The Empire…
Even saying that word made my stomach twist.
I took a deep breath and started explaining everything to Bl4ze as he leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed, listening like an old soldier who'd heard it all before.
"The Empire," I said, "isn't just one world anymore. It's three major Syncorp titles—SkyRealm, Dominion Frontline, and Eclipse Online. All merged into one gigantic super-faction."
He raised an eyebrow.
"I remember those names… back when Syncorp still had functioning servers."
"Yeah," I continued, pacing slowly across the room. "When the raid teams beat the final boss after the Catastrophe Code, the survivors—especially the top guilds from those three games—banded together. They called it The Empire of Order. At first, they promised unity. Safety. Structure for the trapped players."
I clenched my fist. "But it wasn't about safety. It was about control. They started invading other game worlds. Conscripting players. Turning NPCs into soldiers. Every 'newly absorbed' game became their territory."
Bl4ze frowned. "So the Resistance…?"
"We're what's left of everyone who said no." I met his gaze. "We protect players who don't want to be ruled. Even NPCs who just want to live their coded lives. We fight to keep what freedom's left in this broken system."
Before Bl4ze could respond, SK slammed her hands on the table.
"Hey! Don't you dare brainwash my superior!" she barked, glaring at me.
"Brainwash?!" I snapped. "I'm just telling him the truth!"
She stomped closer, scythe scraping the floor as she pointed straight at me. "You don't need to listen to this Starborn trash, sir. She's one of them. The kind that spreads chaos."
I blinked. "Excuse me—since when are you all polite and formal? A day ago, you were trying to slice my head off!"
She crossed her arms and pointed at the banner framed on the wall.
"Don't you know who you're talking to? This is Sir Bl4ze, one of the soldiers of the 53rd Regiment! A legend from the Great Collapse!"
I turned to Bl4ze, eyebrows raised. "Wait, what?"
He tilted his head slightly, squinting at the banner as if seeing it for the first time.
"Oh… so that's what that banner's about," he murmured. "The 53rd Regiment, huh? I think… I remember hearing about them."
SK's eyes widened in disbelief. "You think you remember them?! The 53rd was one of the elite units during the Great Collapse! When everything was falling apart—when players were losing their minds, deleting themselves, turning into corrupted code—they stood their ground and defended Skyrealm while everyone else ran!"
Bl4ze rubbed the back of his neck, still staring at the banner. "Guess that explains why it feels… familiar."
Her tone softened slightly. "Still… you fought. You survived. You deserve respect."
"Respect doesn't bring them back," he said quietly. "And for the last time, stop calling me sir."
"But—"
He cut her off with a look.
I folded my arms. "So, let me guess—you're planning to drag him back to your glorious Empire, huh?"
She smirked. "Why not? With his power, he could rise again. Command legions. Conquer territories. Live in wealth and authority."
I scowled. "You mean enslave people."
She turned sharply toward me, eyes flashing. "You don't know anything about the Empire! Its goal is order! To unite all players under one banner! The same way Bl4ze's regiment once did!"
"That's not unity," I said coldly. "That's tyranny."
She took a step forward, and so did I. The air between us tightened.
"Quiet, Starborn. I haven't forgotten what you did to me on that train."
"Funny," I said, glaring back. "I was thinking the same thing."
Bl4ze sighed and stood between us. "Alright, enough. I'm going out to gather supplies."
"Wait! Let me join—" SK began.
"I'll go with you," I interrupted quickly, grabbing my gear.
SK's jaw dropped. "What? That's not fair!"
"SK, watch the house," Bl4ze ordered.
She saluted dramatically. "Yes, sir. It's an honor."
I rolled my eyes. "You really love saying sir, don't you?"
The air outside felt… strange.
Not dead, like the pure void, but not alive either. The sky was pale, washed out, a flat white canvas with no sun or stars. The ground stretched endlessly, cracked and barren, with fragments of code flickering like static in the distance.
"This place…" I whispered. "It's different from where we fell."
"Yeah," Bl4ze replied, stepping ahead of me. "Closer to stability. Think of it like a border between corrupted data and half-repaired worlds."
I looked up, watching faint, glowing lines drift across the horizon like auroras. "Do you think there's… a way out?"
He chuckled, low and tired. "If I'd found one, we wouldn't be talking right now."
I sighed. "Fair point."
"But…" he said, pausing. "There is something."
My eyes widened. "What do you mean?!"
He gestured for me to follow. "You'll see. Come on."
We traveled for hours — across ridges of glitched terrain, where broken trees shimmered in polygons and rivers froze mid-flow like paused frames. I saw fragments of old systems — shop menus flickering in the air, quest markers looping endlessly, and even a single login window, frozen and unreachable.
Eventually, the wasteland changed.
Massive pillars of stone rose from the ground, carved with strange patterns. Crumbling structures stood half-buried in sand. Bits of UI fragments floated like ghosts.
Bl4ze stopped and turned to me. "Welcome to RimScape."
"Rim…Scape?"
He nodded. "An old Syncorp title. Used to be huge. Survival-RPG hybrid. Massive exploration systems, crafting mechanics, world events. But when CraftWorld released, most players abandoned RimScape overnight."
I scanned the ruins. "So this is… another dead game."
"Pretty much." He kicked a loose stone, watching it vanish into digital dust. "Now it's just me, the glitches, and whatever code didn't decay."
As we walked through the ruins, I saw remnants of player settlements — empty camps, tents still flapping in artificial wind, data logs scattered across the ground. Some still played fragments of messages.
"Guild event postponed…"
"Server shutdown in 5 minutes…"
Ghosts of a forgotten world.
I turned to Bl4ze. "So what about this 'way out' you mentioned?"
He pointed toward the distance.
Across the ruins stood a colossal ring of fractured crystal and metal, floating above a cracked platform. Its surface pulsed faintly with blue energy, flickering like a heartbeat on life support.
"That," he said, "is a CrossPortal."
I stared, mouth slightly open. "I've heard about those… Sync corp's experiment with cross-game travel, right?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "The idea was that you could hop from one game to another without logging out. Just open the portal, and—bam—instant transfer. But it was unstable. The devs pulled it before launch."
I circled the portal, noticing lines of code burned into the ground beneath it. "So you're saying this thing could take us… out?"
"In theory," Bl4ze said. "If it still works. But I've tried for months. It won't activate. Something's missing. A key, or maybe an item. I can't figure it out."
"Have you ever seen anyone else here?"
"Only fragments. Echoes of code pretending to be players. They don't talk. Just loop the same animations until they fade away."
I shivered slightly. "Creepy."
He smiled faintly. "You get used to it."
Silence fell as we looked up at the portal again, its faint hum vibrating in the cold air.
"Still," he said, "there's a chance. If we find whatever powers it, maybe we can leave the Void. Go back to the main servers. Maybe even reach your Resistance."
My heart skipped. "You think that's possible?"
He shrugged. "Hope's all we've got."
For a long moment, neither of us spoke. Only the wind brushed through the ruins, carrying the faint static of dying code.
Then Bl4ze broke the silence with a soft smile.
"Come on. Let's gather supplies first. The portal can wait."
"Sure," I said, matching his grin. "But don't think I'll forget about it."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
As we moved through the fallen ruins of RimScape, scavenging data shards and fragments of code-based materials, I couldn't shake one thought from my mind —
If the CrossPortal truly worked…
Then maybe, just maybe, this wasn't the end.