Every screen...
Every panel...
Every flicker of light...
Turned toward him.
At once.
Elric didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
"…Okay," he said slowly.
"…that's new."
Mii clutched his arm tighter.
"Player, I don't like this part!"
Pix stepped forward instead.
Of course she did.
Eyes wide.
Locked in.
"…Don't move," she whispered.
Lyra snapped instantly.
"Everyone back... NOW."
Kaida-9 moved first.
Pulling Mii with her.
Sera followed.
Elen stepped back...
But her eyes never left Elric.
The room hummed louder.
Not mechanical.
Rhythmic.
Like something… syncing.
Elric swallowed.
"…I'm not doing anything."
Pix shook her head slowly.
"…That's the problem."
The hologram flared.
This time...
It didn't flicker.
It expanded.
Lines of light stretched outward...
Mapping the room...
Mapping the walls...
Mapping...
Him.
"…It's locking in," Sera said sharply.
Lyra's voice cut through.
"…Interrupt it!"
Pix didn't move.
"…I can't."
Silence.
Lyra turned on her.
"…What do you mean you can't?!"
Pix finally looked back.
And for the first time...
She looked unsure.
"…It's not a system process anymore," she said.
A beat.
"…It's self-executing."
That hit hard.
Elric frowned.
"…That sounds bad."
Pix nodded.
"…That sounds irreversible."
The room pulsed again.
Harder.
The walls...
Glitched.
Not visually.
Physically.
For a split second...
They weren't solid.
Kaida-9 stepped back instantly.
"…Structural instability detected."
Mii yelped.
"THE WALL JUST... WHAT WAS THAT?!"
Sera's voice sharpened.
"…Reality layer desync."
Elric blinked.
"…That sounds even worse."
Pix whispered...
"…We pushed too far."
The hologram snapped tighter.
Condensing.
Compressing...
Into a single point.
Right in front of Elric.
A symbol formed again.
Clearer than before.
Sharper.
Almost...
Complete.
Lyra stepped forward.
Hand out...
"Stop it...!"
The moment her hand crossed into the light.
The world broke.
Sound vanished.
Completely.
No hum.
No breath.
No movement.
Just...
Silence.
Elric's vision distorted.
Colors stretched.
Shapes bent.
Everyone...
Froze.
Mid-motion.
Except...
Him.
"…Hello?" he said.
No sound came out.
But he felt it.
The space around him...
Shifted.
Not violently.
But intentionally.
Like something had isolated him.
The symbol hovered in front of him now.
Perfectly still.
Perfectly clear.
For the first time...
He could see it.
Not broken.
Not glitching.
Whole.
"…Okay," he muttered.
"…what are you?"
The symbol pulsed.
Once.
And then...
It responded.
Not with sound.
Not with text.
But with understanding.
A flood of information...
Too fast...
Too much...
Elric staggered slightly.
"…Whoa...!"
Images...
Fragments...
Concepts...
Not memories.
Something else.
The system.
Code.
Structure.
Rules...
And something breaking those rules.
Him.
"…No," he said under his breath.
"…that's not..."
The space pulsed again.
Harder.
Cracks formed...
Not in the walls...
In everything.
Reality itself stuttered.
Outside the room...
Far above...
The city flickered.
Lights failing.
Signals dropping.
Entire systems freezing mid-process.
Inside...
Pix screamed...
Sound snapping back...
"ELRIC... STOP IT!"
The world slammed back into motion.
Everything hit at once...
Sound...
Light...
Movement...
Lyra grabbed his arm.
"BREAK FOCUS!"
Elric gasped...
The symbol flared...
Then...
Shattered.
Not like glass.
Like code collapsing.
Fragments dissolved into nothing.
The room went dark.
Every system...
Dead.
Silence.
Real silence.
Elric dropped to one knee.
Breathing hard.
"…Okay," he choked out.
"…that was definitely not intentional."
Mii rushed to him.
"Player!"
Kaida-9 scanned rapidly.
"…All systems offline."
Sera's voice was low.
Tight.
"…That wasn't a glitch."
Pix stood frozen.
Staring at the spot where the symbol had been.
"…No," she whispered.
A slow grin spread across her face.
"…That was a breakthrough."
Lyra snapped toward her.
"…That nearly tore the layer apart!"
Pix laughed softly.
Still staring.
"…Yeah."
A beat.
"…and we survived it."
Elen looked at Elric.
Quiet.
"…Did you see it?" she asked.
Elric didn't answer right away.
Because his hands...
Were shaking.
"…Yeah," he said finally.
A pause.
"…I think it saw me too."
Silence.
That landed heavier than anything else.
Far away...
Deep in the system...
Something changed.
[ERROR: CONTAINMENT FAILURE]
[ANOMALY ESCALATION CONFIRMED]
And beneath it...
[PRIORITY REVISED: IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED]
Back in the dark...
No one spoke.
Because now...
They all felt it.
This wasn't just spreading anymore.
It had awakened something.