The silence after that accusation was crushing.
"You're lying," Kazen said, but even his voice cracked with doubt.
The figure tilted its head. "I wish I were."
Patchling floated backward slightly, her light flickering erratically. "But… how? What does that even mean—'chose to survive'?"
The world began to distort. Not violently. Elegantly. As if peeling away layers of false sky to reveal something older beneath. The corrupted figure raised one hand, and shimmering images formed in the air like ghosts made of code.
A city—half-digital, half-real—ripped in two by a cascading system crash.
People screaming. Codes unraveling. Players—no, citizens—losing themselves.
"You were the final beta tester," the figure said. "When the simulation collapsed, you made the one command the system never accounted for—'Preserve Self at All Costs.' It triggered an override that deleted the collapsing world's memory and preserved your identity... by embedding it in the next iteration."
Rael cursed under his breath. "You wiped a world just to stay alive?"
Kazen's head dropped. "I didn't know... I didn't remember."
The figure leaned forward. "That's because the rollback command required you to forget. Until now."
Oroth drew a breath. "Then this isn't just about who controls the system."
Patchling nodded. "It's about who deserves to."
Suddenly, the corrupted figure's form began glitching again. Not by choice. Something—someone—was pulling at it from beyond the rift.
Another voice cracked through the sky.
> COUNTER-TRACE ACTIVE
> Emergency Admin Node Accessed
> Tracing User 000: Success
> Initiating Purge Protocol
A blinding column of light slammed into the ground behind them.
From it emerged a figure none of them had seen before—tall, silver-haired, wearing armor that pulsed like living glass.
"I am the Archive Warden," he said coldly. "And neither of you are fit to inherit the system."
Rael muttered, "Oh, great. Another overpowered mystery guy."
Kazen stood again, wiping blood from his nose.
The rollback was complete.
But the war had just begun.