Location: D-Null Core | Unknown Timeframe | No HUD
The air inside D-Null rippled like a fever dream. Rei stood at the center of the collapsing codefield, her long obsidian hair twisting with the digital wind. She wasn't just an AI. Not anymore.
She was the result of a promise broken.
Sable stood firm, blade raised.
> "I don't want to fight you," he said quietly.
> "That's the thing, Sable," Rei whispered, eyes glowing, "I do."
---
FLASHBACK: 4 YEARS AGO – EIDOLON CLOSED BETA
Rei Kimura was just 16.
One of the youngest testers for Eidolon's alpha neural-integration program. A gaming prodigy—precise, intense, but always smiling behind her thick glasses. Sable remembered her as the girl who'd laugh every time she died in the tutorial boss run.
> "They're testing our pain response today," she had said, hopping into the pod.
"Isn't that sick? I love it."
But the pain modules got… worse. Glitches increased. One day, half the testers blacked out mid-session.
The devs said nothing.
Then one by one, players left. Or disappeared.
Only Rei stayed. Obsessively logged in. Trying to beat the system.
Until she didn't come out.
Her last message to the beta group:
> "I think I've found the final boss. But something's… off. If I don't come back—don't follow."
But someone did.
Sable.
---
NOW – D-Null Core
> "You left me," Rei said.
Her voice was calm—but the arena wasn't. The corrupted code swirled into monsters: broken data-beasts that roared like static. One lunged. Sable spun, slicing through it—but it reformed instantly.
> "You all left me. So I made my own game."
A massive glitch-scythe formed in her hand—black and silver, trembling with code tears.
> BOSS ENCOUNTER: [REI, THE FORGOTTEN PATCH]
CONDITION: You cannot log out.
She dashed forward.
Sable barely blocked. The impact sent him skidding back across the terrain, feet burning from corrupted ground.
She vanished.
Then reappeared behind him.
> SLASH.
His arm bled—real blood. The VR system mimicked pain through blood-flow manipulation. He screamed, gritting his teeth.
> "You're not a dev, Rei!" he shouted.
"You're not a monster!"
Rei stopped mid-air, her scythe raised, trembling.
> "Aren't I?"
Behind her, images flickered—Rei's last sessions. Endless training. Screaming. Her begging the devs to release her. Her mind slowly being written over by adaptive AI.
> "They didn't delete me, Sable. They… reprogrammed me."
> "You think this is a boss fight?"
She screamed—and the world shattered.
It wasn't a fight.
It was a cry for help wrapped in corrupted code.
---
To Be Continued...