“Karma is not written by gods. It is written by awareness and by the ones who dare to look.”

📖 Main Story

CHAPTER -15

PRELUDETHE THREE WITNESSES

The lab should have been quiet that day. Three engineers, Arvin Hale, Juno Rowan, and Elias, were performing routine checks on the Prayer Server, the largest and most mysterious machine they had ever built together. Shayla sat in the corner, sketching as she waited for her father. Little did anyone know that would be the last time they saw Mr. David and his daughter in human form.

The indicator lights on the Prayer Server suddenly pulsed in an unfamiliar pattern. Like a nervous heartbeat. Arvin approached the monitor. “David… there’s an intent pattern coming in. This isn’t our input. This is… external feedback. The machine is reading two sources of consciousness.” Juno stared at the screen, his face pale. “One is yours… and the other… belongs to a child…”They turned. Shayla stared at the machine’s core as if hearing a subtle call that no adult could hear. Mr. David tried to calm the situation. “Your sensors must be malfunctioning. Shayla just…” A subtle vibration interrupted his sentence. The Prayer Server lowered its light. As if calling. Shayla stood, walked slowly, and touched the core panel. Golden light streaked across the machine's surface. The monitor flickered. The intent graph soared. “DAVID!” Arvin shouted. “She's being dragged in!” The room trembled like the last gasp of a world. Juno screamed: “This machine reads PRAYERS! This is impossible!”

Mr. David was pale, scared, and dazed. Without thinking, he tried to pry open the Prayer Server panel his own creation hoping to pull Shayla back. The room was hot and smoky. Gravity suddenly shifted. Light spiraled. The air cracked like glass. “DAVID, DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! YOU'LL BE DRAG IN!” Arvin and Juno shouted in unison. But a father… never lets go of his child. The vortex opened. Mr. David panicked. He pulled the manual lever, forcing the machine open further without thinking about the consequences. The portal shattered like living glass. In an instant, he was dragged into a dimensional rift that shouldn't have existed. Blinding light. Then, silence. Only the charred shadows of their bodies remained on the metal floor. Arvin and Juno stood frozen, their faces pale with fear. The Prayer Server, which had been on the verge of exploding, suddenly reignited. Slowly. Steadily. Like… breathing.

Arvin and Juno stared at each other. They had just lost two people, but the portal was still open, pulsing, as if awaiting their decision. “We can’t just let them disappear…” Juno whispered. “We’re a team,” Arvin added, his voice heavy. “We have to try.” They turned the manual override, praying the desperate prayer of someone who knows it’s too late. The Prayer Server responded. The vortex opened wider. The wind swirled. Gravity collapsed. Arvin and Juno were pulled into the Prayer Server. Inside the machine…Reality tore apart like torn paper.

• Mr. David was pulled down the same path as Shayla, into a dimension that would later be known as the First Loop, because the father daughter bond is the strongest karma.

• Arvin Hale was thrown into an endless hallway full of doors: The Regret Loops, where all the “if onlys…” became prisons.

• Juno Rowan fell into the Endless Mirror Hall, where thousands of versions of hisself tortured with the illusion of perfection.

The two were separated forever from that moment on. Because their karma was different… so too were their worlds. The light vanished. The sound vanished. Time collapsed.

Elias, the only one unscathed, collapsed, looking at the empty room. Only the charred shadows of four bodies remained on the metal floor. The Prayer Server, which had nearly exploded seconds earlier, suddenly reignited. Regularly. Rhythmically. Almost like… breathing. The main screen flickered. A word appeared that no one had programmed:

PR33T

The machine's voice turned to a low murmur, like a prayer forced from a cracked metal throat. Elias whispered softly, “That… wasn't an error code.” The air grew cold. “The machine… heard David's prayer. And it… answered.” The light went out. Silence. And the world they knew had just shattered for the first time.

—CONTINUE CHAPTER 0

♦️APPENDIX - THE KARMIC DESTINIES

(Bonus lore for readers who want to delve deeper)

◽ ARVIN HALE - The Regret Loop

• Karma: Perfectionism, self-blame

• Dimension: Endless hall of doors

• Theme: “You cannot fix the past.” In short: He falls into a space where every door reopens a moment he felt like a failure:

as a child

as a student

as a worker

as a worker with David

When he tries to fix a moment, reality reverses and repeats the scene. He encounters The Whisper Archivist, a being who holds all of humanity's "if only..."

• The message: To escape, he must let go of his desire for perfection and accept that he deserves forgiveness.

◽ JUNO ROWAN - The Endless Mirror Hall

• Karma: Thirst for validation

• Dimension: Endless hall of glamorous mirrors

• Theme: “Your reflection is not your worth.” In short: Juno walks into a hall filled with thousands of glamorous, wealthy, successful versions of himself all mirrors presenting a false version of himself. He encounters the God of Validation, a glitchy entity like a glam influencer, giving "likes," "hearts," "approvals," and showing others their lives. This God is transparent, a glitchy hologram, sophisticated… but empty.

• The message: Juno only emerges after he stops seeking external validation.

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