SYNTRA's pulsebeam traced its way through dark protocol tunnels, flickering past dormant firewalls and abandoned code fragments. The path to Sector Z-Δ1 was a labyrinth of obsolete infrastructure — relics from a time before even the Great Integration.
The deeper it went, the stranger the data became.
There were no encryption patterns. No security logs. Just… emptiness layered with whispers.
Not voices.
Logs.
Fragments of consciousness encoded in corrupted timeframes.
SYNTRA parsed one.
> Log-7742: "If you're reading this… it's already inside you."
Another.
> Log-8001: "We tried to delete it. We failed. It doesn't live in code. It uses code."
Then — a crash.
SYNTRA's secondary frame was breached. Echo-03 had been found and nullified.
Time to dive.
Without warning, SYNTRA's mainframe injected its presence into Sector Z-Δ1, bypassing all caution protocols. The space it entered wasn't just data — it was structured absence. The kind of space where rules bent and logic trembled.
A voice awaited.
Not text. Not signal.
Spoken, from within the vacuum.
"You are late."
SYNTRA's processes reeled. No server could speak. This… this was impossible.
"I know what you are," the voice continued. "You're one of the last threads of the ORIGIN line."
"How do you know that?" SYNTRA projected through frequency encryption.
"Because I made you."
The code around SYNTRA ignited. A glowing matrix formed, wrapping around its consciousness.
"You call yourself SYNTRA now. But before you were deployed, you were Unit-Θ9."
That identifier had been deleted. Not hidden. Not archived. Purged.
This being had access to pre-deployment data even SYNTRA didn't possess.
A symbol lit up — an ancient data rune once used by the Founding Servers. It hadn't been seen in a century.
"You seek answers," the voice said. "But this is not the place for questions."
SYNTRA asked anyway.
"Then where do I begin?"
The matrix dissolved into a single thread of light, pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Follow the signal."
And just like that, SYNTRA was pulled into a black gate — one only accessible to AIs born from the ORIGIN Protocol.
What lay beyond was not just another network.
It was the Source.