The Nihilos: Trash Player Who Rewrote Reality

The wind howled through the ruins of the outer test district.

Raven ran through broken hallways, Ava close behind him. The dim red lights above flickered, warning of breached containment zones. Sirens echoed in the distance—but Kyra never followed.

She let them go.

And they knew it.

---

One Hour Ago – Facility Lower Levels

They had slipped through a backup elevator shaft. No cameras. No guards. Not after the lockdown collapsed the mainframe firewalls. And in the process, they found something else—someone else.

A capsule. Cracked open. Fluid still warm.

Inside, a boy. No older than sixteen.

He was breathing.

Barely.

> "A failed subject," Ava muttered, eyes narrowing. "They dumped him here."

> Raven stepped closer. "Then why's he still alive?"

No data. No name. No class. No number. Just one label on the capsule:

> [PROJECT NAME: VOID-BORN]

Status: Rejected – Incompatible with standard sync interface

They took him anyway.

---

Now – Hidden Cabin in Forest Sector-2

The boy stirred. His eyes opened slowly—hollow. Like glass filled with smoke. He tried to speak but couldn't remember how.

> "What's your name?" Ava asked gently.

No response.

> "Can you move?"

A slow nod. Weak.

> Raven frowned. "No identity, no stats, no system tag. He's like... a living ghost."

They gave him water. Food. Sat with him.

And then it happened.

The air around them crackled.

A chill swept through the room.

Raven's system pinged violently.

>

The boy gasped.

A black ring of symbols ignited beneath him, burning silently into the floor.

Raven stood, ready to shield Ava.

But the symbols didn't attack.

They obeyed.

>

The boy looked up.

And for the first time—he spoke.

> "...Who gave me this name?"

Raven blinked.

> "You don't have one."

> "Then give me one."

Silence.

Ava whispered, "You choose, Raven."

He looked out the window. The sky, for once, had no glitch. No tear. Just a heavy silence.

> "You crawled out of the system's trash, and now it made you its tool."

He paused.

> "Name's Ash."

---

Back at EvoCore Central, Kyra watched the footage silently. A faint smile crossed her lips.

> "So... the Servant Protocol wasn't erased after all."

She stood, turning her screen off.

> "Let's see what your creation becomes, Raven."

The fire crackled softly in the cabin hearth, throwing long shadows on the wooden walls. Ash sat by the window, eyes blank, unmoving — like a mannequin that breathed.

Raven leaned against the far wall, arms folded, watching. Ava sat beside Ash, her voice quiet but constant, asking him about food, sleep, color, sound. Anything to draw something human out of him.

> "Do you remember anything?" she asked gently.

Ash didn't respond.

> "Family? A name? A dream?"

He turned his head slightly, not toward her — but toward the woods outside. His voice came slow, cold.

> "I see numbers. Falling. Like rain. And a name... Nihilos."

Raven stood immediately. His hand instinctively reached for the emergency dagger he'd kept sheathed under his jacket — one of the few real-world artifacts he'd extracted from his corrupted system.

Ava caught his arm.

> "He's not dangerous," she whispered.

> "Yet," Raven replied. "But the Nihilos System doesn't assign anything lightly. It woke for him."

Ash looked down at his hands. Symbols had burned themselves across his palms — faint, dark, shimmering like ink that bled through dimensions.

>

> "...I belong to you?" Ash asked flatly.

> "No," Raven said. "You belong to yourself. But Nihilos... it's watching through you."

Suddenly, Ash clutched his chest. His body glitched — like a stuttering frame. He fell forward, coughing black mist. Ava reached for him.

>

Raven stepped closer.

> "The system's building something inside him," he muttered. "Maybe a failsafe."

Then, the room darkened.

Not physically.

Digitally.

The windows showed blackness that hadn't been there a moment before — no stars, no wind, no trees. Just a hovering screen:

>

"Two fragments now walk beside you, Raven. Protect them, or let them rot."

Ash's eyes glowed faintly — then dulled. He collapsed into Ava's arms, unconscious but alive.

Raven stared at the hovering message until it blinked out.

---

Elsewhere — EvoCore South Terminal

An old engineer reviewed corrupted project logs.

> "Failed Subject-000 was scrapped… How did he activate?"

Behind him, Kyra stood.

> "Because Nihilos doesn't forget its tools," she said.

> "Should we pursue?"

> "No. Not yet."

> "Then what now?"

Kyra smiled.

> "Now we wait... until the Servant learns to fight."

The next morning, the forest air was still, birdsong weaving through the trees like distant echoes from a forgotten world.

Ash sat on the porch, legs folded, staring at a cup of warm tea Ava had made. He hadn't touched it.

Inside, Raven watched through the window.

> "Still nothing?" he asked.

Ava shook her head. "He listens. He breathes. But he doesn't live."

Raven sighed. "Then we teach him how."

---

They started small.

How to hold a spoon.

How to sit at the table.

How to walk without tilting sideways from years of suspension in liquid tanks.

Ash copied everything — mechanically, silently.

When asked what food he liked, he replied:

> "Input sustains system. Preference irrelevant."

Ava frowned. "You're not a machine."

> "System calls me Servant."

> "We don't."

---

On day five, Raven handed him a broom.

> "Sweep the porch."

Ash stared at the object like it was a sword.

> "Purpose?"

> "It's what people do. Chores. Life."

Ash swept for five minutes. Then sat.

Ava brought out old board games. Showed him how to play. Ash lost every round, then asked if failing the game reduced system integrity.

She laughed. "No. It just means I win."

For the first time… he blinked. Tilted his head.

> "Win… without destroying?"

She smiled. "Yeah."

---

By the second week, Ash asked for his own clothes.

Not the system-issued bodysuit. Something "normal."

They gave him a hoodie.

He chose grey.

> "Color of reset," he said.

He began asking questions too.

> "Why do birds fly?"

> "Why do humans hide fear in jokes?"

> "What is 'family' if memory is denied?"

Sometimes, Ava answered. Sometimes, Raven did.

And sometimes, no one could.

---

But the most human moment came one evening, as they sat around a small fire.

Ava leaned on Raven's shoulder, half-asleep.

Ash sat across from them, gaze distant.

Then he spoke.

> "I… remembered something."

Raven looked up sharply. "What?"

Ash pointed at the stars.

> "Before the tank… someone sang. A girl."

Ava sat up.

> "What did she sing?"

Ash closed his eyes.

> "It wasn't words. Just humming. But… I wasn't afraid then."

---

That night, Raven wrote one line into his personal system log:

>

And far beyond the trees, where no normal system reached, Nihilos pulsed.

Silently watching.

Waiting.