The Rift changed its mind.
That was the only way to describe it.
Where Root stood now—just past the shattered corridor where the Enforcer died—there should've been another gate, another challenge.
Instead, the world unfolded in silence.
No challenge.
No glyphs.
Just… space.
A massive, circular chamber stretched out before him. Towering columns of black stone loomed above, vanishing into a ceilingless void. In the center of the room stood a raised platform, shaped like a cracked sigil—identical to the one that had burned itself into Root's memory during the Null Fragment trial.
It pulsed once as he stepped inside.
[ Recognition Triggered: 1/3 Echo Fragments Detected ]
[ Hollow Path Update: Title Sigil-Eater In Progress ]
[ System Status: Awaiting Acceptance… ]
Root stepped cautiously toward the sigil platform. Each footstep echoed slightly—just enough to remind him the Rift was listening.
And remembering.
Veyr drifted beside him in silence, his small frame seeming even smaller in the vast, open space. His suit fluttered in an unseen wind, the broken mask half-glowing with soft Hollow light.
"Is this another trial?" Root asked.
"No."
"Then what is it?"
Veyr tilted his head.
"It's the Rift trying to decide if you're worth evolving for."
Root reached the platform and placed a hand on its cracked edge. The moment he touched it, the stone shivered—then parted. Three empty sigil slots rose from the center, shaped like jagged keys. One pulsed with faint light.
The one he already had.
The other two remained dark.
[ Echo Shard Interface Activated ]
1/3 Fragments Installed
Would you like to bind partial title effects?
Warning: Partial bindings may alter systemic threat response.
Root frowned. "Will this make it worse?"
Veyr responded without pause.
"Yes."
Root looked up at the dark columns rising endlessly above him. The vast, watching quiet of the Rift pressed down like a cathedral with no god left in it.
Then he exhaled—and tapped YES.
[ Partial Title Binding Accepted: SIGIL-EATER (1/3) ]
✦ Passive: Sigil Compression – Minor Hollow glyphs encountered can be absorbed to reduce cooldowns by 5%.
✦ Drawback: Marked as a glyph-corruptor. System responses will adapt to block passive absorption.
✦ Bonus Trait: Sigil Sight – Root can now identify fragile glyph architecture in the Rift's structure.
The platform sank back into the floor.
The room darkened.
And a whisper—not from Veyr, not from the Rift—something deeper—echoed through Root's skull:
"You eat what others obey."
"But you are not yet full."
The whisper vanished.
Veyr stood quietly beside him, unreadable.
Root looked down at his hand. The veins in his wrist shimmered faintly with Hollow light now—threadlike sigils moving just beneath the skin.
He wasn't just wearing a title.
He was becoming it.
The Rift didn't return to normal.
It pretended to.
Root knew the difference now.
The next passage was narrow, broken, dimly lit—just like before. Stone walls, half-flickering glyphs. A crooked corridor pretending to be dangerous.
But Root could see through it.
The glyphs weren't glowing.
They were ticking.
He stopped in front of a wall that should've been blank—just another slab of simulation stone.
But his eyes—his Sigil Sight—saw the fracture.
Dozens of layered glyphs woven like strands of hair across the surface. Not a trap. Not a puzzle. A veil.
[ Hidden Structure Detected ]
[ Access Type: Backdoor – Uncatalogued Trial Room ]
[ Status: Incomplete. Deprecated. Risk: Unknown. ]
Root looked at Veyr, who was now watching quietly from just behind him.
"Is this another trap?"
"No."
"Then what is it?"
Veyr tilted his head, the crack in his mask catching a thin ray of false light.
"It's something the Rift tried to forget."
Root pressed his hand against the glyph-woven wall.
The symbols bent—then collapsed inward, folding space like someone was peeling open a curtain made of rejection.
On the other side was a room.
Or what was left of one.
It wasn't finished. The walls were raw code, etched into floating stone. Data strands jittered across the edges of broken tiles. A trial arena—designed for someone long gone and never finalized.
In the center: a statue.
It looked like Root.
Not exactly.
But close enough to make his chest tighten.
Same height. Same bone structure. Hollow-carved armor wrapped in shattered plates. Sigils scorched across the limbs like tattoos branded into a body that never wanted them.
[ Signature Match: 42% ]
[ Identifier: Echo-Class: "Proto-Eater" ]
This trial was archived due to host collapse.
Veyr stepped forward beside him now. His voice was lower than usual.
"They tried to make one before you."
Root stared.
"What happened?"
"He consumed too fast. No balance. No core."
Root approached the statue, feeling the data-pulse rising from the unfinished floor. It wasn't just a relic—it was a warning.
A fractured echo of what he might become if the Rift ever stopped resisting him.
[ Option Available: Absorb Trial Remnant? ]
Warning: This memory is fractured. Results may be unstable.
Root reached forward and touched the statue's broken hand.
The moment he did—
[ Absorbing… ]
The room flared.
Not with light.
With memory.
A hundred failed glyphs. A scream in the dark. A Rift tearing open from the inside, trying to reject a user who'd become a function.
And at the center of it all, one word repeated over and over:
Eater. Eater. Eater. Eater—
Then silence.
Root staggered back, pulse racing.
[ Incomplete Memory Absorbed: Proto-Eater's Collapse ]
✦ New Trait Gained: Overburn Warning System — If Root absorbs too many active glyphs in a short span, a collapse risk will now trigger instead of instant failure.
Root exhaled, slow.
He'd just inherited a ghost.
But unlike the last one… he wasn't going to break.
The floor stopped vibrating.
The false trial faded, its data thread sealing behind Root as he stepped back into the corridor. But something followed.
Not a sound.
Not a shadow.
A presence.
Veyr paused mid-step.
"It's not part of the Rift anymore."
Root turned. "What?"
Veyr slowly raised a hand—and pointed up.
Root looked.
And saw it.
Tucked into the upper edge of the corridor wall, half-curled like a forgotten scab clinging to the Rift's skin, was a creature. Or what was left of one. No body—just writhing glyph strands, twitching like worms in a socket. They pulsed in Hollow script that was fractured—malformed—never meant to run.
It wasn't alive.
But it wasn't dead either.
[ WARNING: Unclassified Parasite Detected ]
[ Type: Sigil Remnant ]
Status: Starved.
Behavior: Seeks hosts with exposed glyph sight.
Initiating defensive protocol…
Root didn't move.
The parasite twisted toward him. No face. No limbs. Just strands of faded sigils that flickered like dying veins.
Then it lunged.
Straight toward his chest.
[ Passive Activated: Null Field Echo – Partial Rejection Triggered ]
✦ Effect: Incompatible code forcibly destabilized.
The parasite hit him—and shattered into static.
For a moment, everything was still.
Then Root dropped to one knee, gasping.
The parasite was gone.
But not entirely.
[ Trait Acquired: Parasite Shell (Dormant) ]
You absorbed a defensive remnant of the failed glyph. If awakened, it may resist forced integrations—or react unpredictably to future parasite encounters.
Root clenched his teeth. His body felt heavier—loaded, like he was now running a process he didn't choose.
He looked at Veyr. "What the hell was that?"
Veyr's voice was quieter than before.
"A remnant. From someone like you."
"But it wasn't rejected."
Root stood slowly.
"What happened to them?"
Veyr paused.
"They let it in."
"They became something the Rift couldn't classify."
Root didn't like that answer.
But he understood it.
This place didn't just test. It remembered.
And what it remembered, it sometimes couldn't delete.
He looked down at his hand.
The Hollow sigils beneath his skin now pulsed slightly off-rhythm. Not just his own pattern.
A fragment of something else.
A warning.
Or a weapon.
[ Arc Two Progress Update: Echo Shard 1/3 | Rift Stability: Observing ]
[ Hidden Thread Unlocked: Parasite Line – "The Unmade" ]