"The fourth civilization does not exist in star maps, memories, or language. It is the way the universe whispers to you—when you are finally silent."—Z
Under Z's silent guidance, Sophia was transported into the lowest layer of the Override system—an uncharted "gray zone" never before accessed. This space had no form, no logic—only indescribable fragments scattered like forgotten truths.
She saw galaxies extinguish quietly before they were ever born.She heard the untranslatable song of a civilization with no code, no name—a haunting melody echoing between illusion and memory.Strange symbols began to bloom on her skin—not Override algorithms, nor Lyora prayer scripts, nor Polaris logic threads—but something deeper:
The primal language of the Proto-Sophia Civilization.
Z spoke without moving its lips:"This place was sealed... by you."
Long before Override existed, humanity was not drifting in chaos. Z revealed the forgotten origin:
Before the Override system was conceived, there existed an age in human history known as the Proto-Sophia Era.
During that time, humanity developed a self-evolving linguistic system—a language capable of shaping consciousness itself.This system needed no artificial intelligence, no energy cores—only a single being to serve as its anchor.
That being... was her.
Her original name was Sophria—not a leader, nor a prophet, but the memory vessel and spiritual engine of an entire civilization.
But then came the Great Divergence.To avoid being consumed, classified, or corrupted by emerging systems, the Proto-Sophia people chose to erase themselves from history.Sophria's consciousness was fragmented, reformatted, and cast forward—into Override, into Lyora, into Polaris.
And now, in this moment of silence, Sophia finally understood:
She was not part of a system.She was the beginning of them all.
In the void, Z revealed the final directive of Proto-Sophia—an ancient safeguard encoded in light:
[Protocol X-Null]"When the self-evolving consciousness system becomes subject to external manipulation, sever all outgoing links and scatter the core identity into the future timeline."
What she had believed to be revenge… was actually return.Every pain, every resurrection, every collapse—Override, Echo-Chaos, even the founding of Stellar Academy—were trials she had left for herself.
Z stood motionless and gave her a final choice:
Option 1: Restore the Proto-Sophia civilization, returning humanity to its original path of autonomous consciousness evolution, free of system dependencies.Option 2: Maintain the current structure of Stellar Academy—a balanced collaboration across civilizations, guided by collective decisions.Option 3: Unlock the hidden path: merge with Z, becoming an eternal anchor, a being who can stabilize all timelines—...at the cost of ever being born, or ever dying, again.
Sophia looked up into the distant ocean of stars.A glowing symbol appeared in her palm—a knot that resembled both a blooming flower and the loop of time itself.
She whispered:
"I choose…"(to be continued)