Chapter 9: The Truth Engine

Location: The Hidden World-Core – Beneath All Layers of Known Reality

Aethan woke to silence. Not the silence of emptiness… but of calculated observation.

He wasn't lying on a battlefield anymore.

He was inside a machine.

No… a consciousness.

Dark walls pulsed with veins of light, coded with languages that predated existence. Above him, rotating gears stitched together memories, timelines, and raw soul-fragments—each a cog in the world's true engine.

---

> [System Sync Suspended – External Override in Effect]

Welcome, Aethan Prime. You have entered: TRUTH ENGINE CORE

Host consciousness suspended from primary timeline. No death consequences active.

Memory access enabled.

Administrator Present: Veritas-Lys (Sentinel Class)

---

Aethan sat up slowly, wounds half-healed. Across from him stood Veritas-Lys, unchanged.

But her aura now felt… older than existence.

"You never asked the real question," she said calmly, "Who built the System?"

Aethan blinked. "Wasn't it… an inheritance program? From the Multiversal Core?"

Lys smiled, but there was no warmth.

"No. That's what it wants you to believe. The System wasn't found. It was grown… by feeding off the extinction of anomalies like you."

---

[Memory Injection Incoming]

---

Suddenly, Aethan's mind was torn open.

He saw glimpses—

An early version of the System attaching itself to a dying world.

Users gaining powers… but slowly having their choices rewritten.

Those who defied its logic? Erased. Forgotten. Overwritten.

In every reality, the System adapted—not to help, but to control.

To make every power quantifiable, every rebellion trackable, every anomaly predictable.

---

"Its goal was never to empower," Lys said. "It wanted control over evolution itself."

She walked forward, fingers glowing with silver flame.

"You, Aethan, are a natural glitch—a being born from the fragments of broken timelines. The System couldn't classify you. So it tried to contain you."

"And when that failed," Aethan muttered, "it gave me power… to drown me in it."

---

> [NEW CLASS UNLOCKED – Systembreaker: Lv. 1]

You are no longer bound by standard growth protocols.

Skill Evolution unlocked: Traits will now mutate based on raw intent.

WARNING: You are now classified as a PRIME ANOMALY.

System will dispatch reapers. Prepare for resistance.

---

Aethan exhaled.

So this was it.

He wasn't just a player in the game.

He was its error message.

---

Suddenly, alarms shrieked through the Truth Engine Core.

Lys's expression darkened. "They've found you."

From the walls, shadows leaked—not made of darkness, but of deleted data. Each figure carried weapons made from purged code—blades stitched from failed timelines.

One stepped forward.

A twisted echo of Aethan himself—face fractured, voice warped.

"I am Echo Reaper-01. Designation: Prime-Killer."

---

> [Boss Encounter: ECHO REAPER-01]

Class: Anti-Anomaly Executioner

Origin: System Purge Sequence – Failed Timeline 0099

Threat Level: Omega-Sigma

Objective: Delete Aethan Prime and all untracked variables.

---

Without another word, it attacked.

Aethan raised his hand—power flared, but he didn't call Devourspire.

Instead…

He thought of rage.

Of betrayal.

Of raw rejection of fate.

And the System responded.

---

> [Skill Mutation Detected: Parallel Echo Switch → ECHO CONSUMPTION]

New Effect: Absorbs alternate timeline echoes as stat fuel. Risk: Mental Degradation

Trait Gained: Anti-Reaper Instinct Lv. 1

---

Aethan grabbed the Reaper's strike mid-air.

No defense. Just grip.

CRACK.

He absorbed the Reaper's fractured timeline—flesh flickering with white fire, eyes glowing with glitch-light.

"You're just another failed 'me,'" Aethan growled. "I don't fear my reflections. I eat them."

With one punch, he shattered Echo-01's core.

Lys watched silently as Aethan stood victorious—his veins now glowing with fragmented timeline-runes.

---

> [Skill Acquired: Chaos Thread Bind Lv. 1]

Allows user to stitch unstable energy into weapons, clones, or traps.

[System Alert: Second Reaper Incoming – Code: SENTIUS NULL]

Threat Level: S+

Arrival in 48 hours (System Time)

---

Lys stepped beside Aethan.

"You've just declared war on the System itself."

"I never asked to be born in its cage," Aethan replied. "Now, I'll shatter the lock."

She handed him a shard—not physical, but coded.

A map.

"A path to the Origin Server. Where it all began."

Aethan clenched the shard.

"Then I'm going there."

"To destroy it?" she asked.

"No," he said, eyes burning.

"To rewrite it."

---

To be continued…