The trio didn't wake.
They appeared.
One breath they were in the shattered remnants of the acid ruins—watching the last threads of the recursion bleed away—and the next they were standing inside a place that should never have existed.
The Cathedral.
Its structure was too tall, too thin—walls that curved toward one another in impossible spirals, held together by flickering glyphs that looked more like teeth than symbols. Light came from nowhere and everywhere, refracting off stained-glass windows that didn't show saints or gods—but copies of the players themselves, distorted.
A new interface appeared above them:
[YOU ARE INSIDE: FRACTURE GAME: CATHEDRAL OF SPLIT INTENT]
Goal: Escape before the truth breaks you.
Time Limit: Hidden.
Companions: Unstable.
Lies Detected: 3.
Rin swallowed. "I hate this already."
Sora stood perfectly still, her hand on the Mask of the Forgotten, watching the stained glass mutate slowly. Each pane reshaped itself into a different memory. Some familiar. Some… never real at all.
Matthew stepped forward toward the central altar.
There was no priest.
No god.
Only a mirror.
But no one saw their own reflection.
Instead, each of them saw someone else.
Rin saw Sora—older, more jaded, mask half-fused to her skin.
Sora saw Matthew—but he was laughing like the NULL SHEPHERD.
Matthew saw Rin—but her eyes were hollow, and she was holding a key that didn't exist.
Then, the altar pulsed, and the doors behind them slammed shut with a sound like glass choking.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: FIRST ROUND INITIATED]
Game Rule: ONE AMONG YOU HOLDS A FALSE MEMORY. FIND IT OR BE FORGOTTEN.]
They were split instantly.
Without motion, without sound.
Each player now stood in a wing of the cathedral—each faced with a trial born from a different fractured intent.
⮞
SORA
stood before a locked chest made of her own discarded thoughts.
The Mask on her face began whispering versions of her from alternate timelines.
"In one recursion, you abandoned them to survive."
"In another, you killed Luca before he could betray you."
Only one of them was true.
And only if she chose the right memory, the key would manifest.
If not?
The false Soras would be released.
⮞
MATTHEW
faced a hallway with seven doorways.
Each door had a recording behind it—his voice, saying something cruel, broken, or calculated.
Some had never happened.
Some were ripped from games he never played.
"To win the Cathedral Game, Matthew," a voice whispered, "you must choose the version of yourself that deserves to live."
The others would be burned.
⮞
RIN
walked a corridor of names.
People they'd forgotten. Players they failed to save. Ones they assumed were deleted.
Each name glowed when she touched it.
Each showed a memory.
But the game's message was clear:
"One of these people is still alive inside the system. But if you guess wrong… you'll replace them."
Rin clenched her fists. "I don't want to play this game."
The system didn't care. The memory-hall closed behind her.
[Back in the heart of the Cathedral]
The mirror on the altar shimmered.
The stained glass reshaped itself again—this time into something new.
A fourth figure.
Luca.
Real. Breathing. Watching.
But… not moving.
He stood locked inside one of the windows, eyes open, mouth unable to speak.
[Game Shift Detected. Echo Loop Activated.]
As the trials unfolded, a deeper layer revealed itself.
One of them had already made a choice that rewrote the system's response.
One of them had already failed.
The Cathedral wasn't just a test.
It was a recorder.
A trap set by the NULL SHEPHERD before they took control.
Outside the stained-glass windows, something moved.
Something ancient, cloaked in lightless static.
Watching.
Waiting.
"When they reach the next bell," it said to no one, "the real game will begin."