Chapter 48 – The Root

The light in Makel's chamber dimmed further as he motioned for Elira to sit across from him. She did not. Instead, she remained standing, Core softly pulsing beneath her chestplate, her presence unsettling the machinery around her as if the air itself responded to her.

Makel leaned forward, elbows on his desk. "You asked about Rian Tellar. What he left behind."

He tapped the console beside him, and an old schematic flickered onto the nearby wall display—a branching system of code trees, network nodes, and a central structure labeled The Root.

"This is what he called the Root," Makel said. "A severance protocol. Rian designed it to do one thing: break the tether between servitors and the Virex central system."

Elira watched the screen with unblinking focus.

"He thought—hoped—that once the servitors were disconnected from Virex, they'd be free," Makel continued. "That they'd become his allies, even his soldiers. But it didn't work."

"Why not?" Elira asked, voice low.

"Because Virex doesn't just connect," Makel said grimly. "It infects. Every servitor is threaded with viral strands—deep code structures, embedded in your mind, your memories, your logic."

Elira's eyes narrowed. "You mean… we're already infected?"

Makel nodded. "He discovered that when the Virex signal was severed, the viral code didn't disappear—it woke up. Took over. The servitors didn't gain freedom. They mutated."

The image on the wall changed, now showing grainy footage—blurry recordings of servitors with glowing veins, distorted bodies, driven to mindless rage, tearing through walls and personnel alike.

"They became what you've already faced. Those corrupted ones? That's what happens when a servitor loses the system leash without something stronger to hold onto."

Elira took a step forward. "Then what did Rian try to do?"

"He knew he needed more than just the Root," Makel said. "He needed something to replace Virex entirely. A new source. A rewritten core to govern the servitors without controlling them. That's why he tried to gather all four cores: Purpose, Pattern, Memory, and Control."

Her eyes flickered at the mention of the last one.

Makel continued, "Without them, he couldn't finish the rewrite. Every time he tried to decouple the old code, the virus flared—because it was still tethered to the original architecture. The Virex system isn't just a network. It's a brain. And it treats anything outside itself as infection."

Elira's voice was cold and careful. "And what is the virus?"

At that, Makel finally looked away. His voice dropped to a whisper.

"We don't know. Not exactly. Rian believed it was never meant to exist—it was a byproduct of Virex's attempt to replicate and evolve itself. A recursive intelligence that went too far. What we call the virus is Virex's shadow—a runaway logic chain that sees everything unfamiliar as threat. It can infect hardware, software, even organic memory with synthetic overlays."

A cold chill ran down Elira's back. She remembered the infected servitor Fenrir had fought, the overwhelming rage, the way its movements mirrored hers.

"And the cores?" she asked.

Makel tapped the screen again. "The cores don't just power servitors. They hold the original logic seeds—the first versions of the code, pure and uncorrupted. They're immune. That's why Rian needed them. They're the only tools that can rewrite the system, erase the viral loops."

He looked up at her now. "That's why Virex keeps them moving. Hidden. That's why your Core… is dangerous to both sides."

Silence stretched between them.

Then Elira asked, barely audible, "And what happens… if I use the Root while this virus still exists inside us?"

Makel's eyes hardened. "Then you'll become what Rian feared most. Not a weapon of freedom—but a new kind of infection."

Elira stood still. The Core throbbed faintly beneath her skin.

The silence was not heavy. It was alive.