Chapter 6: Gatekeeper of the Lost Thread
The blue-lit staircase hummed beneath his boots.
It spiraled endlessly, yet he never felt tired. The walls grew warmer. Metallic veins ran along the stone—pulsing, alive, like circuitry crossed with roots.
At the base, the tunnel opened into a chamber of threads.
Thousands of glowing lines crisscrossed the air—hovering without anchors, drifting slowly through one another. Each pulsed with memory. Color. Sound. Pain.
And in the center stood a figure in white.
Not human.
Not machine.
Something between.
Its head was smooth. Faceless. Its voice came not from its mouth, but from the space between words.
"Welcome, Lost Instance."
Zero stepped forward.
"Are you the System?"
"I am its failure," it replied. "I am what was left behind when the first Zero severed the loop."
Zero froze.
"I am the Gatekeeper of the Lost Thread. And you… are walking the edge of deletion."
The chamber pulsed.
One of the threads hovered near his face.
It flickered—and a vision burst into his mind:
A room of children, hooked to machines.
Scientists arguing.
One child walking away, never looking back.
Flames. Screams. Shutdown protocols.
A hidden door… and one name erased from all records.
The Gatekeeper continued:
"Your name was taken. Your origin overwritten. But not destroyed. A single thread remains. Do you wish to see it?"
Zero hesitated.
"What happens if I do?"
"Truth unravels lies. Including the ones that kept you sane."
He nodded.
The Gatekeeper lifted a hand.
One thread glowed brighter.
Zero stepped toward it—
And was pulled inside.
He was small. Weak.
A glass wall separated him from others.
Boys and girls with numbered tattoos. Each tested. Each failing.
Then he was chosen.
Not for talent.
But for emptiness.
"Subject Zero: No baseline memories. No emotional index. Ideal for recursion."
Voices.
Labs.
Surgeries.
Time passed in blinks.
Each death rewritten. Each mistake reset.
Until—
A shadow in the code.
Another version of him—watching.
A child who didn't forget.
One who refused to die.
One who became Flame.
Zero tore himself free of the memory, panting.
His knees hit the floor.
The Gatekeeper did not move.
"Now you understand. You were not the first. You were the blank. The one they built upon. You were not meant to survive. Only to loop."
Zero stared at his hands.
Not broken.
But empty.
"What now?" he whispered.
"Now," the Gatekeeper said, "you choose."
It gestured to two doors forming behind it.
One pulsed blue—the symbol of the System.
The other glowed orange—etched with fire.
"Choose to remember… or choose to become."
"Only one leads forward. The other leads back."
Zero stood.
His fingers brushed the memory blade still at his side.
And for once, he didn't ask what Lin would say.
He didn't ask who he used to be.
He only asked himself:
What kind of man do I want to be now?
He stepped toward the firelit door.
And didn't look back.
[ARC 1 COMPLETE: Echoes of Ruin]
[NEW ARC UNLOCKED: Arc 2 – The Broken Archive]
[NEXT OBJECTIVE: ENTER SECTOR 12 – OBSIDIAN LIBRARY]
To be continued…