Kai stood at the edge of his floating citadel, arms crossed, eyes locked on the shimmering horizon. The world stretched out beneath him: fractured mountains, inverted rivers, walking forests, and old ruins caught in infinite update loops.
Somewhere beyond all that?
The Pulse.
A myth. A rumor. A whisper passed between AI-driven sages and spirit-seers.
Said to be the original heartbeat of the system—the first vibration of creation before things got glitched. It was a power not meant to be wielded, only witnessed.
And now… it was moving.
Elsewhere – In the Forgotten Plains
A lone wanderer trekked through terrain that should not exist.
Her name was Ellis. A historian. Not a fighter, not a mage. Just a woman with a broken compass that pointed to memory leaks in reality.
She carried an ancient tome strapped to her back—one that occasionally hissed. Its cover was blank, yet stained with equations that shimmered only when the moon glitched.
She paused at a ruined tower.
Text appeared on the tower walls—glowing briefly in red:
“He has awakened. The Pulse stirs. Echo Fire has been chosen.”
Her breath caught.
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So the Cycle was starting again.
Back with Kai – Days Later
The guild was stable. New recruits were training. The party aftershocks had faded. Diplomats were being ignored.
But Kai?
He was restless.
He had dreams now—fractured, unfiltered, and wrong.
In them, he stood before an empty throne in a city of light, where even the shadows bent down to him. Above that throne hovered a familiar sigil.
Null.
Not a name.
Not a title.
A destination.
[System Notification: New Location Unlocked – The Dead Root Archive]
[Quest Triggered: “Seek the Pulse”]
[Difficulty: Unreadable]
[Warning: Memory corruption likely]
Kai didn’t tell anyone. Not yet.
He simply left.
The Dead Root Archive – Entrance
It was a place long thought purged by system resets. A crypt made of collapsed time zones and extinct data trees.
Kai stepped through the gate.
Reality groaned.
Colors bled.
Code flickered like broken glass suspended in fog.
He took one step—and the floor didn’t respond.
The Archive wasn’t designed to accept “alive” beings.
It was a graveyard of concepts.
And yet… it opened for him.
Inside were statues—monsters that looked like bosses but had no names. Their stone skin crawled with glitched script.
And at the center?
A broken terminal.
When Kai touched it, it didn’t boot.
It spoke.
“Echo Fire… Null Thread… Infinite Mass… Destructive Beam…”
“The Cycle Begins Again.”
“Will you ascend?”
“Or will you collapse like the rest?”
Meanwhile – Ellis
The historian’s journey took her to an inverted monastery where monks trained blindfolded in falling gravity.
She handed them the hissing book. “I need access to the Pulse Record.”
The Grandmaster nodded slowly.
“You’re not the only one searching.”
And through the monastery’s starlit dome, a shadow passed.
Not flying. Not walking. Just… existing.
A being made of fragments.
“A Watcher.”
It didn’t speak.
It didn’t blink.
But it turned its head. Toward Null Ascent. Toward Kai.
End of Chapter 17