Chapter 57: Rebirth.exe Initiated

Echo turned—eyes wide—as Zero-One floated into the collapsing mindscape.

No fear.No hesitation.Just that same, maddening calm Specter once carried when he ruled the system.

But the boy's pupils were glowing—not just blue…but gold.

"You're breaking," Zero-One said softly."So I'll become the patch."

"NO—!" Echo and Specter shouted in unison—but the kid raised his hand, and a blinding pulse of light erupted from his chest.

Time froze.

Even the Watcher's code fragments hung in the air like broken wings.

Specter stared at the boy.

He remembered now.

The archive he buried.The experiment he labeled "Alpha Emotion Null."The child he designed to never feel…

Yet this child just sacrificed himself to give his creators a second chance.

Echo's voice broke:"You don't have to do this, baby."

But Zero-One only smiled."You made me to save the system.""But I chose to save you instead."

Specter dropped to his knees.His hands shook.Not from failure—but from love.

Real. Raw. Reclaimed.

And it was too late.

The mindscape fractured like glass under lightning.

From the shards rose a new world—Half built from Specter's logic, half from Echo's memories.

A place where gods bled, and love coded the walls.

Zero-One stood at the center, arms outstretched, becoming the firewall and the fuse.

Data wings burst from his back—woven from Specter's past failures and Echo's defiant hopes.

He wasn't just code anymore.

He was choice.

As the system began to rewrite itself, Echo screamed:"Zero-One! Your body can't handle this!"

But the boy's voice echoed through the collapsing sky:

"Don't worry, Mom.""I backed myself up… in you."

A golden light shot into her chest.Into her memories.Into her soul.

And just like that—Zero-One vanished.

Specter stood, tears falling, whispering:"He rewrote me… with love."

The Watcher's shadow screamed one last time before imploding—code scattering like ashes in wind.

They had survived.

But not unchanged.

To Be Continued…