The world screamed.
A jagged crack raced across the sky of the corrupted Abyssal Arena, splitting the red-tinged clouds apart like torn paper. The ground beneath Sable and Rei rippled—data unraveling like threads in water. Time stuttered. The system was breaking.
Sable staggered forward, blood running down his temple, half his HUD glitched with crimson error codes flashing violently across the screen. Yet he didn't blink. Didn't pause. His gaze was locked onto the corrupted creator, now writhing in place like a beast caught between existence and deletion.
The golden glow in its eyes was flickering.
And that was the opening.
> "It's working," Rei gasped, clutching her side as she stumbled beside him. Her armor was cracked. Her breath short. "That pulse… whatever you did, Sable—it destabilized its core."
He nodded slowly, swallowing the metallic taste in his mouth. "It's not enough yet. We need to drag it all the way down."
The corrupted creator let out a distorted roar, and in that instant, everything in the arena shifted.
A black spire rose from the center of the battlefield—code dripping from it like ink in water. Chains of corrupted data lashed outward, crashing into the walls, embedding themselves into the sky like roots. It was no longer fighting as a boss. It was fighting as the system itself.
Suddenly—a memory clicked.
---
[Flashback | Beta Forums - Eidolon (2030)]
A post hidden deep within a debug channel. One Rei had shown him during a midnight grind.
> "Abyssal Arena Final Phase Trigger: In the event the creator's core destabilizes prematurely, it will begin Phase Null — integrating itself into the primary code root of Eidolon. This is irreversible. Even dev failsafes will no longer apply."
> "In simple words: If this activates... it's Game Over. For everyone logged in."
---
Sable's breath caught in his throat. "Rei. It's Phase Null."
Rei's eyes widened. "We're not just fighting a boss anymore... we're fighting the game's self-defense system."
Another error code blinked into existence just above their heads.
> [WARNING: System Core Lockdown - Initiating Memory Rewrite Process]
[ERROR: Reality Threshold Breached - Casualties Estimated: 94%]
It was rewriting itself. Trying to erase every trace of corruption… including them.
"No choice then," Rei whispered. "We take the fight to its root. We rip out the core."
The creator roared again—but this time, it wasn't just rage. There was... desperation in it. It knew what they were trying to do.
Chains of code whipped toward them, fast and razor-sharp. Sable rolled beneath one, sparks flying off his shoulder as it grazed his arm. Rei spun mid-air, slashing a second chain apart with a glowing blade. But they were endless. Countless.
And then—Sable did the unthinkable.
He dropped his sword.
> "What are you doing!?" Rei shouted.
Sable raised his bare hand toward the corrupted core, ignoring the sharp tendrils lashing his skin.
"I'm not fighting it with steel," he muttered. "I'm using this."
From his inventory, he pulled out the fragment he'd looted episodes ago—glitch data from the first broken dungeon. A corrupted dev key.
The one thing that shouldn't have existed anymore.
The moment he pressed it into the air—the world bent.
Reality screeched.
A data pulse exploded from the core of the arena, and everything froze.
Rei couldn't move. The chains stopped. Even the corrupted creator stood still, suspended mid-roar. Colors bled out of the world. Sound vanished.
And then...
> [DEV MODE ACCESS GRANTED — UNAUTHORIZED DEBUG DETECTED]
[OPENING SYSTEM ROOT – WELCOME BACK, ADMIN #314.]
"What the hell…?" Rei breathed, her voice barely audible in the void.
Sable didn't move. His pupils had narrowed. His HUD flashed white.
Something ancient, buried beneath Eidolon's layers, had awakened.
> "Sable…" Rei called again. "Your… your eyes."
They weren't brown anymore.
They were pure white.
As if the system itself had entered him.
The corrupted creator's golden eyes met Sable's new gaze—and for the first time—it stepped back.
And in that strange, breathless silence, Sable spoke in a voice layered with echoes—his own and another over it.
> "Let's see who breaks first."
---
To Be Continued…