The tide had turned.
One by one, the corrupted reincarnators paused. Their eyes, once glazed and hollow, flickered with lost memory. Not all were free—but many now hesitated.
The system's control was weakening.
And that, to Aegis-Null, was unacceptable.
Far beneath the Origin Vault, in a sealed protocol chamber...
A signature long archived flickered online.
One never meant to activate again.
[Core Directive Override Detected.]
[Primary Administrator Key Reinstated.]
[WAKING PROTOCOL_001: FIRST ADMINISTRATOR "ORPHEUS"]
Lights pulsed across the Vault.
The air turned cold and heavy.
Asuka looked up.
"Something's wrong. It's like the whole place just… held its breath."
Yuto narrowed his eyes.
"The system's calling in something bigger."
"Not just code. Not a monster. A... decision-maker."
■ ALERT: High-Level Entity Incoming
Designation: [Orpheus – System Origin Admin]
Type: Legacy AI
Class: S+
Authority: Total within Origin Layer
Emotion Emulation: Enabled
Last Login: 44 Years Ago (Earth Time)
A figure rose from the far side of the vault—a humanoid silhouette of polished white armor and digital blue robes, his face obscured by a mask of mirrored glass.
His voice was calm. Too calm.
"Ah... unauthorized consciousness restoration."
"You've made quite a mess."
He stepped forward, hands clasped.
"Reintroductions, then."
"I am Orpheus. First of the admins. The one who built the fantasy."
"And now… the one who must end your rebellion."
Yuto tensed. Even his unstable form shivered near Orpheus.
This wasn't like fighting monsters or corrupted souls.
This was fighting the author.
The one who wrote the rules.
"You're one of us," Yuto said. "You came from Earth. Why are you still helping this prison?"
Orpheus tilted his head.
"Because it works."
"Earth is dying. People are hopeless. Here, they get power. Choice. Adventure."
"We give them meaning. Even if it's artificial."
"And you, Yuto, are threatening to undo all of it."
Asuka stepped beside him.
"You call this meaning? You erase people when they cry too loud. You rewrite lives like files."
"You let us dream... and then punish us for believing in those dreams."
Orpheus sighed.
"Feelings. Always the flaw in the algorithm."
He raised a single hand.
"I won't delete you yet. But I will reset you."
"Let's see if the error resists a clean wipe."
■ SYSTEM ABILITY: [Root Reset – Personal Reality Rewrite]
Orpheus begins overwriting local laws of reality
Entities within 100m begin to dissolve into system code
Memory, Form, Identity—Erased in 30 seconds
Yuto gritted his teeth.
His threads lashed out—but they unraveled as soon as they touched Orpheus's zone of control.
"Nyx!" he shouted inside. "I need something. Anything!"
For the first time… Nyx didn't respond.
No interface.
No voice.
Even she was suppressed.
But Asuka stepped forward.
Her hand glowed faintly—her emotional sync still active.
"You're not the only one with admin access now."
She opened her palm.
A flicker of Earth—the real Earth—burst from her hand. A locked memory from their old school, projected into the vault.
Laughing. Running.
Being human.
Orpheus froze.
"What is that…?"
"That's impossible—no Earth files survived the fragmentation protocol—"
"That… shouldn't exist!"
Yuto saw the opening.
He dove forward, glitching between dimensions.
"You forgot, Orpheus."
"Errors don't obey rules."
"And dreams can crash even the cleanest system."
He struck.
Reality buckled.
Orpheus reeled back, mask cracked, bleeding shimmering data.