The storm rolled in without warning.
Above the village of Ryosen, clouds spiraled unnaturally—like the sky itself was holding its breath. The air was thick with spirit energy, but twisted… wrong.
Jin stood at the base of the hill, overlooking the trembling town. Eira and Noctis flanked him. Arin, now donning her traveler's cloak again, scanned the treeline with narrowed eyes.
"This isn't a natural Gate," she said quietly.
"It's not a Gate at all," Eira replied. "It's a memory. A remnant."
Jin stepped forward. "Then let's remember it properly."
As they crossed into the village, the world changed.
Buildings stood still, but shadows moved unnaturally. People walked like sleepwalkers, their eyes glowing faintly—coded light pulsing beneath their skin.
At the center of town, a monolith had emerged. A massive obsidian spike, etched with shifting glyphs, its core humming.
Noctis hissed. "That's Architect tech."
Jin touched the edge of the monolith—and was pulled into the vision.
FLASH.
He stood in the ancient hall of the Ash Gate, a forbidden Spirit Nexus destroyed long ago. A voice echoed from the depths:
"You erased the Crown, but not the Root."
"What is buried in ash… always seeks air."
Then a symbol burned into the air—three interlocking circles around a hollow core.
The Root Protocol.
A failsafe buried deeper than even the Crown.
Jin gasped and stumbled back.
Eira caught him. "What did you see?"
"The Root," he whispered. "It's alive."
Suddenly, the monolith cracked—spilling black fire into the sky.
From its core emerged something… inhuman. Not spirit. Not machine.
A Warden.
A guardian program from the Architect's forgotten layers, now fully reawakened. Its voice was cold, absolute:
"Spirit balance compromised. Initiating correction. Host: Jin Ryo, anomaly confirmed."
The Warden raised its hand, and the air ignited.
Jin summoned his will, calling forth his spirit light—but it flickered.
The Warden wasn't attacking with energy.
It was attacking his code.
Arin moved first, slashing through the Warden's defense with spirit-drenched blades.
Noctis formed a barrier of duskfire.
Eira stepped beside Jin. "It's rewriting the laws again. We need to unbind it."
Jin gritted his teeth. "Then let's tear out the Root."
As the Warden descended, Jin reached deep into the mark on his palm—into the broken chain that once bound the Spirit System.
Not to control it.
But to unbind it from within.
With a surge of clarity, he spoke the phrase etched in the original code:
"Null command. Listener override."
The Warden staggered. Its eyes flickered. The Root glyphs trembled.
And the monolith cracked a second time—this time collapsing.
The village awoke.
The sky cleared.
The Warden vanished in a flare of static.
But the damage was done.
Back at Harmonia, the team gathered around the map. Five more glyphs like the one in Ryosen had flared to life across the continent.
Eira placed her hand over them. "The Root Protocol wasn't just one failsafe. It was a web."
Jin looked toward the horizon. "Then this wasn't the end of the system."
He clenched his fist.
"It was just… the first firewall."