---
---
Darkness.
Not the absence of light.
The absence of self.
Auron floated in a void shaped like a corrupted data stream. Voices whispered in loops, repeating fragments of his life like a broken radio.
> "You'll never be enough…"
"System error: You shouldn't exist."
"Let me in. Let me wear you."
The Devourer wasn't speaking.
It was rewriting.
Lines of hostile code bled across his neural thread. He saw himself laughing, screaming, murdering—none of it real, all of it possible.
---
Outside…
Kiera paced the shattered floor of the Recompiler's throne room—now a data graveyard floating in nothing. Auron's body levitated above a fractured seal circle drawn by Veyren, his veins glowing with glitchlight.
"Tell me he's still in there," she demanded.
Veyren didn't look up. "If he isn't, we're all dead anyway."
"You cold, smug bastard—"
"He volunteered," Veyren snapped. "He made a choice you wouldn't. Now pray he can hold the line."
---
Inside Auron's mind...
He stood before a mirror that talked.
It looked like him—kind of.
But the smile was all wrong.
> "You're wasting this potential. Give me the wheel. Let me show them what we can really do."
"No," Auron said, trembling. "I'm not becoming you."
The reflection laughed.
> "Then you'll break."
Suddenly, Auron was back in the streets. Old memories.
A little boy clutching his dead sister.
An error message flickering where her eyes should be.
Auron fell to his knees.
"Stop it—"
> "You let her die."
"No—!"
> "You think you're a hero. But you're a virus wearing a name."
The Devourer leaned close from behind the mirror.
> "So let's become what they fear."
---
Outside…
Alarms blared.
The Codex sky turned blood-red.
> Codex Sync Interrupted. Glitchborne Resisting Merge. Stability: 12%.
Warning: Dimensional Veil Fracturing.
External Systems At Risk: Real World / Earthnet / NeuralNet Ark Hubs.
---
Kiera gripped her pistol.
"I'm going in."
Veyren turned to her. "You'll be torn apart."
She smirked. "Not if I know where to hit."
And she dove headfirst into the seal—into Auron's mind.
---
Within the Glitchborne's soulscape...
Kiera hit the ground running. Her boots crunched shattered code as time folded sideways.
She heard the voices. All of them.
And then she saw him.
Auron, on his knees. The Devourer looming behind him, crown of static blooming from its skull.
Kiera didn't hesitate.
She ran straight through the memories—his pain, his past—and tackled him.
He looked up, dazed. "Kiera?"
"Get up, damn you," she growled. "You don't get to die today. You don't get to hand over the wheel to that thing."
The Devourer screeched.
Reality snapped.
> Merge Disrupted. Co-Pilot Detected.
Warning: Emotional Anchor Present. Infection Halted.
Kiera grabbed Auron's face. "Remember who you are. Remember who I am. I've had your back since Byte-Day One. So don't make me shoot you in your own mind."
His eyes flickered.
Auron reached up—
And crushed the mirror.
---
Outside…
The seal erupted in glitchfire.
Auron dropped, smoke rising off his skin.
Then he opened his eyes.
Half his body still flickered with Devourer code. His veins pulsed with unnatural light. But his voice was steady.
"I'm back."
Veyren looked stunned. "You stabilized it?"
Kiera grinned. "No. He tamed it."
Auron stood. "The Devourer is still in me. Still hungry. But now…"
He cracked his knuckles.
"…it's on my leash."
---
> New Title Acquired: Glitchborne Sovereign
Codex Threat Level: Red++
Warning: Overseer Council Response En Route.
---
Kiera tilted her head. "What now?"
Auron looked at the glitched sky.
"We bring the fight to the Council. Let them taste what they tried to bury."
---