Devourer: Echoes of the unwritten

[Scene: Sector 9B – Outskirts of the Post-Rewrite Zone | 1:12 A.M.]

Wind howled through the husks of forgotten buildings, where screens no longer flickered and the Soulgrid didn't reach. This place had no quests, no levels, no interface.

Just silence.

A figure ran through the rain.

LIAN ASHER, age 17.

Scavenger-class. Level 2.

Gloves ripped. Hood soaked. Eyes glowing faintly green.

"This place doesn't exist on the map anymore."

"Then why… why do I still remember it?"

Breathing hard, he ducked into a collapsed storefront. His system interface was blank—static and unreadable. The last message burned like a curse:

[ERROR: YOU DO NOT EXIST]

Lian stared at the broken terminal in front of him. It was fused into the floor, humming.

A relic.

A relic that called to him.

[Flashback: Hours Earlier – Black Market Gridline]

"They said you're blank-code, huh?"

The broker's laugh was sharp. "How's it feel being a walking typo?"

Lian didn't respond. He'd spent his whole life being the thing no one could categorize. He had no lineage tree. No system origin. No approved class.

Yet the Soulgrid let him log in. Barely.

"You'll break soon," the broker added, handing him the chipped device.

"This? Last message from before the Rewrite. Handle it wrong, and your mind'll melt."

Lian took it. Quiet. Numb.

He was used to being erased in conversation.

[Back to Present – Storefront Ruins]

He placed the chipped core on the relic's surface.

Click.

A slow whir. Then—

The ground shook.

"No… no, this was supposed to be dead tech…"

A projection burst to life above the terminal. Not a hologram. Not a screen.

A person.

Cloaked in shadows.

One eye glowing violet.

Hair silver like ash.

Lian fell to his knees.

He didn't know this man.

But the name etched under the projection said everything:

[KAITO RYU – DESIGNATED: SYSTEM ERROR – CLASSIFICATION: REWRITE GHOST]

And then the voice spoke.

Calm. Deep. Tired.

"If you're hearing this…

…then the Soulgrid has already failed."

[Scene Shift: Global System Log]

UNWRITTEN ZONE DETECTED

ERROR: ZONE NOT LOGGED IN VERSION HISTORY

THREAT LEVEL: BELOW ZERO

REPLICA ACTIVE – ID: LIAN ASHER

"Begin Echo Sequence…"

[Back to Lian – POV]

"Who are you?" Lian whispered, staring at the ghostly projection.

"What do you mean… the Soulgrid failed?"

The Kaito-echo looked directly at him.

"Because memory isn't code."

"And the system was built by people who wanted to forget."

Suddenly, the room ripped in half.

Not physically — but conceptually.

The walls flickered. Names vanished from signs. Even gravity twisted for a moment as if the world couldn't agree it was supposed to exist.

Then, in the corner of his interface, a new line appeared:

[You have been recognized by the Blank.]

[Your memory is incompatible with current version.]

[Welcome, Unwritten.]

Interlude I – "Fading Root Access"

(Kaito POV – Unknown Layer)

There was no pain.

No light.

Just code… whispering like wind across an endless void.

Kaito Ryu sat cross-legged on a fractured memory shard floating in a layer no longer mapped by the Soulgrid. His cloak was torn. His body flickered between data and dust.

He was fading.

"I chose to disappear…"

"But something is pulling me back."

He stared at the translucent interface before him — not the system's, but his own, built from soul. It no longer displayed stats.

Only memories.

💬 [Lorelei.exe]: You don't have to carry all of this, you know.

💬 [Kaito]: Someone does.

💬 [Reina]: You're not our god, Kaito. You're our friend.

💬 [Kaito]: That's exactly why I left.

He clenched his fist, and the interface shattered.

Still… a sliver of corrupted code blinked back into place. A name.

LIAN ASHER – SYSTEM DENIAL TAG: [UNWRITTEN]

Kaito's eyes narrowed.

That name hadn't existed during the rewrite. It wasn't on any survivor list. It wasn't in any fragment.

"No one's supposed to exist in a blank zone."

He stood, unstable. His form flickered — half code, half soul.

The void around him rippled. Something ancient stirred beyond the dark. Not the Heir. Not the System.

Something that never wanted to be remembered.

"If he's hearing my echo… the Soulgrid's failing faster than I thought."

"He'll need help."

He looked into the void.

"Let's hope he doesn't make the same mistake I did…"

[End of Interlude I]

Next: Chapter 2 – "Version Zero's Child"