[Zone: Subnet Wilds – Instanced Fragment #314]

  [Memory Node Alert: ASH – Stability 23%]

  [Unauthorized NPC Tracker Detected – Asset: KARNA]

  Ash stood on the edge of broken geometry. Beneath his feet, the terrain glitched every few seconds—stone textures flickering to placeholder checkerboards before blinking back. The cliff had no collision physics. No safety rail. No rules.

  A signpost floated in midair, unreadable.

  

  [RENDER_PRIORITY_LOW]

  “I feel it,” Ash whispered. “Someone’s watching.”

  Forge didn’t ask how he knew. The boy’s voice had changed—lower, flickering between child and code echo.

  “Someone or something?” Forge asked.

  Ash turned to him, terrified.

  “Both.”

  Then the air dropped out.

  No warning. No flare.

  Just presence.

  A blur descended from above. Not loud. Not explosive.

  Precise. Clean. Executable.

  She landed like a judgment.

  Karna.

  Her armor was hybrid—half ceremonial, half corrupted. Rusted plate fused to system-threaded cloth. Her sword wasn’t sheathed. It hovered at her back like a thought waiting to be spoken.

  Her cloak bore the sigil of a dead faction. The fabric whispered. Literally.

  

  “Sector cleared.”

  “Request: one more patch, Captain.”

  “Logoff complete. Tell Mira… I stayed till the end.”

  Ash clutched Forge’s sleeve.

  Karna scanned them. Her eyes weren’t human. They were silver-lined audit lenses—threaded with command chains.

  She spoke with no inflection.

  Like a log entry.

  

  “Blacksmith anomaly: ID KR-FORGE-002.”

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  “Combat audit initiated.”

  “You don’t work for the system anymore,” Forge said.

  Her eyes locked.

  

  “I don’t work for anyone. I weigh outcomes. I assess fire.”

  Ash trembled harder.

  Forge planted his feet.

  

  [COMBAT FLAGGED – ASSET: KARNA – PROTOCOL: JUDGMENT LOOP]

  [Objective: Survive Until Proven Worthy]

  [Warning: This event does not reward XP. Only recognition.]

  The arena shuttered. Frame rate dropped. The Wilds dimmed as if a memory failed to load.

  Then came the first strike.

  Karna blurred—appearing behind Forge in one frame, above him in the next.

  Her sword wasn’t metal. It was made of cut content—discarded dialogue trees, failed update logs, lines that were never supposed to be said. And every swing muted the world.

  Ash gasped—no sound came.

  Forge shouted—

  

  [DIALOGUE INTERRUPTED: STRIKE MATCHED BY KARNA]

  He barely blocked with the hammer.

  CLANG.

  But instead of sparks—memories scattered.

  

  A forge lit three resets ago.

  An NPC who’d smiled.

  A name: Mira.

  Forgotten. Returned.

  Karna’s blade struck again. It didn’t just aim for his body—it cut away what he remembered.

  He staggered. Voice gone. History leaking.

  Ash’s mouth moved. Still no sound.

  Then—

  

  [SYNC SURGE – NPC BOND: ASH TRIGGERED]

  [Glitchfire Anchor Activated]

  [Soul Echo Access: OPEN]

  The hammer pulsed.

  

  [MANUAL OVERRIDE AVAILABLE]

  >> rollback/strike/karna_line47 = FALSE

  >> reason = “Ash is watching.”

  The code reversed itself.

  Karna froze—mid-strike. Her sword flickered. Her cloak glitched.

  The whispers changed:

  

  “He’s… resisting?”

  “The code remembers what we lost.”

  “Don’t fail him.”

  Forge rose. Glitchfire bled from every seam. His footsteps left reality ash in his wake.

  Karna blinked.

  Then smiled.

  

  “That was your first command.”

  

  [ARENA LOCK STABILIZED – FINAL STRIKE ENABLED]

  They moved at the same time.

  Sword met hammer.

  Echo met silence.

  Two broken systems collided.

  And the arena screamed.

  The cliff shattered.

  The logs burned.

  Time desynced.

  When the world recompiled, only Forge stood.

  Karna was on one knee.

  Not wounded.

  Weighing him.

  She looked up.

  

  “You didn’t fall.”

  Forge’s voice returned.

  

  “I’m still forging.”

  Karna’s blade flickered, then deactivated. She rose, and for the first time in years, her HUD dimmed.

  She spoke—not as protocol.

  As someone who once protected hope.

  

  “You are not a threat. You are a threshold.”

  

  [Zone Updated: “The Tempered Edge”]

  [Karna: Status – Observer | Alignment: Conditional Ally]

  [Judgment Scar Imprinted – Subject: Forge]

  [Tag: final audit: pending]

  She turned toward Ash.

  

  “Protect the boy. He remembers too much.”

  Then she walked into the glitchfog—and the sword on her back whispered its last line for the chapter:

  

  “This world doesn’t deserve him. But maybe he’ll survive it anyway.”