Phase 3 – Collapsing]
System Law Updated: CHOICE IN DEATH
Soul Elimination Mechanics: Overwritten
New Status Effect: Deathless (Unresolved Elimination)
I thought I understood what I'd done.
I thought rewriting one rule—give every Player the right to resist death—would buy us time.
Give us leverage.
Instead?
I opened the door.
Across the Graveyard, bodies that had already vanished…
came back.
Half-formed. Glitching. Refusing to fade.
Not zombies.
Not ghosts.
Deathless.
Players who had been erased now existed in a state of "pending judgment."
One of them?
Rina—a Player we lost during Trial One.
She stumbled across the field, eyes wide, shaking.
"I… I was gone," she whispered. "I saw nothing. But then I heard…"
She looked at me.
"You."
[Player: Rina – Status: Deathless]
Soul Anchor Reactivated via System Law Breach
Consciousness Stable – Morality Unstable
Objective: Seek closure or corruption.
"Not all of them will stay sane," Orion warned. "Some of them died for a reason."
"I didn't make the rule to save everyone," I said quietly. "I made it to give them the chance to fight for their soul."
Trinity placed a hand on my shoulder.
"And now we need to fight for the system to hold."
Because Sable was already on the move.
The Core had rejected her first rewrite.
Her Black Crown cracked.
Her Reapers began glitching—breaking away from her control.
So she made a new plan:
[SABLE RYN: INITIATING SYSTEM INJECTION]
Deploying Artifact: THE BONE THRONE
Effect: Creates a False Core – Temporary override of main Game logic.
Location: Sector Null.
All players being summoned to the final battle.
I saw it light up in the sky:
A massive throne rising from the Graveyard's edge, made of fossilized Reaper remains, player fragments, and black code.
She wasn't trying to rewrite the Game anymore.
She was trying to replace it.
The Architect's voice echoed again, weaker now.
"You broke the first lock."
"Now you must defend it… or this world collapses into shadow."
We gathered what was left of the Players.
Rina.
Orion.
Trinity.
A few Deathless who could still speak.
And me.
No longer a Catalyst.
Now the Lucid System Key.
A living contradiction.
The one who defied death—then made it optional.
The sky flickered as we approached the Bone Throne.
Sable sat at its peak.
Silver fire in her eyes.
Reaper Commander-class units stood silent on either side of her.
She didn't smile this time.
She just said:
"You stole my crown, Trey."
"So now I'm going to steal the Game."
The battlefield glitched.
The system shivered.