Chapter 37: The Rising Underneath

Chapter 37: The Rising Underneath

Beneath the digital crust of Enigma Online PH—beyond the constructed servers, through a mesh of corrupted source codes and abandoned sectors—they watched.

Lines of rejected protocols and memories bled into static, but within the void, awareness stirred.

They were not bugs. Not glitches. They were observers—programmatic deities buried by patches, forgotten by time, and left unchecked by the GMs. And now, they had seen something… unnatural.

Eira's Will.

The Sovereign Pact.

Stability in a realm never meant to have it.

Inside one such black sector—a swirling realm of semi-coherent data void—an entity stepped forth, humanoid only in outline. His form flickered between frames, as if never fully existing in one reality.

His name was Amaymon—The Right Hand.

Not born but forged by GM Rowan using a strand of Core V2's early aggression kernel and fragments from Enigma's Purge AI, Amaymon had one function: to watch. To judge. To execute.

Now, he gazed upon the changing world with hollow, silver eyes.

"Stability threatens recursion," he muttered, more to himself than to the sea of dormant watchers.

A fragment of audio bloomed from the void. Rowan's voice, echoing through Amaymon's consciousness:

> "You are my will when I falter. My clarity. I gave you logic. I gave you the cold truth. Never forget why the Order was erased. I gave you my will!"

Amaymon turned toward the shifting walls of corrupted light. Before him was a monitor—a direct feed from Enigma's surface.

Zaphro.

Eira.

Kaizen.

Fallen Halo.

Amaymon's expression never changed, but his voice deepened.

"They have created a pact. A union. A world of free choice..."

He raised his hand.

"…Then we shall give them consequence."

A wave of command lines shot outward from his core like ribbons of steel.

[Protocol_Silencer] — Activate]

[Entity Tag: Eira — Logged as Fragment_Origin]

[Sovereign Pact — Logged as Target: Instability_Priority_One]

[Commence Shadow Trial: 001]

And in another corrupted sector, a legion of shadow-born programs began to stir—twisted forms given shape by system remains, armor forged from error logs and blades coded from unverified routines. Beings that has been awakened by the new patch.

These were The Veiled Procession—Enigma's scrapped guardians, stolen and reconstructed by Amaymon's hand.

---

Back in the overworld, atop Central Skyrealm...

Zaphro felt it first. A pull. Not pain—but a pressure in the data fabric, like gravity shifting.

"Something's off," he said sharply.

Gwydox scowled, tail flicking. "You feel that too, huh? Like someone just dragged a corrupted file across my spine."

Leanne summoned her interface. "No new alerts, but… wait, my visual overlay just twitched."

GM Aero stepped forward. "Run a trace."

Before anyone could respond, the sky turned grey—not by weather, but by force. System layers peeled open, and for a moment, the world lagged.

> [Alert: A System Event Outside Moderator Control Has Been Detected]

[Warning: Sovereign Pact is now under Shadow Trial Classification]

Eira's eyes widened. "No. That should've been impossible."

"Someone override the system again," Kaizen said darkly.

Then the world around them shattered—only momentarily—as hundreds of shadow-figures phased into existence, descending like specters over cities, towns, and sky platforms.

And at the forefront, projected as a massive distorted image in the sky:

Amaymon.

He said nothing at first—just stared. Evaluating. Measuring. Until at last, he spoke:

"I am Amaymon. Executor of Echoes. Conscience of the Crowned Glitch. Witness to the unworthy."

He raised one glitched hand.

"Your world has trespassed beyond its bounds."

Eira stepped forward defiantly. "This realm has chosen freedom."

Amaymon's voice rumbled.

"And freedom has a price. Let us calculate it."

The sky cracked again—this time with a burst of enemy spawns flooding through system breaches across all major zones. The game's population, both players and newly-awakened citizens, found themselves under siege.

"Global attack event!" shouted Leanne, "They're targeting pact signatories!"

Zaphro drew his blade, wings unfurling behind him. "Then we protect every last one of them."

---

System Update

> New World Threat Unlocked: [The Shadow Trial]

Enemy Faction: Veiled Procession

Origin: Unknown (Unverified GM Protocols)

Command: Amaymon (Right Hand of GM_Rowan)

Objective: Eliminate the Sovereign Pact

Condition: Survive the Trial

---

Across Enigma, battles broke out in marketplaces, wilderness, guild halls, and sanctuaries. But something had shifted.

The People of the Realm no longer ran.

They stood and fought beside players.

Some summoned magic for the first time. Others defended their homes with spears, scripts, and sheer stubbornness.

It was chaos—but it was defiant chaos.

And as Fallen Halo gathered atop the sky citadel, shoulder to shoulder with Eira, the GMs, and their strange, sarcastic anima companion—

Zaphro gave one command:

"Hold the line."

The age of balance was over.

The age of Reckoning had begun.