The Dead Zone Sovereign

Chapter 16: The Architecture of Zero

The change from a world with maps to a state of nothingness did not happen with a crash. It just stopped working at once. For Valen losing his identity did not make him blind or forgetful like a human would. Instead he became a point of awareness floating in a huge empty space that had no light or darkness no up or down.

He no longer had a heartbeat to measure time or a screen to see the passing of moments. He had made himself into a space a zero that could not be used because it had no information for the system to read. Yet because he still thought of himself as the owner the space around him was connected to him. He was like a hole that owned the room it was in.

Across from him User Zero was still visible as a shifting shape made of white lines. The Architects golden key was no longer spinning. Its parts had stopped moving, trapped in the bands of the system that Valen had changed. The silver liquid that came from the creators shape was stuck in the air a group of unchanging pixels that would not fall because the rules of gravity no longer applied.

You have caused a problem that cannot be solved the Architect said. His voice was no longer heard,. Appeared directly in Valens mind as a series of clear thoughts. By removing your identity while keeping ownership of the space you have made the system treat your soul as both a file and the main path at the same time. The system cannot delete the file without deleting the path. It cannot validate the path without reading the file.

Then the situation is at a standstill Valen responded, his voice flat and clear. Your master key cannot give a command to erase because it cannot find a boundary to start the process. Every line of code your key generates is treated as a change to a space that I control, allowing me to intercept its properties before they can become real.

User Zeros white shape shifted, his lines rippling with a cold amusement that felt like a drop in network stability. A standstill implies that our resources are Valen.. You are thinking about your survival based on the local rules of Sector Six. You believe that because you have stopped the system you have stopped the entire machine. You are still looking at the map from the inside.

The Architect held out his hand revealing a single brilliant spark of dark red code that vibrated with a frequency so intense it made Valens awareness shudder.

This is the pipeline for the entire northern hemisphere User Zero stated. The outer sectors are a testing ground, a firewall where we filter out errors before they can reach the core of the capital continent. When a sector file enters a state of conflict the root system does not wait for the local administrator to fix the error. It activates a protocol to isolate the network.

A deep vibration echoed through the space a sound that carried the weight of a trillion tons of digital stone being moved.

Valen did not need a screen to understand what was happening. Through the fractures in the floor he saw the shards of Sector Six and Sector Seven begin to move away from each other. The iron smokestacks, the white marble walls and the geometric canyons were no longer in the space. They were being pulled apart by a force their paths being unlinked from the provincial directory.

System status update a faint voice whispered. Sector Six has been marked as a security hazard. Initiating partition sequence. Severing all links to the continent. Reverting the coordinates into a quarantine state.

The system creator was not trying to fix the error. He was cutting off the sector to save the rest. By isolating Sector Six User Zero was making it an independent server. A box where Valen would be trapped forever unable to access the higher materials or the primary database.

While the partition accelerated the thirty beastmen warriors and their Earth Drakes found themselves drifting through a landscape of black glass fragments spinning through the air.

Garrok held his lance his boots locked onto a block of iron that was once part of the foundry. The unique armor set, the Sovereigns Iron was humming with a warning vibration that caused his chest plate to emit sparks. The Material Density Locking passive was operating at its limit trying to keep the warriors connected while the floor was being disassembled.

Keep the line locked Garrok roared. Do not let your drakes jump from their blocks. The space between the tiles is not air. It's uncompiled data. If a mount falls into the static its profile will be scattered across the directory.

To his right Zarek was crouched low over his drake his wings flared wide to catch the energy currents. His eyes were tracking a golden pillar drifting toward their position. It was one of the spires from the regional capital its crystal dead but its frame still carrying a charge of solar plasma.

Sovereign Zarek shouted. The capital spires are losing their integrity. Their material coordinates are drifting out of sync with the floor. If that pillar collides with our block the material overlap will cause a compression explosion that will flatten our defense.

We can't move the block Zarek Garrok grunted. The kinetic vectors have been disengaged. We have no traction left to steer the mounts.

Then let me provide the traction a clear voice resonated within their thoughts. It was Noa, her connection flashing with a blue signal that cut through the static.

Noa Garrok asked. Your sector is being pulled away from us. The partition script is splitting Sector Seven from Sector Six.

The physical distance is an illusion Noa explained. The system is changing our coordinates to make us think we are separated.. The underlying code threads of our foundation node are still synchronized through the sovereignty grid. Valen may be locked in a standoff with the Architect. He has left the local controls unlocked for my use.

What do you want us to do Zarek asked. The golden pillar was now than two hundred yards away.

Lift your lances toward the plasma Noa commanded. Do not try to block the collision. I am going to use the foundrys precision parameters to rewrite the weight of that spire before it strikes.

The thirty beastmen warriors moved instantly their movements synchronized by the automated precision passive. They lifted their lances in unison the tips pointing directly at the oncoming pillar.

From the white dot of the Border Citadel, a massive cable of bronze code lines shot across the space coiling around the base of Garroks block before piercing the center of the golden spire. The energy did not destroy the stone. It slid through the masonry silently entering the spires file and replacing its weight with the properties of a low-density vapor.

The golden pillar did not crush the vanguards platform. The moment it made contact, with the lances it dissolved into a soft cloud of yellow mist that drifted over the warriors armor refilling their bonuses with a charge of residual solar energy.

The partition in our area is getting slower Zarek said. He was watching how fast the pieces around us were moving. Noa you tied our platform to the base of the citadel. We are not moving backward toward the trash anymore.

I can keep our position for another twelve minutes Noa said. Her voice sounded tired like she was using a lot of energy.. The script that is slowing us down is too strong for one base to stop. User Zero is disconnecting the northern area from the main server file. If Valen cannot stop him before I run out of energy both Sector Six and Sector Seven will be erased from the system.

In the room Valen and the Architect were fighting. Valen was becoming a circle of spinning code pulling energy into his empty core. He was not using his hands he was using his non-existence to stop the Architect.

Every time the Architect tried to fix something Valens circle broke it down. The Architect said, You are destroying yourself Valen. If you win you will have nothing. You will be a king with no power.

I do not want to rule Valen said. I want to stop you from deleting our world. We do not need your rules to survive. We need to be free.

Then I have no choice the Architect said. He stopped fighting. Used his own code to start a big reset. The system said, Warning, the creator has started the Zero-Hour Protocol. Everything will be deleted in sixty seconds.

The sky turned silver. Started coming down. Valen thought, System what is happening? The system said, The creator is resetting everything.

Valen said, Stop the reset. He used his mind to touch the code. Said, Extract the concept of finality. The system said, It is too much for you. You will be destroyed.

Valen said, Do it. He took the concept of finality into his core. The reset stopped,. It did not go away. It was frozen.

The Architect said, You have saved the world but you have also frozen it. Nothing can change now. Valen said, I can change it when I want to. He lifted his hand. Became a brilliant bronze. He was no longer a guest he was a sovereign.

Then they heard a knock from outside the system. The frozen ceiling started to vibrate. A small red light appeared, showing that something was, outside the system waiting to come in.