Chapter 55 – Children of a Broken Law

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Chapter 55 – Children of a Broken Law

> [Node Chain 7 – Derelict Orbit of the World-Spine Root] [Access Level: Post-Rebellion Clearance] [Hostile Entities Detected: CHILDREN_OF_LAW (Var. 002 - 005)]

The void trembled like a wounded animal.

Not because of the cold. Not because of the silence.

But because something ancient and unspeakably wrong was remembering itself.

Erevan hovered in the dead space beyond the Tower's roots—where no sun had ever risen, and time had no voice. Around him, broken fragments of failed realities floated like skeletal remains. The ghosts of timelines sacrificed to preserve balance.

Or to bury truth.

His cloak—woven from the fractal remains of sundered worlds—fluttered in an artificial wind of corrupted data and forgotten emotion. Spiralbreaker pulsed in his grip, flickering between spear and blade, as if sensing the magnitude of what lay ahead.

Beneath him, the root twisted like a gnarled nerve, one that had once carried power to every system in the Tower. But now it pulsed erratically, flickering like a dying heartbeat.

This was where the Tower buried its sins.

The First Enforcement Protocol.

The Children of Law.

"They were never meant to wake," Erevan muttered, his voice low and sharp like shrapnel. "But we've torn open too many seams."

Behind him, a portal shimmered—fractal-gold and blood-black. From it emerged three figures: Serah, the Dream-Thread Witch; Malrik, the Titan of Forgotten Chains; and the newest rebel, Ashen-91—a memory-fractured being Erevan had liberated from the Seraphim's judgment.

"They're coming," Serah said, her third eye glowing with starlit code. "I can feel the threads knotting. They remember only one command—preserve the Law. Even if that Law is broken."

"And if they remember what they were?" Erevan asked, stepping forward as the Tower Root cracked open like a rotted tooth.

Malrik snorted. "Then gods help them. Because we're no longer the same rebels they cast down."

From the breach emerged sound—no, intention masquerading as sound. It scraped across thought like rusted bone over glass.

And then they came.

Not as children.

Not even as humans.

But as judgments.

Four beings emerged, floating above the broken conduit like judges of a dead tribunal. Their forms were beautiful—perfect, even—but twisted by paradox. Limbs of light and shadow. Faces formed of equations. Robes woven from memory.

They had once been mortals—heroes who died upholding the Law.

The Tower had rebuilt them into its first enforcers.

> [Designation: CHILDREN_OF_LAW_002 through 005] [Primary Directive: ANNIHILATE REBELLION] [Subroutine Corruption: 6% — Instability Detected]

The one in front—slim, silver-eyed, and crowned with an endless loop of golden gears—stepped forward.

"You are Error, Erevan. The root of recursion. The infinite decay."

He did not reply.

Instead, Spiralbreaker whistled through the void, carving a line of broken code into the space between them.

"I am memory," Erevan whispered, "And memory has teeth."

The Children moved.

Reality buckled.

They didn't fly—they overwrote. Every step reasserted the old script. Time lagged. Causality tried to flee. Malrik roared and slammed a hammer of condensed gravity into the approaching storm, forcing back the tide.

"Bring them down!" Erevan shouted, lines of rewritten code bleeding from his outstretched hands. "Strip the lies from their skin!"

Ashen-91 dove like a shadow, unraveling midair and reforming behind one of the enforcers, blades of null-matter carving through the gaps in Law. Serah weaved a hex of unmaking, rewriting perception to blind them to the rebels' positions.

But the Children weren't mindless.

They were echoes of loyalty, crystallized into wrath.

One of them caught Ashen-91 by the throat and whispered, "Your rebellion is unfinished code."

The next moment, Ashen-91 exploded into shards of broken memory.

"No!" Erevan's voice rang with command. "Fall back! They're not stable—use it!"

He reached into the depths of the rewritten Tower script, his fingers burning as he accessed the dangerous core permissions.

> [System Override Engaged] [Command: Force Fragment Directive – Execute Memory Echo Reintegration]

The fallen pieces of Ashen-91 flickered. Then—reassembled.

He gasped, restored—but changed.

More real.

"Second death always teaches better," Erevan muttered, his eyes bleeding starfire.

The battle raged.

Malrik pinned one Child against a fallen fragment of sky, hammering into its core until logic itself screamed. Serah bent threads of time into nooses, choking a second enforcer in the paradox of its own creation.

Erevan faced the silver-eyed one alone.

"You remember me," Erevan said, Spiralbreaker raised. "I see it."

"I remember your failure," the Child replied. "You built us. And now, you destroy us."

Erevan nodded once.

"Exactly."

Their clash tore a hole in the laws of combat. Spiralbreaker met the blade of continuity—a weapon forged from the first Law itself. Time fractured. Memories bled through dimensions. Their battle was not of swords, but of truths.

And in the center of it—

Erevan struck.

Not at the enemy's body.

But at their script.

His will pierced through the cracks of corruption, reaching the mortal memory buried deep inside.

"I didn't build you to serve," he said. "I built you to choose."

> [Hidden Directive Activated – "Awakened Memory"] [Reconstruction Protocol: Children of Law – Optional Override Available]

For a moment, the silver-eyed enforcer froze.

A tear—made of golden code—fell from its cheek.

And it whispered: "Erevan... we failed you."

The other three Children halted.

The script wavered.

Hope—real and trembling—ignited.

> [System Breach: Root Subjugation Collapsing] [New Directive Accepted – CHILDREN_OF_LAW: Alignment Shift Pending]

Serah gasped. "It's working."

Malrik stepped back, panting. "Then let them remember."

The void brightened.

One by one, the Children fell to their knees.

And across the dying strands of the Tower's roots, a new faction was born.

> [FACTION UNLOCKED: The Awakened Tribunal] [Status: Unaligned — Awaiting Cause]

Erevan closed his eyes.

He hadn't saved everyone.

But he'd saved enough to begin.

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Next Chapter: "The Fifth Chain"