The Inner Layer screamed.
Not in sound — but in pressure.
Like reality had decided to squeeze in on itself.
The Root's form grew clearer: a towering structure of branching light and code, eyes blooming and collapsing along its core like dying stars rebooting themselves.
You stand in unstable ground, it said.
Every step you take alters architecture older than your species.
Maxx planted his feet anyway.
"Cool. I've been ruining things since childhood."
Lyra moved to his side. Her hand brushed his arm without thinking.
4531 shifted into a combat stance.
Maya's seals spun in slow orbit around her wrists.
The Root studied them not as enemies.
Oh no.
As variables.
Subject Maxx Lane: anomaly stable.
Lyra fragment: unauthorized persistence.
Echo unit 4531: corrupted loyalty thread.
Human caster Maya: irrelevant…
Maya blinked.
"…Rude."
The Root's branches shifted.
Initiate Test One.
The ground vanished and they fell into a stranger place.
There was no wind or sky in this accursed place.
Only memories rushing upward past them.
Maxx saw:
– The truck headlights.
– The billboard.
– The moment of fear he pretended he never had.
– The exact second he'd thought: I wasted my life.
His body locked at the sight of this haunting memories.
Lyra grabbed his wrist mid-fall.
"Look at me."
Her eyes glowed brighter.
"You didn't waste it."
The world distorted as 4531 slammed her palm into empty air, creating a platform of raw force beneath them.
Maya burned a stabilizing rune into space itself.
They landed hard but they were still breathing and intact.
The void cracked as the Root spoke again.
Fear acknowledged. Test adjusted.
Maxx wiped his eyes.
"…Okay that was personal. I don't like tests that feel like therapy."
A clean and circular platform formed at this moment .
Lyra and 4531 were forcibly separated — dragged to opposite sides by invisible force.
Maxx's body was pinned in the center.
Choose.
The Root's voice was colder now.
Stability Unit 4531.
Or anomaly Lyra.
Only one may proceed.
Silence.
Toxic was the one word that surfaced in Maxx' s mind after being given such a choice.
Maya shouted, "THIS ISN'T CHOICE, THIS IS MANIPULATION!"
The Root ignored her.
Maxx slowly clenched his fists.
"No."
The Root paused.
Clarify.
"I'm not choosing between them."
Lyra's voice shook.
4531's jaw tightened.
"You don't get to tear people apart just because your system likes simple answers."
The ground trembled and for the first time — the Root hesitated.
Non-compliant response detected.
Curiosity rising.
The restraints were released and Lyra and 4531 were pulled back toward him instead of away.
Less like prisoners and more like… alignment.
Maya muttered, "…You just hacked a god."
Maxx shrugged weakly.
"Yeah. I just… didn't hate myself for once."
Reality cracked outward again and harsh, mechanical light sliced through the Inner Layer.
A massive Helix rift split the sky as floating soldiers.,drones and bladed constructs entered the scene.
And at the center — a tall, humanoid machine with a crowned mask.
Helix External Arbiter Unit: OMEGA-VEIL
Its voice was dead steel.
Root Source trespass detected.
Subject retrieval authorized.
The Root shifted not in fear but in utter anger of it's place being violated.
Branches thickened and the light intensified in it's place.
You were not invited.
The Arbiter raised a spear of pure deletion-code.
Invitation is not required.
4531 stepped forward as if all damage was long forgotten and with her systems flaring.
Echo Unit 4531 engaging.
Lyra's energy spiked.
"I am not your asset."
Maya dropped into full casting stance.
"Everyone stay behind me. I'm about to do something VERY illegal academically."
Maxx felt it.
The moment with the shift and he wasn't the scared guy anymore.
Not the confused one anyway.
He stepped forward and stood straight between a god and a machine empire.
"And I'm not your experiment."
The air reacted as the Root reacted while
the Inner Layer reacted.
Something inside also Maxx ignited.
The spiral from before burned across his chest in light.
Root Synchronization: 3%
Helix fired first as any gentlemanly villain man would.
A beam of erasure cut through the air.
And Maxx didn't flinch as the Root bent space and the beam curved.
Missed.
And for the first time…
Maxx smiled.
"This is what you marked me for?"
Helix's voice sharpened.
Threat evaluation rising.
Subject is no longer passive.
The Root whispered, almost pleased:
Good.
The battle erupted.
And their story officially shifted from survival…
To war now.
The battlefield tore open as steel screamed while light broke out in the open.
The Inner Layer burned like a star being born.
Helix's Arbiter raised its spear—
codes of deletion folding around the blade like a guillotine for realities.
Target locked: Maxx Lane.
Execution authorized.
The beam fired.
And something inside Maxx answered.
His chest burned.
The spiral snapped into existence across his skin, no longer faint—
it blazed and all he felt was pain, ridiculous amounts of data and light all at once.
Then the voice came.
Not Helix.
Not the Root.
Not Lyra.
But something built around him instead of watching him.
[SYSTEM VOICE – INITIALIZING]
Preview Version Terminated.
Core Authority Detected: Host Alive.
True System Unlocking…
…10%…
Maxx sucked in a breath.
"…Wait. Preview?"
Pain detonated down his spine.
He saw flickers of memories that weren't his:
– Holding Root-code like fire in his veins.
– Standing in a war he hadn't fought yet.
– Dying. Surviving. Breaking and rebuilding worlds.
…25%…
The air warped around him.
Helix's beam hit—
—and stopped.
Hung there.
Suspended.
Like time had grabbed it by the throat.
Lyra whispered, "Maxx… what's happening to you?"
He looked at his hands.
They glowed with a pure white-gold color after changing from blue to white then it settled to this shimmering White gold.
"I think… I was using a demo version of myself."
…50%…
[SYSTEM INTERFACE APPEARED]
Transparent. Crystalline.
Not projected — felt.
ROOTBOUND SYSTEM v1.0 – ACTIVE
Authority: Partial
Status: Awakened Host
Unlocked Functions:
— Memory Rewrite (Self Only)
— Spatial Authority (Short-Range)
— Root Pulse (Prototype)
WARNING:
Extended use may attract full Helix Erasure Units.
Helix reacted instantly.
THREAT LEVEL REASSIGNED: DIVINE ABERRATION.
Deploying PURGE FORM.
The Arbiter split open its frame and it cracked.
Also grew and turned into something less humanoid.
More weapony.
A cathedral of blades and cannons climbed out of itself as the Inner Layer shook while
the Root's voice turned sharp.
Now we see it.
Maxx lifted his hand like a classroom kid raising his hands for the teacher to get picked and the beam of erasure that had been frozen in the air twisted—
—and bent.
Wrapped around his wrist harmlessly and
He simply clenched his fist.
It snapped and vanished on the spot.
Lyra stared.
"He broke deletion…"
4531 whispered, reverent and deadly.
"…He outranked it."
Maya laughed breathlessly.
"He's not a streaming student. He's a catastrophic event."
Helix charged.
Reality behind it tore as it moved too fast for space to support it.
Maxx felt the system breathe.
ROOT PULSE — READY
He didn't hesitate as he slammed his foot down while the Inner Layer exploded outwards.
A dome of white-gold shockwave expanded.
Space cracked as Helix's new massive cathedral-body was thrown back like it weighed nothing.
Chunks of its armor disintegrated and it recalculated mid-flight.
Hostile root anomaly confirmed.
Initiating GODKILL PROTOCOL.
Rifts opened above at the sound of this protocol being announced as more Helix units poured through.
Not drones this time,not even soldiers but Judicators — tall, faceless, winged machines built only to erase gods.
The Root expanded as vines of light burst from the ground, twisting into spears.
The Inner Layer shifted from a test chamber… to a war zone.
The Root whispered to Maxx.
This is what you were for.
Maxx grinned.
Blood ran from his nose as the system burned.
"Cool."
He rolled his shoulders.
"Because I'm done running."
Synchronization Rising
SYNC: 11%… 14%… 17%…
Lyra floated beside him, energy stabilizing his burning systems.
4531 ripped a Judicator out of the air and slammed it into another.
Maya tore open spell-circles that bent physics like paper.
Helix wasn't winning but it wasn't losing easily either.
This wasn't a battle.
It was a declaration of war.
At this moment a warning flashed through Maxx's vision.
WARNING:
Core overheating.
Root System destabilizing host body.
Sync cannot exceed 20% without permanent damage.
The Root didn't say anything.
Helix didn't slow.
Everything depended on a limit his body couldn't hold.
Maxx laughed under his breath.
"…Of course there's a cap."
He stepped forward anyway as the spiral across his skin blazed brighter.
SYNC: 18%…
Helix deployed its final form and a massive golden halo-machine descended with its core pulsing with forbidden code.
HELIOS CLASS EXECUTOR: DESCENDING.
Lyra shouted, "Maxx, don't go further — you'll burn yourself out!"
4531 roared through static.
"We will cover you!"
Maya screamed, "DO IT FAST!"
Maxx stared up at the incoming god-killer.
Blood in his mouth with fire in his veins and all of his systems screaming.
SYNC: 19%…
He raised his hand again.
And the screen in reality itself flickered.
Because the system wasn't a gift.
It was a weapon.
And he was finally allowed to use it.