Signal Bleed

The shaft was quiet.

Too quiet.

Even with the Core Reaper temporarily blocked, Kairo couldn't shake the feeling that something was still bleeding through the cracks of reality.

He tightened his grip on the spiral sigil Astra had given him.

Every few seconds, it buzzed — almost like a heartbeat — warning him.

It's not over.

They moved through the maintenance shaft in near-silence.

Astra checked her drift-map every few steps, adjusting their route through ghost corridors and dead echo veins.

Kairo watched her work.

She moved like someone who had spent years running from things that couldn't be outrun.

After twenty minutes, they reached a branching hallway.

Old signage flickered overhead:

> L17-Ω: Maintenance / Drift Service / Memory Purge

Most of the letters were corrupted, half-missing or bleeding into one another.

Kairo frowned.

"Memory Purge?"

Astra nodded grimly.

"Where the Core dumps unstable echoes before full collapse."

He shivered.

"Sounds... safe."

She didn't laugh.

As they moved through the corridor, Kairo noticed something.

The walls were wrong.

Not just decaying — moving.

Pulsing.

Like veins.

Static bled along the floor.

Lights buzzed overhead in broken Morse code patterns.

The closer they got to the Purge sector, the more the world itself seemed to be forgetting how to exist.

Astra stopped suddenly.

Kairo nearly bumped into her.

"Look," she whispered.

He followed her gaze.

At the far end of the hall —

a distortion.

At first it looked like just heat haze.

Then glitching frames.

Then shadows pulling themselves apart and reforming, endlessly.

In the center of the distortion:

A hand.

Long. Wrong.

Flickering in and out of the wall.

Searching.

Tapping.

Reaching.

"It's bleeding," Astra said softly.

Kairo's stomach dropped.

"You mean the Reaper?"

She nodded.

"It's leaking its overwrite field into the Layer." "If it can't find us, it'll just corrupt everything until we have nowhere left to run."

A low vibration ran through the floor beneath them.

Not footsteps.

A signal.

Kairo stepped back instinctively.

"But... we sealed the door."

Astra glanced at her spiral sigil — now vibrating constantly.

"You can seal walls." "You can't seal memory."

She pulled a cracked scanner from her jacket.

The readout glitched so badly it was almost unreadable — but the core info was clear:

[SIGNAL BLEED: ACTIVE]

[STABILITY LOSS: 48%]

Nearly half this section of Layer-17 was now unstable.

Kairo felt it in his bones.

The walls rippled.

Gravity tilted slightly sideways.

Time stuttered — just for half a heartbeat — and when it corrected, he was a full step ahead without having moved.

Layer drift collapse.

He grabbed Astra's shoulder.

"What do we do?"

She stared into the glitch field ahead.

Then said something he didn't expect:

"We don't run anymore."

He blinked.

"What?"

She turned — pulling two drift knives from her belt.

Small. Curved. Pulsing with low-frequency resonance.

"If we keep running, the Reaper will consume Layer-17 entirely." "It won't just overwrite you." "It'll erase everyone still alive in this Layer."

The words hit him like a fist.

Everyone?

The forgotten citizens. The ones still clinging to ruined echoes. The ones who never asked for this war.

"But I'm not strong enough," Kairo said, voice low.

Astra smiled sadly.

"You don't have to be strong." "You just have to remember."

She tossed him one of the knives.

He caught it awkwardly.

The handle vibrated against his palm — tuned perfectly to his resonance signature.

It felt like it belonged.

Kairo looked at the distortion field again.

At the searching hand.

At the glitch bleeding reality apart.

At the impossible enemy waiting for him.

And for the first time…

He realized something.

It wasn't just about surviving anymore.

It was about refusing to be overwritten.

Even if he failed.

Even if he forgot.

Even if he died.

Kairo stood straighter.

Gripped the drift knife tighter.

Nodded once.

"Let's break their signal."

Astra's smile widened — real and fierce this time.

"Good."

She raised her blade.

The glitch field flickered — sensing their resistance.

The Reaper's full body began phasing into view.

And Kairo?

For the first time…

He stepped forward.