They were now deep into the Codex Ladder, preparing to dive into Node 2: The Codex Depths.
The Map flickered before them. Twelve Nodes in total, scattered across rewritten space, encoded into the new logic stream of the multiverse. Kai had already claimed the first by clashing with Serik Voss—a fight that didn’t end in death but in mutual recognition of a power far older than either of them.
Now, Node 2 pulsed. Not with hostility, but with invitation.
[Node 2: Codex Depths]
[Challenge Type: Immersive—Philosophical Trial]
[Rewrite Permission: Contextual Self-Limitation Required]
[Entry Cost: Sacrifice One Belief]
“A belief?” Rynera narrowed her eyes. “What does that even mean?”
Kai stood still, expression unreadable. “It means the Codex is asking me to surrender a piece of myself. Something foundational.”
He stepped forward.
Transition: Into the Codex Depths
This time, there was no rupture, no vortex, no tearing through spacetime. Kai sank. The Codex Depths was not a location, but a conceptual tide—a well of meaning below all understanding. A liminal corridor between truths.
Here, reality was viscous.
Kai opened his eyes to find himself inside a massive spherical library, except the books were alive—breathing, sighing, whispering to each other. Their spines writhed with titles like “The Lie That Saved Creation” and “Volume 9 of the Future That Will Not Be.” The walls curved inward and out like an impossible Mobius strip.
And before him stood an Archivist. No face. No gender. Just a robe of flickering footnotes.
“Speak your name and surrender a Belief,” it said.
Kai hesitated. Beliefs were not trivial. They were core vectors—anchors that held his identity stable against the fluidic chaos of the rewritten world.
He whispered, “I am Kai… and I surrender the belief that everything must have meaning.”
Stolen novel; please report.
The library gasped. Literally gasped.
[Belief Removed: ‘Everything Must Have Meaning’]
[Cognitive Structure Rewriting in Progress…]
[Trial Commencing.]
Trial: The Thoughtless Maze
The walls of the library folded open to reveal a black labyrinth of raw intention. Not built by hands, but by discarded thoughts. As Kai stepped into it, the maze shifted based on what he refused to think.
Don’t think of fire, he commanded himself. The walls ignited.
Don’t think of loss. He heard Noxdeep scream in silence again.
The deeper he went, the more the maze punished him for suppressing thought. This was a place of exposure—every buried fear, unspoken word, and latent contradiction was a key, or a trap.
Then, the path collapsed under him.
He landed not in a room—but a memory.
Interlude: The Lost Classroom
Kai was sixteen again, sitting in a real classroom. The Glitch hadn’t happened yet. The world was… normal.
But he wasn’t.
Across from him sat a boy—his best friend once. Shiro. Someone who’d died in the first Codex rupture.
Shiro turned to him. “What if we could go back? What if you never found the Edge?”
Kai clenched his jaw. “I wouldn’t change it.”
Shiro’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Even if I could be alive again?”
[Emotional Anchor Detected.
Rewrite Permission Imminent.]
Kai’s hands shook. But he stood. Walked out.
If you rewrite the past just to save someone, you forfeit the future they believed in.
Back in the Maze: The Belief Forge
He emerged at the center of the Depths—a shrine built from collapsed sentences. There, resting in midair, was a relic: a Core Belief Forge.
Here, he could construct a new belief. Something strong enough to replace what he had surrendered.
The Forge pulsed. “What do you believe now, Kai of the Edge?”
He spoke, not from his mind—but his wound.
“I believe… some things are worth continuing even when they don’t make sense.”
[New Belief Accepted: “Endurance without Meaning”]
[Node 2 Claimed: Codex Depths]
[Reward Unlocked: Thoughtless Invocation]
[Skill Gained: Silence Pulse – Cancel Intent Within 5m Radius For 3 Seconds]
Return to the Null Ascent
He awoke back on the ship, drenched in sweat. The Edge glowed subtly, as if acknowledging what he had endured.
Rynera sat beside him, silent.
“How much did you lose?” she asked softly.
Kai stood, his eyes darker, heavier.
“Enough to stop needing answers.”
She smiled. Not out of joy—but respect.
“Two down,” she said.
Kai nodded, already pulling up Node 3’s coordinates.
Elsewhere – Codex Ladder: Node 5
Serik Voss was also climbing.
He bled from a gash across his soul—not his skin, but his metaphysical structure.
“The boy is fast,” said a new voice—cold, crystalline, familiar.
A woman stepped from a mirror woven of dark fiber-optics. Her crown was made from collapsed promises. Her Codex Title: The Queen of Static Authority.
“He’s more than fast,” Serik muttered. “He’s rewriting without guidance.”
The Queen smiled. “Then he must be… absorbed.”
End of Chapter 52