Inside the cockpit, Kai scrolled through intercepted transmissions from the summit security.
[Flagged Entry Detected: Signal anomaly traced.] [Investigation Squad ETA: 40 minutes. Prepare for local lockdown.]
Kai smirked. “Forty minutes, huh? That’s long enough to rewrite a few perceptions.”
At the edge of Aurinox…
Aurinox wasn’t like the other cities. It had layers—dimensional tiers of overlapping architecture, where physical space folded like code. Walls bent subtly. Doors weren’t where you left them. Even sunlight came in at inconsistent angles.
Kai and Rynera slipped into the lowest tier, cloaked in system blindspots. Their route wound through a collapsed library built from fractal glass, now home to refugees, outcasts, and a few sentient rats that wore monocles and debated politics.
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“Everyone’s here because they broke something,” Rynera said. “Or fixed something the world didn’t want fixed.”
“They’ll love me, then.”
They stopped in front of an altar to no god in particular, just a jagged interface marked with the ancient code of Null-Origin—the same markings Kai had started dreaming about since his reincarnation.
He touched the interface. It pulsed.
[Glitchwalker Access Detected] [Hidden Layer Unlocked: The Inner Tier]
Meanwhile, in the summit chamber…
The chairs filled. Fifty world leaders. Ten data-sorcerers. Two gods-in-retirement.
“Where is he?” one barked.
“Hopefully dead,” murmured another.
Then the entire city jolted. A tier they hadn’t known existed—shifted. It folded upward, slotting itself into visibility like a puzzle piece made of impossible code.
And from its epicenter, Kai walked out.
Not hiding.
Not sneaking.
Just… arriving.
[Glitchwalker: Kai – Presence Confirmed] [System Alert: Paradox Detected]
He stepped into the outer perimeter of the summit zone, flanked by Rynera, and a dozen outcasts he’d rallied from the library ruins. The truly forgotten—now walking beside a legend.
“Let’s talk,” Kai said, voice calm.
King Noctavius stood slowly. “You came here to negotiate?”
“No,” Kai smiled. “I came to rewrite the framework.”
The world leaders stared.
And the world itself?
It began to glitch.
End of Chapter 24