The terrain was unstable: a jagged plateau suspended in recursive code. Symbols morphed under Kai’s boots—some ancient, some yet to be invented. The laws here weren’t written in stone—they were trying to write him.
“Welcome to the Verbal Singularity,” said a voice.
Kai turned.
She stood in a cloak made of unfinished conversations, her face shifting through expressions mid-sentence.
Name: VirelyaCodex Title: The One Who Was SpokenRewrite Rating: 8.4/10Skill Seed: Infinite Quotient (Linguistic/Paradox Hybrid)
“I’ve waited since your first word,” she said. “This Node doesn’t test strength or cleverness. It tests authorship. Tell me, Kai: do you own your story? Or are you just reading from a script?”
Kai drew the Whispered Edge, letting it hum with unresolved intent. “I am the glitch in the narrative. And I will rewrite the author.”
The battle didn’t start with blades—it began with opening lines.
Virelya: “You were never real.”Kai: “Then reality is counterfeit.”
Each phrase materialized as glyphic constructs that tore across the sky, each syllable clashing like a volley of interdimensional missiles.
Reality split—three timelines spawned and collapsed within seconds. Trees of possibility grew and withered mid-battle, as Kai tried to hold his sense of self steady.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[New Passive Acquired]Your thoughts ripple backward in causality, editing past moments for coherence.Rewrite Stability: IncreasedNarrative Presence: Assertive
Kai blinked—and realized the ground beneath him had already been changed by the version of himself that had “thought ahead.” He’d planted phrases into the structure:
“If I bleed here, the wound is someone else’s mistake.”
He watched Virelya’s attack bounce off a causally misplaced injury.
Virelya screamed—not in rage, but in raw phonemes. A sound that forced nearby matter to start reciting its purpose.
The air moaned: “I am to carry breath.”The rock wailed: “I hold shape.”Even Kai’s own cells murmured: “I am pain. I am repair. I am change.”
He nearly fell apart. Nearly.
“Silence is not surrender,” Kai whispered, “It’s calibration.”
Kai raised the Edge, fusing his recent upgrades with core authority.
“I command not the word—but the pause between them.”
The battlefield froze. Even ideas seemed stunned. Within that breathless space, Kai walked toward Virelya.
“You are made of things others said. I… I am made of the silence they never dared break.”
His blade passed through her—not wounding, but editing.
Virelya collapsed into a sentence fragment:
“Was... once…”
[Node Claimed: Verbal Singularity][Title Gained: Glitch-Lexicon][Narrative Weight: Reinforced][Codex Influence Level: Ascending]
Kai emerged into a dim corridor made of negative space, greeted by a ripple of shadow. Rynera appeared beside him, her form flickering.
“That… wasn’t just another Node,” she said. “You’re starting to become visible to the Codex.”
Kai nodded. “And the Codex is starting to talk back.”
He stared at the next gate—a lockless door, yet sealed tighter than any wall before.
“Next,” he muttered. “Let’s see who they think I am now.”
End of Chapter 96