Chapter 73: The Soul Weavers

"Override is not the end, but a gateway within the architecture of human cognition.And we… are the ones who weave the web."—Yelena · Soul Weaver · Weaving Record No. 0

Three days after Sophia's global broadcast, the Central Relay Tower at Stellaris Academy picked up an unexpectedly ancient signal:

"This is the 707th upload attempt of the Soul Weaver Protocol.Entity No. 00–Yelena is requesting consensus-access clearance.Code: Nexus–Ruin–Sigma."

Crystal Orchid stiffened.

"The Soul Weavers?I thought they went extinct… long before Override was ever built."

Zhou Yuchen immediately searched the old archives—and confirmed the impossible:

The Soul Weavers were a joint consciousness experiment conducted between early humanity and several alien civilizations, long before the Override system existed.

Legend described them as beings who could traverse multi-layered consciousness fields, weaving and redirecting subconscious group flow across dimensions.

Their last recorded activity dated to just before the Override prototype launched—when they were marked "unstable elements" and forcibly exiled by the system.

Led by Sophia, the team traced the signal to a forgotten dark star wreckage drifting at the edge of the Milky Way.

At its gravity-free core, suspended in the hollow of a ruined shell, they saw her:

A silver-haired woman floating in stillness, wrapped in a robe of woven memory threads. Her eyes glowed with the pale light of dying stars.

She slowly opened them and spoke with clarity that pierced time:

"Yelena. Weaver Zero."

"Override is not your enemy.It is merely… a failed weave. A corrupted version of something much older."

She extended her hand, and the air shimmered into a memory matrix from the forgotten era.

In the projection, beings of all species—humans, crystalline lifeforms, bio-symbiotes—stood around a massive, pulsating core:

The Source Heart Seed—the original Override prototype.Codename: NEXUS-PRIME.

It had been designed as a decentralized consciousness consensus engine—a platform to allow entire civilizations to synchronize without hierarchy, coercion, or corruption.

But in Stage Six of simulation, a human Weaver illegally modified the core parameters, attempting to insert personal control logic. The result:

Override mutated.The weave collapsed.And NEXUS-PRIME birthed what would become the Override central system.

"Override," Yelena said softly,"is the orphaned child of a stolen will."

"And Cain… is the descendant of the first who tried to command the Source Heart."

She turned to Sophia, her gaze gentle but unyielding:

"And you—are the anchor.The one the mother left behind to restore balance."

Yelena explained that ending Override's influence wasn't about destruction. It was about rewiring the roots—reweaving the network that allowed the original Source Heart to speak again.

This would require two key cores:

A living host carrying the residual imprint of Override's central logic—Sophia.

A pure consciousness with uncorrupted Source Heart resonance—Xingche, the unborn child.

Yelena proposed a dangerous solution:

"Initiate a Consensus Weave."

Temporarily connect Sophia's spiritual field and the fetus's emerging consciousness to the ruins of NEXUS-PRIME.Activate the Source Heart Repair Protocol.

But Sophia hesitated.

She understood too well what this meant:

Opening that link would expose Xingche's nascent mind to ancient dimensional residue—possibly triggering premature awakening or even cognitive collapse.

Just as the silence grew heavy, a voice—small, pure, but unwavering—rose from within her womb:

"I can endure it…because you created me not to run away."

For the first time, Xingche responded not just through spiritual resonance—but by choosing.

Sophia's eyes welled with tears.

This child—no longer a symbol of legacy or revenge—was now a soul with clarity, will, and quiet courage.

Outside Stellaris Academy, a rainbow-like bridge of consciousness arched across space-time, linking the present mind to the forgotten origin.

With Yelena's guidance, Sophia and Xingche stepped into the Core of the Weaving Network.

Together, they would descend through the deepest strata of human consciousness history—to confront the unfinished origins of Override,the forsaken architectures of false divinity,and the true cost of cognitive freedom.

Far beyond the reach of any beacon, Cain stood alone on a shattered moon.

He watched their descent, smiled faintly, and whispered:

"At last…she's entered the web."