The Broken Wheel spun again — but not with the raw chaos of Calvarix or the haunting dread of Quiel.
This time, it turned silently.
No creaking bones.
No sparks.
Just motion… relentless, surgical.
And in that silence, the Field warped again.
The forest of dead trees peeled away, like layers of rotted paper. The ground beneath the players dissolved into a field of black ash, smooth and endless, stretching into the abyss.
Above them: the sky cracked in a perfect ring, like a halo fractured from a god's head.
And from the ring descended a star.
Not a sun — but something colder. Something fake.
It gave off no light. Only pressure.
It spun, slow and precise, and from it dangled wires — thousands of them, suspended like a marionette's strings.
> GOD ENCOUNTER: NULLEYA, THE HOLLOW STAR.
RULE: "ALL THAT IS TRUE MUST BE ERASED."
The players stood frozen as the ash beneath them hissed, vibrating with microscopic static.
A message blinked in their vision:
> YOU HAVE ENTERED NULL SPACE. ALL DATA SUBJECT TO REDACTION.
---
The Battle Begins
The first to speak was Quentin.
"This one… feels wrong. It's not watching us. It's... overwriting us."
Before he could say more, a wire shot down from above and impaled his neck.
His mouth opened — but no sound came.
> PLAYER REDACTED. 12 REMAIN.
Quentin's name vanished from their HUDs. His face flickered, memories of him sliding from their minds like oil from water.
Brant gritted his teeth. "We can't even remember him...!"
Saylor felt something cold press against his mind. Like an editor with a red pen scratching at his thoughts.
The Hollow Star pulsed once — and another wire struck down toward Veyra.
She dodged, barely, slicing the thread with a projected vision-blade.
"It's targeting memories. Not just bodies."
Lucia clenched her fists. "Then we take it down before we forget ourselves."
Saylor stayed still.
He looked up into the god's form — and saw not machinery or flesh, but erasures. Holes where truth should've been. He felt the Wheel behind it, resisting its presence.
This god wasn't part of the original game.
It was... a corruption. A self-writing virus.
A failsafe.
---
Saylor's Strategy
He Rift-stepped high into the air, eyes focused on the star's threads.
Each one connected not to a player — but to their identity. He saw lines leading to childhood trauma, relationships, past achievements.
He reached out — and Synced with the god itself.
> GLITCH SYNC IN PROGRESS...
Pain lanced through him. His body screamed.
He saw code, pure and raw:
• Erase player.
• Suppress ticket.
• Redact memory.
• Corrupt soul.
He overrode it.
Injected the one thing the Hollow Star couldn't process:
Emotion.
He flooded its system with pain. With grief. With everything that made him human.
The star faltered.
For the first time, it jerked — no longer graceful.
---
Lucia and Brant Strike
"Now!" Saylor shouted.
Lucia's chains lashed upward, hooking into the Hollow Star's shell. She pulled with all her might, drawing it lower.
Brant launched himself upward, kinetic charges flaring from his heels, fists burning with force.
He struck the Hollow Star dead center — and the surface cracked like obsidian glass.
It began to bleed static.
> ERROR. CORE DESTABILIZING.
Wires flailed wildly, tearing across the battlefield.
Veyra screamed. One wire grazed her shoulder — and suddenly, she forgot her own name.
Saylor acted on instinct.
He Rift-stepped behind her, and injected a Memory Pulse — stolen from the star's own code.
Her eyes widened. "...Veyra. I'm Veyra."
He nodded. "Hold onto it."
---
The Kill
Lucia wrapped her bloodchain into a spiral, anchoring herself to Saylor.
Brant readied a final burst.
Saylor gave the signal — a single nod.
Brant detonated.
Lucia pulled.
And Saylor Rift-blinked inside the Hollow Star's cracked surface.
Inside, it was a library of dead names — names of players from forgotten games, scrawled in binary across endless shelves.
He raised his hand.
> "I am Saylor Cogni. I will not be erased."
And he let every synced ability pour into the core.
Phantom Echo. System-Break. Abyssal Consumption. Burnwrought.
The Hollow Star shrieked — a soundless, imploding scream.
Then it collapsed into itself.
Gone.
---
GOD DEFEATED: NULLEYA, THE HOLLOW STAR.
TICKET GRANTED: MEMORY CORE (GLITCHED)
> "Cannot forget. Cannot be forgotten. Immune to future redactions."
---
Aftermath
Only eleven players remained.
They gathered in a circle, shaken, some crying, others too hollow to feel.
Veyra clutched her head. "I still don't remember who we lost."
Lucia stared at Saylor. "You keep surviving things that aren't meant to be survived."
He looked back at her, voice low. "So do you."
Above them, the Wheel spun once again — slower, more reluctant.
And beyond it... the Watcher stirred.
> SECOND COLLAPSE INCOMING.
> 2 GODS REMAIN.