The wind outside the cave howled like a living thing.
Sand swept over the darkened land like ghosts racing across the ruins of a forgotten system layer. Twisted trees bent under the weight of an eternal storm. The world Elias now walked into was nothing like Earth—it was something broken. Ancient. Watching.
Beside him, Ishael's white hair blew gently, untouched by the storm's rage.
They had walked for an hour in silence.
"Where are we going?" Elias finally asked, voice hoarse.
"To the Stygian Ruins," she replied. "A fragment of the Architect sleeps there."
Elias nodded, his boots crunching over old bones embedded in the stone path. "And what exactly is an Architect Fragment?"
"It's the original blueprint," Ishael said, without looking at him. "A piece of the first system—pure, untouched code. It's the only thing that can rewrite the corruption in you."
He raised a brow. "And you think it'll just… hand itself over?"
Ishael laughed softly.
