Chapter 32: Heart of the Glitch:

Chapter 32: Heart of the Glitch: Tournament Arc: Twilight Directive — Phase III

"Narration"

The passage into Vault Residual 8x was nothing like the ruined temples or open arenas they'd encountered before. This one was buried beneath a mountain of corrupted data—twisted code veins pulsing like a decaying heartbeat, flickering with static glitches and hostile packets.

"Creepy-ass cave," muttered Gwydox, floating above the ground with his signature scowl and twitching ears. "Feels like something's watching us... and it ain't your normal dungeon boss."

Leanne, the light-magic Anima bard, nudged him with a smirk. "Still scared of the dark, grumpy cat?"

"Scared of how annoying your voice is mama," Gwydox snapped back, his body flicking as he scanned the glitch-warped terrain. "Let's move."

The party pressed on.

Leading them was Zaphro, wings folded in, his senses locked to the currents of unstable data. Accel walked beside him, dark spell cards humming with the same frequency. Both of them—Fallen Angel class—had long since stabilized the chaotic signature of the original CHAOS_CORE_V1. It pulsed within them like a tamed beast, no longer corrupting, but warning them of its evolution.

And at the rear of the party, a quiet figure walked with calm grace.

Eira.

Once the Prophet of the Crimson Order, she now stood as an unlikely ally. Her white-crimson robes were faded, her sigils dulled, but her eyes burned with conviction.

"I was the voice of the old code," she murmured. "I spoke in the tongue of the forbidden AIs. But Rowan… he rewrote the hymn. And the new version is twisted."

Shion glanced back. "You sure you're okay being here? Vault 8x isn't exactly a reunion party."

"I must be," Eira replied. "Rowan used the Prophet protocol I left behind. If the CHAOS_CORE_V2 is active, I'm your best chance at decoding it before it spreads."

Ayana leaned on her staff. "Well, you're with us now. Fallen Halo doesn't leave its allies behind."

"Agreed," said Aryus, adjusting his Holy Knight armor. "Whatever remnants of the Crimson Order are down here… they won't stand against us."

They reached the first chamber.

SYSTEM PROMPT:

> [Vault Residual 8x – Outer Layer: GLITCHED SANCTUM] Infiltration Status: Breach Level 1 Enemies Detected: Phantom Scripts x12, Obsolete Echoes x4

Without hesitation, combat broke out. AR0012's sniper shots cracked the air, downing two Phantom Scripts mid-pulse. Slicer dove into melee, blades flaring with mirror-edge counters. Verillion and Erenir combo'd fire and wind spells to flush enemies from cover, while Erik soaked the floor with chilled mist, slowing the Echoes.

Ayana summoned her twin summon pisces, who screeched and unleashed radiant beams across the enemy formations. Jin charged ahead, clashing with glitch-fused AI constructs while Shion reconfigured his armor into a glaive mode, parrying incoming data slashes.

Accel and Zaphro moved in sync.

"Wing Zero," Zaphro muttered, fading into the shadows of a broken firewall.

"Wing Eclipse," Accel replied, phasing behind a Phantom Script and deleting it with a blink-strike.

Gwydox unleashed a pulse of corrupted code from his palm, sending it spiraling through a collapsing corridor. "I swear these things multiply the longer you look at 'em!"

"They do," Eira confirmed, casting a nullwave through the floor. "Residual code—leftovers from the original vault seeding. Rowan's mutation cycle is accelerating."

Then came the first quake.

The entire floor trembled, followed by a deep, modulated laugh echoing through the dungeon's inner sanctum.

> "Ah… the surviving fragments. My favorite pests."

A figure emerged in the corrupted reflection of a broken system mirror.

Rogue GM Rowan.

He wore the old admin uniform overlaid with fractured data plating. His eyes burned with red admin authority markers, yet his voice carried none of the balance GMs were known for. Instead, it dripped with sarcasm and venom.

"Fallen Halo," he said mockingly. "Still playing knight in a broken world? And you brought my discarded Prophet. Cute."

"Rowan," Kaizen's voice came through system chat. Then he materialized alongside Aero and Akil, the three remaining GMs manifesting in the vault with emergency override authority.

"You're out of time," Aero said, glaive spinning.

Rowan grinned. "Out of time? No, friends. I'm just ahead of yours."

He lifted his hand.

> [CHAOS_CORE_V2 – Prototype Host Detected] Activating Residual Rebirth Cycle… Critical Data Zone Lockdown Initiated

The vault warped.

The walls twisted into pulsating code-rings. The ground beneath them shattered, revealing an abyss of red glitches and falling system variables. Everyone—players and GMs—was thrown into defensive formations.

Eira screamed as her body flickered. "He's accessing the old Crimson Order nexus! That data's supposed to be locked!"

Kaizen threw up a shield protocol. "He's rewriting zone permissions. Everyone stay linked or the system will separate us!"

Leanne shouted a warding chant, anchoring several party members in a stabilizing ring of light. "Gwydox! Help me recompile the floor layer!"

Gwydox snarled. "Tch. You better owe me for this one mama." He placed his hands into the glitching platform and surged stabilizing anima code through it, buying time for the rest to regroup.

Rowan hovered over the chaos, voice echoing like thunder.

"The CHAOS_CORE_V1 was a mere accident. A shadow. But I've evolved it. I've fed it every broken law, every rejected AI, every banned packet from beta cycles. And now…"

His body convulsed. The data plating around him exploded outward.

> [CHAOS_CORE_V2 – FULL HOST SYNCED]