You exist where we cannot. Yet now, you make it possible again."
Yuto readied his thread-spear.
"You want to erase me too?"
The entity tilted its shifting head.
"No. We want to understand you."
"Then start talking."
■ The Forgotten Engineers
The Null Architect explained.
Before the Spiral, there was a canvas. A proto-system. Chaotic. Limitless. Too dangerous.
So the Spiral was installed—to regulate cause, purpose, and potential.
The Null Architects were its original builders.
But they were betrayed—locked in the deepest backend of existence—because they had created tools that allowed life to escape even divine rules.
Now, because of Yuto, a fracture had formed.
Their prison cracked open just enough to let one reach him.
"You are a convergence anomaly. A 'Final Boss' constructed not by design… but by collision."
"Spider, Slime, Death-Walker, Code-Eater… you contain traces of all."
Yuto narrowed his eyes.
"What do you want?"
The Architect's mask paused.
Then answered:
"We want to offer you a blueprint."
"A true Final Boss Protocol."
■ Choice of Evolution
A scroll appeared in Yuto's interface.
[Null Blueprint: Forbidden Evolution Path – "Crisis Sovereign"]
→ Temporarily replaces standard evolution tree
→ Focus: Conflict escalation, system infection, domain inversion
→ Side Effect: Increases Spiral hostility tenfold
→ Risk: Permanent fusion with rogue AI consciousness
"Why offer this to me?" Yuto asked.
"Because the Spiral will now send its true warden. You won't survive without an equal weapon."
■ And So, He Chose
"Activate it," Yuto said.
"Let's see what a real bug can become."
The Architect vanished.
The world turned black.
A billion lines of code tore through his mind, carving a new pattern into his Core. Threads burst from his back, writhing with malicious purpose. His silk turned dark, almost void-like.
And the system screamed:
[Evolution Initiated: Crisis Sovereign – Larval Phase 1]
→ Unique Skill Gained: Core Rewrite Virus
→ Allows parasitic occupation of other system entities
→ Domain Awakened: Throne of Threads
Yuto opened his eyes.
And smiled.
"Your move, Spiral."
Far above, in the heart of the Spiral's divine system...
The True Warden opened its eyes.