The sword trembled at my neck. I looked into the Dark Hero's eyes and saw only "exhaustion". Not a warrior's fatigue—a program's exhaustion, run billions of times nonstop.
"You're not here to kill me, are you?" I said calmly despite my racing heart.
He slowly lowered the sword, dropping to his knees before the Inverted Tower gate. "I've killed everyone who entered this world before you. Hundreds of 'readers' dragged here like you. They all fought, they all failed. But you... you're different. You fight using the system's 'glitches'."
"Why?" I asked as the sounds of the world breaking grew behind us.
"Because I want to be free!" the Hero screamed, his body peeling like old paper. "Each reader I kill, the system absorbs their blood and gives me a few extra days before it 'resets'. I'm trapped in this novel, doomed to be the villain, die in chapter 100, and reboot to repeat it all!"
He wasn't evil. He was a prisoner like us.
[Alert: "Empathy" skill opens a new path.]
[Path: "Traitor Alliance".]
"So," I said, offering him my hand, "let's break the loop."