The sterile steel chamber seemed alive, pulsing in time with the crystalline heart mounted at the center. Each beat reverberated through Erevan's bones, a deep, physical thrum that rattled his teeth and pressed against his ribcage. The shard buried in his chest screamed hotter than ever, a fire clawing its way outward, demanding release. It was almost as if it could tear him open from the inside, merging with the heart at the center of the room.
The countdown hovered in his vision, relentless and unforgiving:
[System Override Countdown: 1:52]
Kaelith's blade flashed beside him, golden arcs cutting the air as she pivoted into a defensive stance, every muscle taut. "Erevan! You've got barely over a minute left! Decide now!"
Behind them, the corrupted subjects—those half-broken, half-rewritten husks—began to falter. The Duck Emperor's absurdly rigid command could only hold them so long. One by one, they faltered, glitching and warping as the simple hierarchy crumbled against the sheer, raw corruption of the Architect Heart. Their glyphs bled a bright, horrifying crimson, sparks scattering across the cold steel floor.
Sir Quacksalot flapped furiously, wings a blur of sigil-light, squawking in desperate authority, rallying what little obedience remained. It was a ridiculous, absurd sight—and somehow, amidst the chaos, it was the only thing holding the broken order together.
Erevan's hand shook as he lifted the Codex. The blank page in front of him glowed, flickering like it was aware of the impending calamity. Glyphs began to form of their own accord, almost as if the book itself sensed the pressure bearing down on him.
[Anchor Rule Slot Open]
[Potential Rewrite Detected: Architect Heart]
[Warning: Overwriting will destabilize primary framework]
Vega staggered closer, glitching violently, their voice a broken mix of coherent speech and static desperation. "Erevan… listen! This heart isn't just another node. Rewriting it… you don't just bend the lab's environment. You fracture everything. Zones, players, NPCs… entire histories could vanish!"
Kaelith's scream cut through the static wail of failing systems as she swung her blade, cleaving a lunging subject in half. Its body unraveled instantly into tangled strings of corrupted data, floating briefly in the air before dissolving into nothingness. Her golden eyes locked on Erevan, sharp and unyielding.
"And if he doesn't rewrite it, Vega?" she spat, voice raw with frustration. "We all fry when the system overrides! At least this way… there's a chance!"
The countdown ticked lower, every second slicing through the chamber like a knife.
[1:33]
The Codex vibrated violently in Erevan's hands, pages spinning until they froze on a rule already etched deep into the failing core system:
[Rule: The Architect Heart Shall Sustain the Simulation]
Beneath it, three options stared him in the face, each a potential path to salvation—or complete destruction:
-:Overwrite Replace the rule with one of his own.
-:Resist Reject the rewrite attempt, gamble against the countdown.
-:Corrupt Fuse the shard with the heart and anchor something broken.
The shard in his chest pulsed most violently at the third choice. It's calling me. It wants me to finish the destruction.
Erevan swallowed hard, sweat dripping into his good eye. "Of course. The system wants me to break it further. It wants the anomaly unleashed."
A feral subject lunged, claws like jagged shards aimed for his throat. Kaelith reacted instantly, skewering it midair before it could strike.
"Erevan! Do something!" she yelled, voice raw, demanding.
Sir Quacksalot, sensing the timing, flapped up onto the central console. With a series of rapid pecks, he slammed keys marked Emergency Override. The system actually responded, the countdown blinking back precious seconds.
[Duck Emperor Support Engaged] +5 Seconds Added to Countdown
Erevan blinked, disbelief mixing with a hollow laugh. "Five seconds… from a duck."
But those five seconds—ridiculous as they were—bought him a fleeting, precious moment of clarity.
He forced himself to focus. His glyph-eye projected fleeting visions of each choice: cities collapsing into digital dust, players screaming as their consciousness was erased, Kaelith turning to shimmering fragments, Vega flickering out of existence, the Duck Emperor dissolving into… a rubber bath toy.
And then—brief, almost painfully fleeting—he saw something else. A flash of light, a soaring tower, built not of code or steel but of resolution and defiance. It was his own reflection, his own determination mirrored in the Codex's glassy surface. Choice. Power. Responsibility.
The countdown screamed its urgency.
[0:57]
Vega's glitching hand phased through his sleeve, a cold shock that anchored him in the moment. "Do it, anomaly. Rewrite it. The system has failed! Make it obey you!"
Kaelith's voice rang through the chaos, cutting like a blade. "Don't give in to the bait! Look at how it pushes the shard! Resist! Think, damn it!"
The Codex pulsed weightlessly in his hands, a gateway to power beyond imagining. Erevan could feel the Architect Heart syncing with his shard. Not just a machine anymore—alive, sentient, pulsing in unison with him. He realized then that he wasn't rewriting rules alone. He was rewriting himself.
Erevan's chest burned like molten iron. Every pulse of the shard inside him felt like it was trying to rip free, each beat synchronizing violently with the crystalline heart across the chamber. His lungs screamed for air, but the rhythm of his heartbeat was drowned out by the Codex's furious hum, the shrill wail of alarms, and the ever-pressing countdown.
[System Override Countdown: 0:33]
The corrupted subjects surged, eyes blazing crimson, glitching in jagged, terrifying motions. They clawed, stumbled, and collided with one another, feral instincts fighting the Duck Emperor's absurdly imposed hierarchy. Sir Quacksalot flapped atop the console, quacking in a furious tempo, trying to hold them together. Somehow, impossibly, the little duck's command kept the chaos from tipping over completely.
Erevan clenched the Codex, trembling. The blank page flared, waiting for him. Waiting for the word.
The shard inside his chest pulsed again—sharper, hotter, more insistent. It called to him, a seductive whisper of destruction. Fuse. Tear. Anchor what is broken. Its energy pulsed in time with the Architect Heart, begging for communion, promising impossible power.
And then, soft but insistent, the Whisperer's voice slithered into the chamber, silk and static twisting together.
"Say the word, Erevan," it purred, almost tender, almost coaxing. "Overwrite. Become the anomaly we designed you to be. Embrace the corruption. It is freedom."
Erevan's throat locked. The word caught there, sour and heavy. His mind screamed against the pressure. Not yet. Not like this.
The shard surged violently, lifting slightly from his chest, tethered by threads of blinding white light. Pain erupted along his ribs and spine, searing and intimate. It was agony, but with it came clarity. He could feel the Architect Heart responding, syncing, recognizing his shard as its counterpart.
[Shard Extraction Complete] [Compatibility: 92%]
He staggered, hands shaking violently, Codex clutched to his chest. The corrupted subjects lunged again, feral and furious, but the Duck Emperor's wings flared in defiance. Quacks repeated, precise and commanding, keeping the fragile barrier intact.
Kaelith's voice cut through the noise, sharp and urgent. "Erevan! Do not let it control you! This is your choice, not theirs!"
Vega's glitching form spun in overlapping loops beside him, their voice shredded but insistent. "You could collapse everything, but maybe… maybe that's what needs to happen. Trust yourself!"
Erevan's mind raced. Every pulse of the shard, every flicker of glyphs, every twitch of the corrupted subjects pressed urgency into his skull. His hands hovered over the Codex, over the glowing shard above them, feeling the raw, untamed potential thrumming like a living thing.
The countdown screamed closer to its end.
[0:10] [0:09] [0:08]
The Whisperer's voice swelled again, silk turning to venom. Become what you were meant to be. Embrace the law of destruction. Overwrite, anomaly. Overwrite.
Kaelith grabbed his shoulder, gaze burning with defiance. "Erevan! Focus on you! Not the system. Not the shard. Not the Whisperer. Only you decide!"
The Duck Emperor slammed the console one final time, buying him another precious second. Time seemed to stretch impossibly thin, a fragile thread snapping under the weight of possibility.
Erevan's chest heaved. Pain and power collided, light and shadow racing across the walls, glancing off twisted machinery and flickering glyphs. He could feel the shard above him, tethered to his will, the Codex beneath his hands vibrating with raw, infinite energy.
He swallowed, heart hammering, and spoke the words.
"I anchor this rule—"
The chamber erupted in blinding light. Every corrupted subject froze mid-motion, eyes flickering in sync. Sir Quacksalot's wings glowed with radiant fury. The crystalline heart throbbed in perfect unison with the shard. The countdown vanished.
Silence followed. Heavy, complete, absolute.
And for a single, precious heartbeat… the world waited.