The chamber hummed.
Soft at first.
Then deeper… heavier… like the heartbeat of something older than time.
Aze stood frozen as the crystal core before him pulsed with pale blue light. The glow cast shifting patterns across his face.
"…Administrator?" he whispered.
The voice answered immediately, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Yes. The one who wrote the First Directive."
Aze swallowed.
"I didn't write anything. I—I didn't even exist."
The chamber dimmed.
"That is your misconception. You existed before existence."
Aze laughed once. Harsh. Disbelieving.
"Right. Sure. And next you'll tell me I invented pizza."
The voice didn't react to the joke.
"Your power is not part of any world because it predates them. A safety mechanism. A failsafe."
Aze felt his stomach twist.
"A failsafe for what?"
The chamber flickered.
Screens lit up around him—each showing different worlds he recognized. MHA. One Piece. Naruto. DanMachi. And dozens more.
All glitching.
All unstable.
As if something had gone wrong long, long before he ever arrived.
The voice rumbled.
"The multiverse once held order. Then corruption emerged. Reality began to fracture."
Aze frowned.
"And the Redactor was created to… fix that?"
"Yes."
A beat.
"…But the machine misinterpreted your absence as corruption."
Aze's heart skipped.
"My absence?"
"When you vanished."
Aze froze.
"Wait—vanished from where? From here?"
"From your post."
He stepped back slowly.
"I don't remember any of that."
The voice softened, as if almost regretful.
"Your memories were sealed."
Aze blinked.
Twice.
Then laughed again.
"…Sealed? Why would I seal my own memories?"
The chamber shifted.
The crystal core glowed brighter.
Screens around him displayed a countdown timer—already at zero.
Static filled the room.
The voice lowered.
Almost whispering.
"You did not seal your own memories."
"They were stolen."
Aze's blood ran cold.
"By who?"
The voice answered immediately.
"By the thing that corrupted the system."
The screens turned black.
A symbol appeared across all of them.
A twisted spiral.
Aze didn't recognize it.
But something inside him did.
His chest tightened painfully.
He felt dizzy.
The voice echoed, resonance shaking the chamber.
"The Redactor is not the true enemy."
"It is merely malfunctioning."
Aze steadied his breathing.
"Then tell me who the real enemy is."
All the screens flickered again.
The spiral rotated softly.
Slowly.
Wrongly.
A faint whisper filled the air, not from the voice of the Kernel, but something else.
"…Found you."
Aze felt his entire body go numb.
His instincts screamed.
The crystal core pulsed violently.
"Administrator—prepare yourself."
"The Corruptor has breached the Kernel."
Aze clenched his fists.
"Let it come."
The chamber shook.
Walls cracked.
Reality twisted at the edges.
A shadow slipped through the screens, peeling itself into the world like ink spreading in water.
Aze stepped forward.
"I don't know who you are."
His aura ignited—black, silver, and code-like.
"But you stole something from me."
He raised his hand.
"And I'm taking it back."
The shadow laughed.
Long.
Slow.
Horribly familiar.
"…Administrator…"
Aze's eyes widened.
That voice—
He knew that voice—
But he didn't know why.
The shadow lunged.
And the chamber exploded in darkness.
Author's Note
🔥 THE PLOT JUST WENT GOD-TIER.
👁️ Aze wasn't born — he predates the worlds.
💻 He is the original Administrator of the Origin Kernel.
🌀 The Corruptor is the real enemy — and it stole his memories.
⚫ The shadow has appeared… and it KNOWS him.
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