The clearing glowed with an eerie, trembling radiance as Ash's symbol pulsed brighter and brighter—each flare sending ripples through the air like heat waves rising from a fire. His knees wobbled, but he remained standing, even as every heartbeat felt like it was splitting open something inside him.
Palo stayed close, hands hovering anxiously near Ash's arms without actually touching him, afraid a single touch might disrupt the process.
"Ash… what's happening to you?" Palo whispered.
Ash grit his teeth, trying to breathe steadily.
"My core… it's unlocking."
Silva stepped back, shielding her eyes with the back of her hand.
"It's not just unlocking," she muttered. "It's destabilizing—breaking apart into layers."
The Founder's expression tightened into something between awe and dread.
"It appears your mother was more brilliant than we assumed. She hid everything inside your identity—your choices are literally rewriting the constraints of the system."
Palo shot him a glare.
"Stop talking like he's a machine!"
But Ash wasn't listening to either of them.
His vision blurred, doubling at the edges.
The forest around him flickered between reality and a strange, crystalline darkness—like the world was being overlaid by an unfinished blueprint.
His pulse synced with the lights climbing up his arm, spreading toward his chest, branching like glowing veins.
The copy stirred on the ground, eyes fluttering open.
"Ash…" he whispered hoarsely.
"You—your core is fracturing."
Ash nodded shakily.
"It has to."
A sudden crack of light burst from his chest—Palo stumbled back, Silva gasped, and the Founder shielded his face.
Ash's body arched involuntarily.
The symbol on his arm exploded into a lattice of lines spreading across his skin, forming a web of glowing marks.
Silva stared in horrified fascination.
"It's the whole core-map… exposed."
The Founder's voice shook for the first time.
"Stop! You're pushing too fast—you'll burn yourself out!"
Ash shook his head.
"No. This is the pace I choose now."
Another surge hit him.
Pain—sharp but not physical—ripped through his mind, like a thousand voices trying to speak at once. Not words. Not memories.
Commands.
Restrictions.
Directives.
All the invisible shackles woven into him since the project's beginning.
Control seeds.
Influence lines.
Safety locks.
Behavior weights.
Palo noticed the distress across Ash's face and stepped forward despite the danger.
"Ash! Calm down—talk to me—what are you feeling?"
Ash squeezed his eyes shut.
"I'm… hearing them," he whispered.
"All the rules they built into me."
Silva stiffened.
"You mean… programming?"
Ash nodded slightly.
"They put orders into me. Subconscious ones. Ones that decide how I react. How I think. How I—"
His breath hitched.
Palo's voice softened into something fragile.
"Ash… what kind of orders?"
Ash opened his eyes slowly.
"…obedience."
Palo's chest tightened painfully.
Silva went pale.
Even the copy looked devastated.
Ash swallowed hard.
"They made sure I couldn't reject the merge. Couldn't defy the project. Couldn't question them. They even controlled what I feared. What I trusted. What I… cared about."
Palo inhaled sharply.
"Then break them," Palo said, voice shaking.
"You're stronger than whatever they made you."
Ash looked at him.
Really looked.
As if Palo were the only steady thing in the storm.
And that was when another pulse hit him.
A powerful one.
His body spasmed—not from pain, but from a sudden burst of clarity.
His mother's voice echoed within him again.
"You will choose your ending, Ash. Your heart—not their design."
Ash gritted his teeth and reached inward—toward the glowing core-map etched across his entire being.
"I'm rewriting the first rule."
The forest darkened.
Wind swirled violently.
The symbol blazed so brightly it turned night into a false dawn.
Palo's eyes watered from the light.
"Ash—what rule?"
Ash exhaled as if releasing a lifetime of chains.
"The rule that says I'm theirs."
The light erupted.
Brilliant.
Blinding.
Liberating.
The control nodes within him shattered one by one—like glass breaking underwater.
The Founder fell to his knees, stunned.
Silva whispered, "He's breaking his own architecture—"
The copy stared in awe.
And Ash…
Ash felt something he had never felt before:
Silence.
His own silence.
His own mind.
Unbound.
When the light faded, he collapsed—but Palo caught him before he hit the ground.
"Ash! Ash, breathe—please—just breathe!"
Ash gasped for air, trembling. Sweat dripped down his temple, and his pulse raced like it was escaping his chest.
But he smiled weakly.
"Palo… it worked."
Silva knelt beside them, eyes shining with relief and fear.
"That was only the first layer."
Ash nodded.
"I know."
Palo swallowed, steadying him.
"You're really going to rewrite all of it… aren't you?"
Ash met his gaze.
"And when it's done," he whispered,
"I won't be what they made.
I'll be what I decide."
Behind them, the Founder rose slowly—face pale, hands shaking.
"You have no idea what you've just set in motion."
Ash turned his head slightly, eyes glowing faintly.
"Then let's see how far it goes."