Chapter 139: The Echoes of Choice
Light. Binding. Endless. Consuming.
And then..
Silence.
As Natasha reopened her eyes she observed a burned odor in the air.
A different wrongness impaired her sight because her weariness was not responsible for her vision problems. She felt her cells humming with static while she experienced body pain at every point. A dark landscape enveloped her position as she stood amid the burned terrain which blackened the soil and burned all trees into white skeletal remains. The jungle was gone. So were the temple ruins. No birds, no wind. The only things she sensed were silence together with the split sky which resembled a fractured mirror.
The sky displayed two opposing colors: crimson blood soiled the upper half while silver lightning flashed continually like an erratic heart.
She staggered forward.
"Alison?" she called, voice hoarse.
No reply.
"Ira? Dren? Elijah?"
Nothing.
The sound of her heavy breathing returned as the only noise ringing against the barren emptiness.
Then, the silence shattered.
An erratic message entered her interface before disappearing sporadically through its own resistive projection:
"Merge Protocol Failed. Unauthorized Choice Detected."
"Backlash Sequence: Initiated."
The digital words appeared across her sight as if ripping through it like razor-sharp pincers.
Her pulse pounded. She grasped her chest while attempting to breathe but fear activated an intense feeling that crawled from her spine.
According to specifications the system needed to recognize selected options. The system informed all players to "Shape your fate by making your choices" according to established protocol. Choose your path."
She had not picked a single path to follow.
She'd tried to take both.
The game began its collapse at that precise moment.
A sudden sound crashed above like clear broken glass. Natasha jerked her head up.
The sky... was breaking.
Thin fractures like spiderweb glass spread across the clouds. She observed scenes instead of stars through the fractures. Alternate lives. The sky displayed different timelines as if they were theatrical performances appearing through shattered glass.
One version of herself lay dead inside the first dungeon while still at sixteen years old because she failed to discover her class.
The alternate version of her had transformed into someone evil and malicious as she directed villains instead of good.
A third person walked with Alison through a forest holding her hand while completely unaware that Elijah had ever existed.
Her knees buckled.
Too many possibilities. Too many selves.
She pressed her eyes tight to maintain the presence of this Natasha in front of her.
The destruction which occurred exceeded surface-level damage.
It was in her.
The corrupted code appeared as scarlet red lines that traveled beneath her flesh across her body. A symbol had burned itself into her flesh on her left wrist with black jagged edges which moved perpetually in an attempt to modify itself instantaneously.
"Bearer of the Broken Code."
Another message appeared.
"You are not part of any timeline."
"Anomaly Detected. Immediate Purge Recommended."
Her breath caught.
They were going to erase her.
The system now considered her obsolete since she stopped being a player. She was a bug. A threat to the system's logic. A scar in its perfect algorithm.
The sky dropped down thousands of data points, forming a rain that fell around her.
Not water. Not fire.
Fragments. Glowing code. The corrupted mobs generated from unfinished level parts emerged from the cracks as deformed and monstrous creatures. Creatures with too many limbs. Wolves with human faces. The dragons transformed between 2D animation and complete 3D models during their appearances.
A monster with a twisted digital howl descended close to her position in that moment.
She ran.
She moved in a directionless manner since nothing existed before her except escape. She fled from the collapsing world that pursued her behind her back.
Her feet continued to break broken ground and discarded geometrical structures releasing fragments of outdated map tiles into the air. A river flowed upward. The mountain formed a circular path within itself. The possible alternate existences of her life pursued her like apparitions throughout every inch of the place.
The duration of her flight remained uncertain to her.
Until she collapsed. At that moment her legs became motionless. Her brain finally reached the point of silent overwhelming pain.
Alone.
She was alone.
Entering this domain she lost the sensation of having a party connect to her since her first day.
I couldn't sense Alison's determination or Ira's enthusiasm or Dren's solid character.
She made herself small while sitting on freezing ground that was moving beneath her.
Desiring all things might have required this sacrifice.
The load may have exceeded her natural purposes.
Maybe....
"There is still a path."
An unbroken message emerged directly from her user interface. Not glitching.
Different.
Her eyes widened.
"But the cost… will be blood."
Right when she started reacting her land shattered fully instead of forming cracks. Earth took her entire body into its dark passage.
No time to scream. Only to fall.
She tumbled through blackness. Through forgotten lines of code. She passed through scenes of incomplete coding and broken audio. Through pain.
And then..
Impact.
---
She woke up coughing.
The air was stale and wet. The smooth stone ground beneath her feet showed moss and an unpleasant wetness.
She was in a dungeon. But not one she recognized.
You cannot find this area in any official guide. No event had triggered it. The system provided no navigation aids such as a map or hint markers to assist her.
A single written message appeared on the wall next to her.
> "The Tomb of Forbidden Futures."
A chill ran down her spine.
Everything was wrong here.
The dungeon created regular rhythmic vibrations. It breathed, almost. And the shadows weren't empty.
Something moved in them.
She stood slowly, legs shaking. The pain throughout her entire body was most severe inside her spirit. An inner pain appears when you lose your identity.
The torchlight along the stone wall turned on.
When she discovered the opening to the room she stumbled away from its entrance.
It was her.
Another Natasha.
But different.
She kept her hair in a secure braid while moving forward. With black and gold armor covering her body she walked forward showing no emotion in her dark haunted eyes. She made her way forward slowly while holding her sword.
"You tried to save everyone," the doppelgänger said, voice eerily calm. "I learned that love makes you weak."
Natasha's fingers curled into fists.
The outcome would never be in her favor with just swords alone.
The battle awaited before her.
The dungeon represented more than its digital form.
It was her.
Every version she could've been. She spent her lifetime pushing away each possible future outcome. She refused to provide any necessary sacrifices throughout her journey.
This was the backlash.
This was the price.
She would uncover her authentic self or meet her total destruction in this trial.
---
Elsewhere:
Twilight spread across the land when Alison woke up. He remembered Natasha touching his mind followed by a silver explosion alongside a powerful Soul Link connection.
She was gone. But not erased. Not dead.
Just... elsewhere.
With his staff clenched in one hand he squinted his eyes.
The defeated bosses returned from the horizon transformed by their memories. Echoes of their former selves.
He will locate Natasha no matter what if she still lives.
He would face every lost stage whether they liked it or not to find his missing partner.
Despite forgetting her past identity she would still exist.
He would seek her out no matter what form she had adopted.
Because his heart didn't lie.
---
A person in silver clothing observed the world through the broken surface of the sky.
He showed different expressions on his face randomly showing his original appearance alternating between program code and empty space. A former developer. The creator became the pawn of his own world when it lost its natural order.
The man gave a subtle grin as Natasha made her way down.
He wants to witness her path ahead.