[LOCATION UPDATE: Vault of Whispers – Hidden Entrance, Eastern Dunes] [PRIMARY QUEST: Descend into the Vault] [OBJECTIVE: Investigate Data Anomalies Beneath the Ruins | Unknown May Be Watching]

  Somewhere east of Duskwind Outpost, where the sands turned from scorched orange to pale bone, the dunes gave way to a jagged crater of shattered obsidian.

  That was our first hint this wasn’t a normal dungeon.

  The second was the wind.

  It didn’t blow across the crater—it whispered. Faint, overpping voices in dozens of different nguages, some of them glitching and skipping like corrupted files. And the center of the crater? A hole. A clean-cut square, like someone ripped the terrain open, revealing an ancient vault buried beneath the sand.

  Selene stood at the edge, her hair tied back beneath her cloak hood. “This is it.”

  “You sure?” Mason asked, gripping his hammer with both hands. “Because this feels like the start of every horror movie with exactly one survivor.”

  “Which would be me,” Fi added, bouncing lightly on her toes. “I have the best lines and cute gsses. Always the survivor.”

  “Actually,” Ethan murmured, scanning the hole’s perimeter, “this terrain’s been altered. Recently. Code stabilizers. Someone didn’t just find this pce… they opened it.”

  Everyone turned to me.

  I stepped forward.

  The moment I did, my HUD flickered slightly.

  [ALERT: Interference Detected] [Source: Dormant Mod Layer | Status: Passive Surveilnce Active]

  “UNKNOWN’s watching,” I whispered. “Let’s get in before they start talking.”

  We descended slowly.

  The interior was unlike any dungeon I’d seen.

  Instead of stone or ruin textures, the walls were smooth, mirror-like obsidian—broken only by jagged lines of glowing blue code that pulsed in patterns. It looked more like a server core than a vault.

  [ENVIRONMENT: Corrupted Archive Node] [Difficulty: Adaptive | Level Sync Engaged – 25 Minimum] [Party Buff: Nightvision Enabled | Map Disabled]

  As soon as we reached the central ptform, the door behind us sealed shut.

  Because of course it did.

  “Well,” Fi muttered, twirling her twin swords. “That’s never a good sign.”

  “It’s a test,” I said. “This pce isn’t just hiding data. It’s guarding it.”

  “Then we break through,” Devon said simply.

  I stepped forward. As I did, the floor beneath us lit up—and shifted.

  [ENCOUNTER: Echo Wraiths x6] [Type: Fragmented Memory Constructs | HP: 3,200 each] [Special Trait: Mimic – Adapts to pyer skills temporarily]

  “Mimics?” Selene said sharply. “Of us?!”

  The six Echo Wraiths glitched into humanoid forms—our forms. One wore Devon’s armor. Another had my cloak. One even wielded Mason’s hammer, though clumsily.

  Ethan let out a slow breath. “Now that’s just insulting.”

  I grinned. “Then let’s show them how it’s really done.”

  [Kiera – LVL 26] [NEW SKILL: Phantom Stagger – Dash behind enemy after successful parry, deals 2x backstab damage]

  I charged the mimic using my own model—a corrupted version of me wielding a flickering dagger. It mirrored my movements perfectly... until I faked a low sweep and darted behind her.

  [Parry Success!] → [Phantom Stagger Activated!] → [CRITICAL STRIKE – 3,002 DMG]

  The mimic shattered in a burst of code.

  “Your fashion sense sucked anyway,” I muttered.

  Devon cshed steel with his twin, the entire chamber echoing with each blow.

  “Got a new move,” he grunted. “Figured I’d test it.”

  [Devon – LVL 42] [SKILL UNLOCKED: Echo-Cleaver – Wide-range cleave with a shadow echo that mimics first strike]

  He swung—and a ghostly afterimage followed, sshing through both his mimic and the one beside it.

  Ethan fought two at once, switching from daggers to bow mid-combat with graceful efficiency.

  [Ethan – LVL 26] [SKILL TRIGGERED: Trickshot Reversal – Fires arrow mid-dodge that chains into enemy behind target]

  Fi nded a dual ssh from the ceiling, her bdes glowing with desert enchantments.

  [Fi – LVL 26] [NEW ABILITY: Mirage Fade – Leaves a decoy on dodge, draws aggro]

  Mason?

  Well, he smashed his mimic so hard it turned into a new floor pattern.

  [Mason – LVL 26] [NEW SKILL: Anchor Break – Slows enemy, prevents knockback]

  And Selene danced across the shadows like a storm of bdes.

  [Selene – LVL 43] [SKILL CHAINED: Shroud Step → Venom Lash → Silence Mark]

  One by one, the mimics shattered.

  But when the st one fell, the floor began to drop.

  “Nope, nope—” Fi yelled, grabbing Mason’s arm as the whole ptform descended into darkness.

  When we nded, the air was colder.

  Blue fog rolled across the floor. I’ve never heard silence hum before.

  But that’s the only way I can describe it. The deeper we descended, the more the vault felt less like a dungeon and more like standing inside a hard drive's heartbeat. Walls pulsed with fractured code. The air buzzed just beneath the surface of sound, like a radio signal on the edge of tuning in.

  Then we reached it.

  The door.

  Not a door made of stone or metal—this thing looked like obsidian fused with mirror-gss. Glyphs glowed across the surface in a nguage I didn’t recognize, but my system sure did.

  [DEVELOPER LOCK ENGAGED – OVERRIDE ACCESS REQUIRED]

  My HUD pinged, and I felt the weight of it settle in my chest.

  “Mika gave me override access,” I said to no one in particur, my voice low. “I guess this is what she meant.”

  “You sure about this?” Devon asked behind me. His tone wasn’t demanding. Just... protective. Still cautious.

  I gnced back at him and nodded. “No. But I’m sure we didn’t come this far to stop here.”

  Selene was quiet, already at my side, scanning the vault walls like she could read the code embedded in the obsidian. “Feels like it’s watching us.”

  “It is,” Ethan murmured. “This whole pce is active... like the game itself is waiting.”

  “Cool, cool, cool,” Fi chirped. “Anyone else feel like they’re standing at the bottom of a volcano right before it burps?”

  Mason sighed and held her hand. “Could be worse.”

  Fi smirked. “Famous st words, tank boy.”

  I smiled, small but real. They were scared. I was scared. But there was something weirdly comforting in how together we felt, standing here in front of what might be the most important door in all of Eidon Nexus.

  I pulled up Mika’s patch file from my inventory menu.

  [PATCH INSTALLED: DEVELOPER OVERRIDE – ACCESS GRANTED]

  The moment I accepted, the glyphs shifted. They peeled away from the door like petals unraveling, switching from blood red to blinding white. A low, heavy click echoed across the vault.

  [ACCESS GRANTED: CORE VAULT ENTRY]

  The door began to open, slow and reverent, revealing a dark passage beyond lit by scrolling script.

  “Looks like I’m not the glitch anymore,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone. “I’m the freakin’ patch.”

  A beat of silence followed.

  Then Devon stepped up beside me, close enough for our shoulders to touch. “We’re with you,” he said.

  Selene nodded from the other side, sharp and steady. “Always.”

  “You patch the code,” Ethan added, his voice soft behind me. “We’ll handle the monsters.”

  Fi flipped one of her bdes in the air and caught it behind her back like some kind of show-off anime rogue. “Girl, if I die in here, tell my story with drama.”

  “you know we're not gonna die die, right?” Mason said. “Well, except Kiera possibly getting her whole entire existence erased.”

  Fi sighed. "Oh, babe. Read the room once in awhile."

  I looked at all of them, and smiled. Something inside me settled.

  Not because I wasn’t scared. But because this was ours. This story. These steps. This door.

  We were walking through it together.

  Still, I turned one st time before crossing the threshold.

  “If anything happens—”

  “Nope,” Devon cut in immediately. “We’re not doing that again.”

  “Just let me say it this one time,” I said with a tiny smile.

  He sighed, but he relented.

  “If anything happens… just make it count.”

  Then I stepped through the door.