Ascension: Shadow Protocol

Chapter 29: System Error Detected

ERROR CODE: 0x000D4 – CORE STABILITY FAILUREINITIATING FORCED SYNC REBOOT…

The message seared across Ryo's vision like a branding iron.

One moment, he was navigating the sublayer of the Corrupted Grid—following a lead on Zereth's reappearance—and the next, his entire body went numb. His limbs seized. The world blurred.

His shadow flickered beneath him, stuttering like a broken hologram.His HUD spiraled into chaos.

[Warning: Shadow Core Disconnect Imminent][Stasis Protocol Engaged]

"No—no, not now," Ryo muttered, struggling to move. But his voice was distant, like someone else's echo underwater.

Then came the drop.

Not physical—but something deeper.

Like falling through himself.

The System Layer

When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the Grid anymore.

He stood in a void of pure black—like being inside a memory before it had ever existed. Lines of fractured code hung in midair, glowing red and gold. Ryo floated above a platform that resembled an ancient shrine made of fragmented shadow stone.

And standing before him...

Kael.

But not as Ryo remembered him.

Kael's body was draped in robes darker than night, threaded with flickering, corrupted symbols. His eyes glowed dimly—white irises surrounded by shadow cracks.

He looked... part human, part algorithm.

"You shouldn't be here yet."

His voice boomed across the void, not through the air but directly into Ryo's mind.

"Kael…?"

Ryo staggered forward.

His brother stood still, watching. No warmth. No recognition.

"What is this place?" Ryo demanded.

Kael's expression didn't change. "A locked memory node. I embedded it deep inside the Protocol's recursive shell before I fell."

"So you are alive?" Ryo's voice trembled. "You didn't die."

"No," Kael said slowly, "but I didn't survive either."

Flashback Fragment

Suddenly the void shuddered, and a new layer of reality flashed around them like static revealing a scene beneath.

Kael—untransformed—stood in the heart of an ancient shrine. A figure in obsidian armor faced him. Its face was hidden, but its presence radiated a terrifying familiarity.

"You took it," the figure hissed."The Shadow Protocol wasn't meant for you."

Kael held a shattered crystal in his hand. "And yet I was the only one who understood how to stop it."

Lightning surged. A war broke out. Shadow against shadow.

The memory cut off before the end.

Back in the Void

Ryo stared. "That wasn't a corrupted god… that was another Protocol bearer."

Kael finally looked directly at him. "You need to understand something, Ryo. This power—it's a curse. Every user before you fell. Every one of them turned."

"I won't."

Kael's voice turned sharp. "You will. Unless you learn what I couldn't."

Ryo clenched his fists. "Then teach me."

A pause. Then:

"Find the Archive hidden beneath Zenith. Before they do. That's where the truth begins."

Ryo's vision flared. The system screeched.

[Emergency Eject Initiated][Core Realignment Complete][Rebooting Conscious Layer…]

Back in the Grid

Ryo's body convulsed as breath rushed into his lungs. His fingers clawed into the dirt of the corrupted ground. Aika's voice called to him in the distance.

"Ryo! Ryo, can you hear me?!"

He blinked rapidly.

"I saw him," he whispered. "I saw Kael."

Aika dropped beside him, grabbing his arm. "You were out for almost two hours. We thought you'd—"

"There's an Archive," he cut in. "Hidden beneath Zenith. That's where the answers are."

"Zenith?" Aika echoed. "That's suicide. It's under Sovereign control."

"Then we break in," he said, standing up slowly. "Because the next phase of this war has already started."

Meanwhile – Deep Within Sovereign Territory

High above the neon towers of Zenith, inside a shadow-cloaked citadel, Zereth knelt before a massive throne.

On the throne sat a figure cloaked in divine black steel. One eye glowed red—mechanical, inhuman. In his hand, he held a corrupted shard of an old Shadow Core.

"The boy's awakening is accelerating," Zereth said. "He accessed the memory vault."

The figure tilted his head.

"So he has seen Kael. Good."

Zereth looked up sharply. "Good? That's dangerous."

"It's necessary," the figure replied. "He must see it all before the final Protocol awakens."

Zereth swallowed. "And if he reaches the Archive?"

The figure smiled—cold, jagged.

"Then the game begins for real."

End of Chapter 29