The night sky above the fractured realm pulsed with veins of light — like a beating heart beneath shattered glass. In the silence of the outer ridge, Dain stood still, his eyes fixed on the massive wall of obsidian crystal that enclosed the Core Wastes. The structure pulsed faintly, reacting to the presence of his now awakened bloodline.
His hands still tingled from the earlier trial, but this time, there was no chaos. No panicked guidance from an outside force. The voice in his mind — the silent, ever-watching Silent Core System — had shifted from passive to active. It now spoke, not in words, but in sensation and thought pulses, like an instinct woven into his nervous system.
> [Core Alignment: 71% Stabilized]
[Skill Interface Unlocked: Thread Weaver | Subsystem: Dimensional Fibers]
[Hidden Evolutionary Trait Detected: ???]
[Danger Proximity: Low | Surveillance Traces: 2 nearby]
He exhaled slowly. "I'm being watched…"
---
Elsewhere, in a hidden tower north of the Core Wastes…
An old man sat with his palm pressed against a flickering sigil, watching Dain's data stream unfold like a digital prophecy. "He's adapting too quickly," he whispered, eyes narrowed beneath an iron mask. "We fragmented the system to stop anomalies like him. And yet…"
The figure behind him — cloaked entirely in white mist — didn't speak. It simply handed over a crystal tablet.
On it, three words burned:
"Core Host Divergence."
---
Back with Dain…
The moment he walked deeper into the obsidian ridge, Dain felt time slow. The Thread Weaver subsystem activated automatically, unraveling the very fabric of the space around him. It was like watching lines of reality being pulled apart — he could see alternate exits, hidden zones, and even echoes of events that hadn't happened yet.
He stopped, his breath hitching.
There, imprinted in one of the threads, was an echo of himself. But older. Sharper. And smiling with eyes full of cold vengeance.
> [Cognitive Echo Detected. Timeline Anomaly Stored. Skill: Path Splitter Seeded.]
He clenched his fists. "So this is what the Silent Core really is… not a system for power — but for evolution beyond time?"
Just then, his HUD flickered.
A new quest appeared. But unlike the others, this one was encrypted in red glyphs — unreadable by standard system interpretation.
> [WARNING: Fragmented Directive Detected]
[Decrypting… Decryption Level: 3 required]
[Access Denied]
Behind him, something stirred. A faint buzzing — like insect wings, but with the weight of steel.
He ducked instinctively, his foot sliding across the obsidian as a shadow lunged from the darkness — a massive construct hybrid, its body half-metal, half-void matter. Its single glowing eye locked onto him like a predator staring at prey.
Without thinking, Dain triggered a thread slash, one of the basic skills tied to the Thread Weaver subsystem. The construct's shoulder exploded in blue sparks, but it didn't stop.
> [Analyzing enemy: Class-B Fragment Lurker. Evolution Type: Glitch-Borne]
[Weak point: Vein Node in left thigh.]
"Got it," Dain muttered.
He moved faster than ever before. His movements weren't trained — they were calculated, as if someone had installed knowledge straight into his nervous system. A single strike pierced the Lurker's leg, and it collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
The moment it died, it disintegrated — not into blood or parts — but data. Glimmering particles that rushed into his chest.
> [System Fragment Absorbed. Core Rank Progress: 73%]
[Memory Inheritance Piece Acquired]
Dain staggered back as a sudden wave of visions surged into him. They weren't his memories.
He saw a lab. People screaming. A core tearing a city apart.
And a girl with violet eyes screaming his name — "Dain, don't trust the Core!"
The memory ended.
He gasped, leaning on his knees. "Who… was that?"
And then, the HUD blinked again.
> [Fragmented Directive — Partial Decryption Successful]
[Initiate Mission: Reconnect the Dead Threads]
[Location: Lower Cradle of the Obsidian Vault]
[Reward: Forbidden Skill | ???]
This time, the pulse of curiosity was overwhelming. He felt the threads of fate pulling him deeper — not into a dungeon, but into truth.
But someone else was watching.
High above, from a rift in the sky, a figure cloaked in flowing green threads whispered, "So he's the one who absorbed the Lurker's Directive…"
Beside them, a living notebook floated, its pages turning on their own
.
> "Prediction Updated: Divergence Rate — 91%." "His fate is no longer bound to this Realm alone…"
Dain descended into the Lower Cradle, guided only by pulses from the Silent Core and the fragments of memory he didn't own. The path was not marked — it was revealed.
The deeper he went, the more unreal the world became. The obsidian stone no longer reflected light but drank it. The air shimmered with strands of thread-thin glyphs — weaving spells left by entities that no longer had a name.
And then he heard it — a heartbeat. Not his. Not mechanical. Something older.
> [Proximity Warning: Vault Node Alpha is Active. Core Heat: Rising.]
[Mental Resistance Check: Passed. Cognitive Overload Immunity: Tier 1 Engaged.]
The system was shielding his mind, but barely. He could feel something pressing against the edge of his thoughts, trying to rewrite his memories, trying to whisper truth in a language he couldn't yet understand.
He passed the remains of what once might have been Core Engineers — skeletons infused with metal threads, frozen mid-motion, some clawing at their own skulls.
> [Detected: Echo Remnants | Core Lab: Designation "Vault-Origin"]
[Replaying Lost Sequence]
---
– Vault-Origin Echo –
"Subject-9 has reached 81% sync. The Silent Core is… responding. This shouldn't be happening."
"The system is evolving on its own."
"No. Not evolving — remembering."
static
"I think it sees us now. We shouldn't have reconnected—"
End of Echo.
---
Dain blinked, breathing hard. "They were trying to control it… but it turned on them."
A new interface flickered — not part of his normal HUD. It was older, fragmented, written in a glyph style that shouldn't exist. It hovered in front of him, like a terminal waiting for an answer.
> [Key Required: Threadline Identity Signature]
[Analyzing… Match Found: Thread Weave / Core Host / Divergent Path Detected]
[Access Granted to: Vault Node Alpha]
The massive gate opened not with gears, but with threads unspooling. Reality itself opened for him.
Inside, a chamber hummed with unnatural energy. In the center stood a platform — and above it, suspended midair — a living heart. Not made of flesh. But data. Code. And pain.
> [You have found a Fragmented Heart of the Core]
[Skill Acquired: Heartlink — Passive Ability]
[Warning: Skill is Forbidden. This link will not be recorded in Public System Logs.]
---
Suddenly, his entire interface glitched — colors inverted, system text scrambled. The Core was no longer silent.
It spoke.
Not in words. In a flood of meanings.
You are not the first. But you are the last.
Your thread is not one. It has been spliced.
The other you… has already awakened.
Dain reeled backward, stumbling as images crashed through him — another version of himself walking through fire, leading an army of shattered constructs, eyes burning like twin suns.
He gritted his teeth. "So the vision wasn't just an echo. It's real."
He wasn't evolving linearly. He was colliding with alternate versions of himself — dead ends, failures, or monsters.
---
Suddenly, a wave of killing intent slammed into him like a mountain.
> [New Threat Detected: Thread Reclaimer | Class-A Vault Guardian]
[Warning: This entity considers you a system error.]
The Reclaimer emerged from the shadows — a humanoid creature with no face, but dozens of hands — each one holding a different weapon: sword, staff, spear, scythe. Its entire body was wrapped in invisible threads — the same kind he had just learned to see.
And one of those threads… led directly to his chest.
"It's bound to me?" Dain whispered.
> [Initiating Battle Protocol: Thread Warping Permitted]
[Skill Unlocked: Echo Step | Phantom Thread Slash]
The Reclaimer attacked with speed that bent light. A scythe came for his throat — only for Dain to vanish an inch before contact.
He reappeared behind it, blade slashing through one of the hands. The severed hand burst not into flesh, but a thousand silver strings.
> [Core Thread Absorbed. Phantom Thread Slash Rank: D → C]
The creature didn't scream. It reconfigured. Hands shifted positions. Weapons changed mid-air.
It struck again — and again — and Dain moved like he'd trained for years. Because, in a way, he had.
Each time he dodged, the system learned, adapting his instincts.
> [Threat Analysis: Predictive Model Developed. Counterstrike Path Calculated.]
He slashed through the creature's spine-thread — and for a second, the Reclaimer froze, body caught in a loop of collapsing sequences.
> [Vault Guardian Defeated]
[Thread Resonance Achieved. New Passive Gained: Reclaimer's Sense]
[Vault Key Node Absorbed. Core Host Rank: Advanced Thread Initiate]
---
As the Reclaimer dissolved into light, a final vision entered Dain's mind.
A massive tower — piercing the sky — with versions of him trapped in each floor. Some screaming. Some laughing. Some… entirely broken.
Each one labeled.
Each one a test.
At the very top, one stood alone. Wearing the same cloak as him. Same face.
But eyes of molten void.
---
> [New Directive: Climb the Tower of Self]
[Optional Sub-Quest: Unravel the Threads of Identity]
[Location: Unlocked – Tower Vector: Null-Origin]
And then silence.
He looked at his hands. Still shaking. Still human.
But something had changed.
Not just his power.
His path.
This was no longer about survival. Or revenge.
It was about confronting the Core that birthed him… and breaking the fate it wrote in threads.