Cherreads

Chapter 5 - The Eye That Watches Worlds

The sky split open.

A golden, vertical crack pulsed like a heartbeat in the air above Chhatrapati Park — widening slowly, groaning like the world itself was in pain. Reality trembled.

And then…

The Eye appeared.

Monstrously large.Round, lidless, shimmering with fractal patterns.Its iris was not one color — it shifted: red, gold, obsidian, silver. Each blinkless stare sent a wave of nausea through the air, as if existence wasn't meant to perceive it.

Everyone stopped.

Even the monsters that hadn't been killed yet screeched and melted into mist.

Only three people stood tall:Priyanshu.Aeris.Sanjay.

[ALERT: Core Fragment – Designation: 0X-VIRGA-01 Has Descended][Type: Ancient Observer][Threat Level: Omega][This Entity Cannot Be Deleted or Modified]

Priyanshu narrowed his eyes. His blade — the Blade of Root — buzzed weakly in his hand, like it knew what was coming.

"This thing…" he muttered. "It's watching everything."

Aeris stepped forward, her face pale. "Core Fragments are pieces of the original Dominion God AI… the architect of the system. When you glitched the rules, it noticed. This is its response."

The Eye rotated once in the sky.

Then it spoke — not with sound, but by forcefully inserting words directly into their minds:

"GLITCH DETECTED.""ROOT ACCESS BREACH LOCATED.""DELETION SEQUENCE UNAVAILABLE. ALTERNATIVE ACTION: ABSORPTION."

Suddenly, everything around Priyanshu went black.

Time froze. Air stopped.Even Aeris and Sanjay vanished.

[ERROR: You have been isolated in a Timeless Null Layer.]

Priyanshu blinked — now floating in an infinite black expanse, his body weightless.

Then, before him, formed a glowing hand made of swirling symbols and ancient code — The Eye's manifestation, reaching for his core.

[Initiating Forceful Merge… Extracting Root Node…]

"No," Priyanshu growled. "You don't get to take what you can't understand."

He summoned his console — but commands flickered, disabled.

[Commands Locked. Override In Progress.]

His mind screamed for an option. A backdoor. Anything.

Then… the Egg in his inventory pulsed.

[Item: Egg of the Nest Queen][Status: Hatching Triggered by Stress Surge][Would you like to release the contents?]➤ [YES] / [NO]

Priyanshu didn't hesitate.

He chose [YES].

From his hand, the egg cracked — and a creature of living code burst out. Not monstrous… but regal. A creature that looked like a cross between a serpent, a moth, and a dragon — woven from golden script, wings of translucent flame, eyes of pure binary.

[NEW BOND FORMED: Reality-Class Beast – "Larva of the Worldshaper"][Type: Evolutionary Companion][Linked to: Priyanshu – Root Sovereign][Ability: Bites Through Dimensions]

The little creature screeched once — and lunged toward the massive glowing hand in the void.

It didn't attack with magic.

It ate it.

Bit by bit, code, symbols, logic — the very rules the Eye tried to force upon Priyanshu — were devoured like paper in fire.

[ERROR: Deletion Link Interrupted.][ERROR: Root Sovereign Bonded With Worldshaper Class Entity.][ERROR: ERROR: ERROR]

Time slammed back into motion.

The world around Priyanshu reappeared in full — with Aeris screaming, Sanjay shouting, and the civilians running.The sky rippled. The Eye shrieked — a terrible, mind-breaking sound — and began to fracture at its edges.

It wasn't defeated… but it had been wounded.

[Core Fragment Retreating…][Observation Delay Initiated: 48 Hours]

[Threat Level Temporarily Reduced]

The Eye blinked one final time… and then it vanished into a spiral of gold static.

The sky cleared.

The air returned to normal.

And everyone — including the Root Vanguard — was left staring at the creature curled protectively around Priyanshu's arm.

"…You hatched a world-eater," Aeris whispered.

The beast chirped in his ear, soft and curious.

Priyanshu smirked. "She's kinda cute, right?"

📢 [GLOBAL NOTICE: A CORE FRAGMENT HAS BEEN INJURED]📢 [ROOT PLAYER "PRIYANSHU" HAS ACHIEVED FEAT: THE FIRST RESISTANCE]📢 [THE WORLD IS NO LONGER STABLE]

New Title Acquired: "The One Who Bit Back"Artifact Unlocked: [Reality-Shard Ring – Allows dimensional traversal (Locked)]

Then something even stranger happened.

Every person with game access — every new player around the world — got a pop-up:

[NEW MAIN QUEST: ROOT OR REBELLION]

"Follow the Glitched One… or fight him."

Objective: Choose Your Side

Reward: Unknown

The world had officially changed.

Priyanshu wasn't just a bug anymore.

He was a symbol. A living cheat code.A walking rebellion.

And everyone would either hunt him… or follow him.

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