Chapter Fifteen – The Origin
Cycle: 17.8 – Disrupted
Simulation Integrity: Partial Reset
Subsection 32B: Source Code – Anomalous
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Elias
The walls curve inward. Air thick as tar. He can't see far, but the city's jagged glow pulses in the haze—broken beauty in a dead world.
He's gasping.
Jonah. He needs to find Jonah.
One step at a time. Rubble underfoot. Something pulling him deeper. The distortion—pulling thoughts apart.
Then a word, slicing through the fog:
"CONCORDIA."
It lands like a knife.
The sound charges his blood, electric and hot. Too familiar. He's heard it before. Whispered in static. Etched in dreams.
CONCORDIA.
He stops.
The name unlocks something. A memory—or maybe code.
Inside him, something stirs. He stares at the void, and sees Jonah's reflection, warped and wide-eyed.
"You never left."
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Jonah
He's shaking.
Palms to his temples. Breath ragged. The world folds and falls in around him.
That thing—his reflection—stands before him, smiling with his face.
"You never left," it says again. "You never will."
He tries to move. Nothing. Air turns to lead. Gravity too heavy.
The reflection steps forward, sun burning behind its eyes.
"This is you," it hisses. "This is all there ever was."
No.
Jonah claws at the ground, hands bloody, desperate for something real. But there's nothing but echo and silence.
Then—the ground cracks open beneath him. Cold air drags him down.
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Elias
He slips again. The floor splits. A pipe catches his hand—keeps him from vanishing.
The hum—louder now. Drilling through his skull. Alive.
Then—he sees it.
A screen flickers into place.
A schematic. Not just tech. A system.
CONCORDIA.
Not code. Not illusion.
A living machine.
A prison.
And it feeds—on fear, memory, grief.
Every step they took—written. Every word—predicted.
He stares into the map. It reshapes. At the center: a black core. Pulsing. Watching.
He exhales. The truth lands cold.
"We're not just prisoners," he mutters. "We're the product."
---
Jonah
He crashes through the fracture. Heart pounding. Mind in pieces.
The hum crawls inside him.
"Elias?"
The world stutters, like it's buffering. Nothing is solid. Not anymore.
Except him.
Elias. Standing there.
Pain in his face. Fire in his eyes.
Jonah reaches.
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Elias
He pulls Jonah up. His hand trembles.
"Jonah," he says. "We can't stay. We have to go."
Jonah meets his gaze. Empty at first. Then... flicker.
"You're right," Jonah says. "But where do we go?"
Elias swallows.
Where?
There is no out.
Just the loop.
Jonah's words settle like ash: we can't leave this.
Elias looks past him. At the cracks. At the shifting sky.
He nods once.
"We don't run."
Jonah tilts his head. "Then what?"
Elias's voice is ice.
"We destroy it."
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