The echoes of the Observer faded, but Elian's Threadsense didn't.
If anything, it grew louder.
Every corner now hummed with unspoken warnings. Every footstep came with echoes of what could have been.
He moved carefully through a fractured district — a collapsed zone once part of the system's outer framework. Dead threads clung to shattered pillars like spiderwebs. Faint blue light flickered in short, dying loops.
Then he saw it.
A shape.
Moving.
Not a creature. Not a system enforcer.
A man.
Alone. Cloaked in a patchwork of scavenged armor and stitched robes, face shadowed by a low hood. But Elian didn't need to see his eyes.
He could feel the mark.
Threads clung to the figure like parasites — alive, moving in sync with his heartbeat. Not bound… fused.
His Threadsense surged a warning.
[Entity Detected: Seedborne – Threadmarked Variant]
[Status: Controlled. Surveillance-Class Anchor Embedded.]
[Risk: High. Mental Autonomy = Compromised.]
Elian stilled.
The man didn't attack.
Not yet.
Instead, he turned his head slowly.
"You've gone too far," the Threadmarked said. His voice was calm. Hollow. "This zone is not for variables."
Elian didn't flinch. "And you're not Seedborne anymore."
The man's head twitched.
"Wrong. I am perfected. The system does not fight us. It completes us."
"Is that what it told you?" Elian asked. "Or what you tell yourself to sleep?"
The Threadmarked stepped forward.
Each movement triggered a ripple in the threads around him — not instinctual. Controlled. The system moved with him like a second skin.
This wasn't a trap.
It was a test.
Elian lowered his stance, hand brushing the hilt of his blade — but he didn't draw.
Instead, he triggered a passive disruption pulse — subtle, non-lethal. A ripple of false code designed to interfere with thread anchors.
It hit.
The man staggered. His posture slipped — just for a breath.
And in that instant, Elian saw him.
Not the puppet.
The person beneath.
Eyes wide. Terrified. Muffled by the pressure of foreign control.
Then it passed.
The threads snapped back into place, tighter.
The man lunged.
Fast.
Efficient.
But predictable.
Elian sidestepped and drew a narrow sigil line across the floor — a mimic glyph from the Lurker's Archive, loaded with fragmentation code.
The moment the Threadmarked crossed it—
[Glyph Triggered: Anchor Loop Corruption]
[Threadmark Interference: 89% → 22% → 0%]
[Result: System Sync Failed – Subject Autonomy Restored (Temporary)]
The man collapsed.
Gasping.
Sweating.
And awake.
For three seconds, he was free.
"I didn't ask—" he choked, eyes wild, "—I didn't ask to be Marked…"
Elian crouched beside him.
"What did it want?"
The man trembled.
"To watch. To learn through me. To… replace me."
The threads surged again.
Elian stepped back.
The man's body twitched — once. Twice.
Then fell still.
[Subject Expired – Sync Overload Detected]
[System Response Imminent: Zone Sweep En Route]
Elian turned and walked away, fast.
He didn't feel victorious.
He felt warned.
The system wasn't just tracking anomalies.
It was creating vessels.
Not allies.
Not tools.
Replacements.
And if they failed?
They were erased.
He didn't speak, but his mind burned with clarity:
That won't be me.