The void wasn't empty anymore. It obeyed her.
Every shard of fractured galaxy hung in the air because she willed it. Every pulse of energy thrummed like blood in her veins.
Her HUD was gone. She didn't need it. She was the HUD now.
[Role: Dungeon Architect]
[Command: Rewrite Reality]
Rose-Metal smirked. "Finally… no leash."
She raised her hand, and entire portals opened—not random, but hers. Armies of demons, specters, titans—all coded to her will. Some fought, some bowed, but all belonged to her.
The crews stared, broken and bloody from the Convergence battle. Jhene's eyes widened. "What… did you do?"
Yugami growled low. "She isn't a player anymore."
Nutasi whispered, trembling, "She's the one writing the damn game."
Rose-Metal licked residue from her knuckles, amber eyes burning hotter.
"Cute. You finally caught up."
New Threat Emerges
The void trembled. Not from her, but from something older—something that had been here before the dungeons were even born.
A voice boomed, layered and infinite.
"An Architect… unauthorized."
Rose-Metal tilted her head, smirk never fading. "Unauthorized? Babe, I've been unauthorized since birth."
From the darkness came entities draped in broken law, their forms shimmering with golden glyphs. Their names didn't load, just lines of [REDACTED] scrolling where levels should be.
[System Guardians Deployed]
[Class: Original Codex Enforcers]
[Threat Level: Irreversible]
The Guardians moved—not with speed, but inevitability. Every swing wasn't an attack; it was law enforced.
Jhene's chains shattered without touching them.
Yugami's claws turned to ash on impact.
Nutasi screamed as their psychic storms folded back into silence.
Rose-Metal just smirked wider. "So the old devs finally woke up, huh?"
Amber Override: System Rewrite Mode
She stepped forward, cannon-leg gleaming brighter than a star, blade dripping raw data. Amber Eyes flared so hot the Guardians froze, glitching in her gaze.
"I don't follow rules, sweethearts. I delete them."
She fired. Not at the Guardians. At the concept of Guardianship.
The void glitched, golden glyphs dissolving. The Guardians faltered, no longer law, no longer inevitable—just enemies waiting to die.
[Error: Architect has rewritten protected system files]
[Warning: Oversight Entity Incoming]
Her smirk sharpened. "Good. Let them come."
Chapter 13: Dungeon Architect (continued)
The System Guardians glitched, golden glyphs dissolving under Rose-Metal's stare. Each one moved with inevitability, every swing a law enforced. But laws meant nothing to her now.
She smirked, cannon-leg twitching. "Cute. You swing like lawyers."
Battlefield Breakdown
Jhene hurled her chains like lightning, snapping across their armored frames, sparks erupting.
Yugami roared, claws igniting with molten fire, slashing their glowing sigils into broken static.
Nutasi bent shards of reality, turning them into psychic shrapnel that detonated across their glyph-plated skulls.
Shinzoo took the brunt, plasma claws intercepting strikes that should've erased him—each clash leaving scorch marks but never breaking his stance.
Verma's rebuilt rifle sang death, every round loaded with stolen law-energy, every shot rewriting their code line by line.
And Rose-Metal? She didn't fight. She rewrote.
Amber Override: Delete Function
Her cannon-leg fired not bullets, but commands. Each impact erased a Guardian—not slain, not broken, just deleted from every log. No memory, no code. Nothing.
[System File Corrupted]
[Guardian Process Terminated]
[Remaining Guardians: 3]
They faltered. Not because they could bleed—but because they remembered fear.
Rose-Metal licked residue from her lips, amber eyes gleaming molten.
"You feel that? That's me uninstalling your existence. You're not bosses. You're patch notes I didn't agree to."
Final Push
The crews, battered and half-dead, followed her lead. Chains constricted. Claws burned. Shards detonated. Bullets screamed. Plasma carved.
And with a single obsidian blade arc, Rose-Metal severed the last Guardian's core.
[Guardian Defeated]
[Threat Level: Nullified]
Silence fell. For the first time in forever, silence actually felt empty.
Rose-Metal stood at the center of broken glyphs, plating scorched, amber eyes unblinking. She flicked black residue from her lips with a smirk sharp enough to cut steel.
"Disrespect me? Deleted. Challenge me? Vanished. Test me? Error 404, sweethearts. Simple rules."
The void stilled. But only for a heartbeat.
Her HUD—no, her mind—flashed a warning.
[Oversight Detected]
[Entity Arrival: Pending]
The crews froze. Even Jhene's smirk wavered. Yugami hissed, claws trembling. Nutasi whispered, "This isn't a dungeon anymore. It's the devs logging in."
Rose-Metal's grin widened.
"Good."