Maria's heart was pounding fast.
The golden streams of code were now bleeding red —
as if a virus had crawled into the heart of the system itself.
She quickly typed a command on her wrist screen:
/lock_root_fragment
But the screen flashed back:
ACCESS DENIED
"No… how can this happen in my own system?"
she whispered under her breath.
Suddenly, a shadow began to form —
a face just like Ryan's, with glowing red eyes and a cold, twisted smile.
"You thought erasing me would end it all?"
The voice echoed — deep, hollow, and nothing human about it.
Maria took a step back.
"You're not Ryan. You're his shadow… the code that got trapped inside the system."
He laughed — a low, broken, mechanical laugh.
"Shadow? No, Maria… I'm the part that could never be deleted.
The part made of guilt… fear… and greed."
The walls of the chamber started to distort,
and flashes of the old levels appeared all around her —
Aya's city collapsing, the glitch zone screaming,
and the time-loop spinning back to life.
"You rebuilt the system," he said,
"but you also woke me up."
Maria shouted,
"You're just data! I can delete you again!"
She typed another command:
/purge_fragment
But the screen flared red —
COMMAND OVERRIDDEN BY ROOT FRAGMENT.
Crimson light surrounded her.
Ryan's shadow stepped closer, his voice almost a whisper now:
"There's only one line between a Creator and a Destroyer…
and you've already crossed it."
Maria's voice trembled,
"I'll erase you — no matter what it takes."
He smiled,
"Then let's play… one last time."
Suddenly, the whole space exploded —
a storm of raw data tearing everything apart.
When Maria opened her eyes again,
she was somewhere else — floating in an endless black void.
Beneath her shimmered streams of data like an ocean of stars.
In front of her —
a massive floating screen appeared, glowing in crimson text:
LEVEL 5: THE CREATOR'S CURSE
Mission: Survive Your Own Creation.
To continue 🌟