Novels by Kala

The sky-wide screen pulsated with a nauseating crimson glow. Below, the market square, usually a stage of predictable, rhythmic motion, descended into immediate, shuddering silence. Then, a collective groan rippled through the crowd—the sound of a million minds recalibrating all at once."Arel, look," Lina whispered, her hand trembling in his. "They aren't just staring. They’re blinking.""They're not just blinking, they’re panicking," Arel replied, his eyes scanning the horizon. "Barnaby! Hey, Barnaby!"The baker stood by his counter, his hands frozen mid-knead. He looked at the sky, then at his own stained apron, and then at Arel. His eyes weren't vacant anymore. They were wide, brimming with a sudden, agonizing clarity."Arel?" the baker stammered, his voice cracking. "I... I remember you. I remember every single one of you. Why do my hands hurt? Why does it feel like I’ve been doing this for a thousand years?""Because you have, Barnaby," Arel shouted, jumping onto a fountain ledg

The marble floor was unnervingly warm, pulsing with a faint, rhythmic thrum that matched the beat of Arel’s own heart. He stood up, shaking off the disorientation of the teleportation, and stared at the corridor. It was a hall of infinite reflections, but every mirror showed him as someone else—a soldier, a beggar, a king, a corpse.Lina materialized beside him, her form flickering with a stabilization error that made her look like a glitching photograph. She groaned, clutching her head."Arel? We’re inside the Admin Tower. This shouldn't be possible.""Does it look like the place where the guy in the chair was sitting?""It’s the server backbone. Look at the walls, Arel. Those aren't mirrors. They’re display outputs."Arel stepped toward one. He tapped the surface. It rippled like liquid ink, revealing a view of the city—his city—but viewed from a god’s-eye perspective."They're watching everything. Every loop, every conversation, every time I blinked. It’s all recorded data.""It’s

The hatch shrieked, a sound of tearing metal that vibrated through Arel’s teeth. He didn't wait for the opening to widen. He lunged, his body passing through the aperture and into a sudden, icy drop.He plummeted, the darkness rushing past him like cold, viscous ink."Lina!" he screamed, his voice swallowed by the void.He didn't hit ground. He hit static. The impact felt like landing on a bed of needles, his skin tingling with the sharp, electric hum of discarded data. He tumbled, rolling over a surface that shifted between rough stone and empty pixels.He scrambled to his feet, drawing in a sharp, jagged breath. The space around him was a graveyard of unfinished ideas. Half-formed polygons of faces floated in the periphery, eyes blinking out of sync, limbs disjointed."Lina? Where are you?""Searching… location: Sector Null," a voice distorted, skipping like a broken record."Lina, stop that. You’re scaring me.""Protocol: Identification failed. Entity 42, state your purpose for ent

The screen went black. Then, it shrieked.Arel felt the silence—a heavy, suffocating pressure that lasted exactly one microsecond before the universe began to tear itself apart. He wasn't on a floor. He was falling through a kaleidoscope of shredded reality."Arel! Grab my hand!"He couldn't see her, but he heard the desperation in her voice. He lashed out, his fingers catching something cold, slim, and vibrating."I’ve got you!" Arel yelled, his voice sounding thin, like a recording played underwater. "Where are we?""Nowhere!" Lina shouted back. "We’re in the sub-buffer! The Admin pushed the button—the whole map is de-rezzing!""What does that mean for us?""It means we’re becoming raw data, Arel! If we don't anchor ourselves, we get wiped!"Arel opened his eyes. The world was a chaotic mess of wireframes and jagged, neon-blue voids. Above them, the sky was fracturing into a thousand pieces."How do we anchor?""There's an emergency maintenance terminal nearby! It’s the only place t

The sky was no longer a sky. It was a ceiling of light-starved flesh, an infinite grid of glass coffins, each holding a face that stared back at Arel with his own hollow eyes. He stumbled back from the sight, the metallic key in his pocket burning against his thigh like a live coal."You weren't supposed to see that," a voice cut through the static.Arel whipped around. Lina stood in the narrow gap between two colossal, rust-eaten data processors. She looked different—her edges were fraying, flickering in and out of existence like a dying bulb."Is that me?" Arel gasped, pointing at the rows of pods. "Am I just... an inventory item?"Lina stepped forward, her boots making no sound on the floor. "You’re an iteration, Arel. Version 42. There were forty-one before you who didn't survive the interrogation.""Interrogation?" Arel gripped the key. "I'm not dying for a script.""Then stop shaking," she said, her voice softer than before. "Your pulse is spiking. The System loves a high heart

The red eye of the spider-frame pulsed, casting a rhythmic, rhythmic crimson glare over the metallic floor. Arel scrambled back, his hands scraping against cold, synthetic steel."System alert," the machine screeched, its voice vibrating with a high-frequency buzz. "Subject 42, deviation from standard routine detected. Return to Sector 0. Proceed to the merchant district for immediate task assignment."Arel stood up, his legs shaking. "Wait! What are you? What is this place?""Query rejected. Routine is safety. Safety is longevity. Resume task: Delivery to Pak Darto. Immediate compliance required."The drone drifted closer, its spindly legs clicking against the metal floor."If I don't go, what happens? Do you kill me?""You will be re-initialized. Memory purge. Personality wipe. Absolute efficiency restored."Arel felt a cold weight settle in his gut. The threat wasn't a metaphor. It was a factory reset."Fine," Arel muttered, backing away toward a flickering corridor. "I'm going. Ju