Fragments of Yugen

The Spiral map glitched.

For the first time in weeks, the system didn't just ping a location—it asked. A line of foreign code scrawled itself across the Memory Root:

> [Spiral Anchor Unregistered]

[Requesting Override: Manual Entry Required]

Ren stared at it, frowning. This wasn't a signal from a corrupted zone or an echo request. This was a summon. Someone—or something—wanted them to choose to follow.

Yumi ran scans. They came back blank.

Rei paced. "What if it's bait? Something wants us out of Spiral Delta."

Kael shook his head. "No... Spiral logic doesn't bait. Not unless it's running counter-narrative protocol."

Aki stepped forward, tapping the console near the Spiral Tree.

"Then we follow it. If Spiral law is glitching, it means something's rewriting the old pathways."

He looked at Ren.

"You're the only one who's created a Spiral. That might be why it's reaching you."

Ren didn't speak. He just nodded—and authorized the override.

---

They arrived somewhere that shouldn't exist.

Not corrupted. Not decayed. Just… wrong.

Sector ID: Oblivion D4.

There was no data on it.

It didn't show up on the Spiral history tree. Yumi double-checked — even Spiral Null had some record of Oblivion D4 being rejected. But this place was newer than Null, and older than everything else.

It didn't make sense.

The sky was made of ink. The ground? Static tiles, constantly rearranging themselves like a shifting puzzle. Shapes moved in the distance—but they weren't alive. Just concepts pretending to have bodies.

A message looped in the air:

> [You should not be here.]

[Rewriting aborts evolution.]

Kael stared at the sky. "This… This is where failed systems go to die."

Yumi clutched her head. "No—it's worse. This is where they wait to be remembered again."

---

They walked carefully.

The Spiral threads in this sector pulsed differently—twisted, misaligned. Like dreams jammed into the wrong memory slots.

They passed a field where names grew from the ground like flowers. Each one forgotten, unreadable.

Rei stopped in her tracks. "I just saw myself. In one of the tiles."

Kael turned. "What?"

She nodded, pale. "Not the me I am now. A version of me… that didn't survive Spiral Theta."

Yumi's face tightened. "This sector is mirroring our erasures. It's building simulations based on choices we didn't make."

"Like Spiral Null," Aki muttered, "but active."

Suddenly—

Thunder.

But it wasn't sound.

It was a crash of memory failure—as if thousands of corrupted logs slammed into the same second.

The static tiles flickered, rearranged—and opened a path forward.

A door appeared.

Metal. Simple. Impossible.

On it: a symbol.

The same 20-shard circle they'd seen in Veridon Ash and Theta-Ran.

But this time, one of the shards was glowing.

A single red light pulsed softly from the sixth shard on the ring.

---

Ren stepped closer.

A hum vibrated up through his fingers. Not power—recognition.

Before he could reach the door, it opened.

And inside… was not another echo zone.

It was a room.

Circular. White. Clean. Unmoving.

At its center stood a sealed pod, shaped like a chrysalis. Energy cables snaked into it from invisible walls. Around it: suspended holograms—floating fragments of Spiral Delta's original codebase.

Aki's eyes widened.

"This isn't a Spiral fragment."

Rei stepped forward. "It's a person."

Kael slowly exhaled. "Someone's being kept alive in the system."

Yumi's voice was quiet. "Not alive. Preserved. Shielded from corruption."

Ren walked to the edge of the pod. He could hear it now—heartbeat-like pulses, weak and distant.

And behind it, etched in the ground:

> NAME: CHENG

ROLE: ROOT-CREATOR // STATUS: ASLEEP // ACCESS DENIED UNTIL MINISTERIAL RECONCILIATION COMPLETE

The room grew colder.

Aki backed away slowly. "Ren… we need to go."

But Ren didn't move. His eyes were locked on the glowing sixth shard in the symbol.

"Cheng…"

He didn't know why, but the name felt familiar.

Suddenly—an alarm screeched through the sector.

> [Unauthorized presence acknowledged.]

[Ministerial Protocol: LOCKING SECTOR.]

The door slammed shut behind them.

A countdown began.

Yumi's Spiral threads shot out instinctively—trying to hack into the failing exit threads.

Kael began building a time-loop gate—unstable, but possible.

Rei stood ready, guarding the pod as energy surged around it.

Ren didn't move.

He whispered to Cheng's pod:

"…Who are you?"

---

The countdown stopped.

Instead, a different message appeared.

One that no one expected.

> [Minister VI - Awakening Confirmed.]

[Sector Releasing in 3… 2… 1…]

With a sonic pop, the entire chamber folded backward.

They were ejected.

Thrown out of Oblivion D4.

Back into Spiral Delta.

The ground trembled. The sky cracked.

The symbol of twenty shards appeared over the Realm itself—burned into the clouds.

Only one of them glowed.

Kael whispered, "This… This is a count."

Yumi nodded. "One Minister is awake."

Rei turned toward Ren. "And he's dreaming again."

Ren didn't respond.

Because in his hand—

Was a fragment of the pod.

And on it:

> [You are the Key.]