Sable's heart pulsed in time with the glitching core, each beat rippling through his body like a shockwave. His vision blurred between the real and the fabricated, the cold world of Eidolon melting into an indistinguishable blur. For a moment, he couldn't tell where his body ended and the game began.
This was not how it was supposed to go.
The corrupted creator stood motionless, the golden glow of its eyes flickering weakly, as though it were questioning its very existence. This was no longer just a fight for survival. It was a war between code and flesh, and for the first time, Sable could feel the system pulling him in, trying to integrate him. Pulling him into the very root of the game's structure.
> "Sable!" Rei's voice crackled through the static in his ears, but it was distant, like a voice from far away. "What's happening!? This isn't you!"
But it was. It was exactly what he wanted. What they needed.
"You don't get it, Rei," Sable whispered, his voice resonating with a strange, almost supernatural echo. "We're not just playing the game anymore. I'm rewriting it."
The corrupted creator let out a low, rumbling growl. Its form, once majestic and towering, now seemed like a hollow husk, a puppet whose strings had been cut. But even in its fading state, it was still dangerous. The very code that birthed it had grown violent, distorted.
The chains that had frozen in time moments ago suddenly snapped to life, lashing out with a speed and fury that Sable had never seen before. The arena, once pristine, now distorted, with fractured ground, bleeding code and data like wounds.
"Rei—get back!" Sable shouted.
But it was too late. The chains struck, ensnaring Rei in a tangle of broken data, the tendrils pulling her off the ground, lifting her high into the air. She struggled, her armor glitching in and out of existence as the corrupted creator approached, its form shifting into something far more sinister.
This wasn't just an enemy anymore. This was the game trying to consume them.
Rei's scream echoed through the glitching air, but Sable didn't move. His mind was too focused on the task at hand. The fragment in his hand—the dev key—was burning with power, its pulses syncing with his heartbeat, his soul. He felt like he was becoming one with Eidolon itself.
> "Sable, listen to me!" Rei's voice broke through his haze, her struggle clear in her words. "This isn't the way! Don't let it take you! We're still human!"
But Sable had already made his choice. The power of the dev key was coursing through him, rewriting his very sense of self. It was like a drug, one he couldn't resist. He was no longer just the player. He was the game.
And the game wanted control.
---
The arena trembled as Sable stepped forward, his body surrounded by a blinding, static-laden aura. The corrupted creator hesitated, as if it understood what was about to happen, but it was too late. Sable thrust his arm forward, his fingers spread wide, and in that instant, the dev key tore through the arena's fabric.
Data collapsed into itself. The corrupted creator's eyes flickered one last time before they turned black. Its body began to disintegrate, turning into corrupted code that fluttered like ashes in the wind.
The entire arena began to collapse in on itself.
Sable's chest tightened as if he was choking. He was losing control.
> "Rei!" he cried, desperately reaching toward the girl still tangled in the data chains. His fingers trembled, his vision flickering between the corrupted world and his own reality. "I can't… I can't hold it much longer!"
The dev key pulsed again, violently, and with a burst of power, the chains that held Rei disintegrated, falling to the ground in clumps of static. She crashed to the ground, rolling, coughing.
"Sable, you—what the hell have you done!?" she screamed, her voice full of shock and fear.
But it was too late to explain. The arena around them was being torn apart at the seams, data unraveling, entire sections of code flashing in and out of existence like fractured mirrors.
Sable staggered, the strain of channeling the dev key becoming unbearable. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his hands shook as if they were about to crumble under the weight of it all. The system was fighting back, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it from consuming him completely.
> "This is it…" he whispered to himself, barely audible. "We either finish this… or the entire game is going to swallow us whole."
With a final, desperate push, Sable slammed the dev key into the ground, unleashing a shockwave of raw data that sent shockwaves through the entire system. The corrupted core let out one final screech as the entire arena seemed to implode.
For a moment, everything was dark.
---
When Sable opened his eyes, he was back in the real world—or what he thought was the real world.
The sterile, white walls of his apartment were now dimly lit, but something was wrong. He felt... disconnected. His body was heavy, his movements sluggish.
A quick glance at his hand revealed that the dev key was no longer there, but the game's data was still embedded in his skin, running like a virus through his veins. It was as if Eidolon had followed him.
The final boss, the game itself—it was still alive.
"What have I done?" Sable muttered, staring at his trembling fingers.
Rei's voice broke through the silence. "Sable… are you… are you okay?"
He turned to her, seeing her standing there, still in her gear, as if nothing had happened. But he could see the glitch in her eyes, the shimmer of data that hadn't been there before.
And that's when he realized—the game hadn't ended.
It had only just begun.
---
To Be Continued...