“Some systems don’t crash. They fight back.”

Scene 1 – Message from the Ashes

An Echo message pings Nyx’s network at 03:33.

It shouldn’t exist all known Echo clusters were purged last cycle. The message reads only:

▢ TO: ACCEL

▢ FROM: RAIHN

“Not all Saints forget. Come to Elaris.”

Accel stares at the name.

GLITCH:

“That’s the name from the shard. The one you remembered.”

ACCEL (quietly):

“It’s not just a name. It was someone I trusted. Once.”

NYX:

 “Probability of trap: 91.2%.

Probability of closure: 8.8%

Probability of narrative compulsion: 100%”

Scene 2 – Elaris

Elaris was once a Veil-controlled spire city. Now, it's a fracture zone lightning rips through the skyline, and buildings phase in and out like flickering data.

The trio walks through streets made of half-remembered memories. Children made of static. Streetlights that whisper secrets. Echoes here don’t hide they haunt.

A lone figure waits at the center. Cloaked in white and gray. A Saint… but unarmed.

SAINT KORR.

KORR:

“I broke protocol. I remember her. The girl. Glitch.”

Glitch steps forward, tense.

KORR:

“You were made in the same lab that built us. But they erased you. Because you changed.”

Accel lowers his blade but not fully.

KORR (to all):

“Others are coming. Not Saints. Not Echoes. Something worse.”

Scene 3 – Descent

The group follows Korr to an old cathedral underground a place before the Veil. A library of thought and forbidden memory. There, Accel sees carvings of the symbol Glitch drew.

Nyx scans it.

NYX:

“It predates every known system. This city was built over its bones.”

They don’t have time to ask what that means. Because then, the lights die. And the Veil sends something new.

Scene 4 – The Purifier

Not a Saint.

Not coded from belief.

Not shaped like a person.

A Purifier —

A spined figure of white fire and steel, with no face and too many hands.

GLITCH (horrified):

“That’s not Veil code…”

NYX:

“It’s from the Foundation Layer. The original root. It’s not here to warn.

It’s here to end.”

The room erupts into chaos.

Accel fights. Glitch pulls Korr to cover. Nyx overrides lightsystems to blind the Purifier — but its core pulses with heat.

KORR (to Glitch):

“You’re not meant to be a weapon… You were built to remember what the rest of us forgot.”

Glitch screams and her shard pulses in sync with the cathedral.

BOOM—

The floor collapses.

Scene 5 – Sacrifice

As the dust clears, Glitch wakes up.

Korr is gone.

And Nyx… is hovering weakly. Damaged. One optic cracked.

NYX (faint):

“I rerouted the blast. Minimal existential displacement. But… I think I felt fear.”

Glitch holds his side his chassis is cracked open.

ACCEL:

“We need to fall back.”

GLITCH (quiet):

“Someone died for this. Again.”

She turns. In the rubble, something glows:

A memory shard.

It holds an old recording Glitch’s voice, from before she was a Glitch.

Scene 6 – Voice From Before

The shard plays a single message:

“If you’re hearing this… that means I failed. They used me. But I won’t let them win again.”

Her voice trembles.

“Find the root. Find Raihn. Stop the recursion.”

End of Chapter 7 – “Saintfall”

The system can’t be ignored anymore.

It’s hunting them with weapons born of the original world.

And the name Raihn still echoes like guilt.