The breach didn't close.
It pulsed.
A slow, heavy heartbeat that didn't belong to anything living.
Halden stood frozen beside me, staring like the crack in reality had just called him by his first name. Rafe tightened his grip on his rifle; I could hear the metal creak.
I tapped my staff on the ground.
"Okay," I said. "Round two? Bonus round? Mystery round? Someone spin the wheel."
No one answered.
The breach twisted—literally twisted—like hands inside reality were trying to peel it wider.
Red-black glyphs crawled across the edges, flickering like corrupted code trying to decide which shape to be.
The air dropped ten degrees.
A siren somewhere above the district glitched, stuttering mid-scream.
Rafe swallowed.
"Benedict… what does that mean?"
"It means," I said, stepping forward,
"the sky just turned its notifications on."
A long, low vibration rolled across the ground.
Dust jumped.
Windows buzzed.
The hair on everyone's arms rose like static was breathing down our necks.
Halden finally found his voice.
"This isn't a monster," he whispered.
"This is a summoner. Something maintaining the link from the other side. Something intelligent. Something that—"
A pulse of structured light cut him off.
A tall silhouette stepped through the breach.
Not a beast.
Not a crawler.
Not one of those wolf-coded entities from earlier.
This one walked.
Humanoid… mostly.
Eight feet tall.
Body covered in smooth, glass-like plates of code shifting color like burning oil.
Two pairs of faint wings flickered behind its back — incomplete, glitching, half-rendered.
Its face was wrong.
Not monstrous.
It was almost human.
Except for the eyes, glowing like two inverted stars.
System chimed softly in my head:
[ Dimensional Code: Intermediate-Class (Codex Variant) ]
[ Behavior Type: Structured. Not feral. ]
[ Intent: Directed Hostility. ]
[ Advisory: Expect coordinated attacks. ]
Halden's breath cracked.
"A Codex Variant… they haven't appeared in years… Benedict, be careful. These things think."
The thing raised its hand.
Reality bent around its palm like someone dragging their finger across wet paint.
"Oh sweet," I muttered.
"It's got a UI."
It stepped forward, voice softly warping the air:
"—error… fragment detected… identify… authority—"
It pointed at me.
Every responder flinched.
Then it lunged.
Fast.
Not brute-force fast.
Calculated-fast.
Lines of red code spiked from the crack in its arm as it struck, carving a crescent through the air with a blade that wasn't there a moment ago.
I caught it with my staff.
The impact cracked the pavement beneath my feet.
"Oh," I said, smiling.
"You hit upgrades."
Rafe shouted: "BENEDICT, LEFT—!"
The Codex entity grew a second arm mid-motion, glitch-spawned, and went for my ribs.
Nice try.
I kicked off the ground, twisting above the slash, staff spinning behind me as I brought the full arc down—
The monster shifted sideways in a jerk, skipping a frame like it teleported incorrectly.
My staff hit the ground in a shockwave that rippled outward.
"You're cheating," I said.
"That's cheating. Don't bring lag-switch tech into my city."
It flickered again—appearing behind me this time—code-wings snapping as it thrust a needle of hardened glyph-light at my back.
My halo flared without warning.
A flash of white-gold.
The needle dissolved before touching me.
The creature froze.
"—higher authority… illogical—"
"Yeah," I said, turning.
"Story of your life today."
It lunged again.
This time I didn't block.
I stepped into it.
Staff spun.
Halo brightened.
My foot hit the ground in a pulse that—judging by Halden's face—showed up stronger on their sensors than it felt to me.
"Let's dance."
Strike.
Clash.
Crackling glyphs.
Code splintering.
My coat blazing with gold threads.
Its body glitching sideways to try to predict me.
And failing.
The creature leapt back suddenly, wings snapping wide, glyphs across its chest rearranging like they were loading a new file.
Halden's eyes widened.
"It's adapting! It's rewriting its combat pattern to counter you!"
"Cute."
I raised my staff.
The system rippled in my mind:
[ Inquisition Mode: Available. ]
[ Warning: Minor backlash possible. ]
[ Benefit: Sinful energy extraction for charge generation. ]
I grinned.
"Oh, we're doing this today."
I stepped forward—
—but the entity beat me to it.
It thrust both hands out.
A beam erupted.
Not light.
Not fire.
A column of compressed corrupted data—like a laser made of broken equations—tearing toward me with a sound like tortured steel.
The pressure slammed across the street.
Not like wind.
Not like force.
Like a new law of physics dropped into the world without warning.
Air collapsed inward first—
a vacuum punch that sucked dust, paper, broken glass, even loose bolts across the asphalt like a gravity well had opened.
Then came the sound.
A deep, concussive boom that didn't travel through the air—
it traveled through spine,
through bone,
through every metal surface that rang like struck bell plates.
Storefront windows flexed outward before shattering entirely, exploding into glitter.
Streetlights bent.
Hydrants trembled.
The ground rippled in a visible shockwave like the whole street was made of water.
Responders were thrown backward—
feet lifted clean off the pavement, bodies tumbling across the asphalt in a scatter of equipment and curses.
Rafe slammed into a barricade, teeth clenched as he fought to stay upright.
Halden was nearly knocked from the railing—
his coat whipping sideways, hair blown back, his hand white-knuckling the metal like he was hanging off a cliff.
Every single civilian hit the ground automatically—
not because they were weak,
but because the pressure forced them into kneeling positions, bodies folding under weight they couldn't see.
A hollow ringing echoed across the district as anything metal vibrated at the same impossible frequency.
The sky itself dimmed for half a heartbeat.
Even light seemed to hesitate.
And at the center of it all—
the Codex entity stood there, palms aimed at me,
beam roaring from its hands like a ruptured dimension trying to overwrite the world.
Responders hit the ground.
Rafe shouted my name.
Halden grabbed the railing like the world tilted under him.
I didn't dodge.
I planted my staff.
Wings flared.
Aura snapped outward.
The beam collided with a burst of gold scattering like shattered constellations.
My voice dropped low—not divine mode, not Sacrament.
Just me.
"Alright, fancy code gremlin."
I pushed forward through the blast.
"Let's see what you're really made of."
The beam cracked.
Buckled.
Shattered in two.
The entity staggered, wings flickering out of sync—
And for the first time…
It looked scared.
The breach behind it pulsed in panic, like whatever was on the other side realized their pawn was losing.
The system whispered:
[ Calamity Energy Accumulated: 47% ]
[ Additional combat recommended. ]
[ Hora Dominicus: Charging… ]
Halden gasped softly behind me.
Rafe whispered:
"…is he about to—?"
I smiled at the Codex entity.
"Round three?"
It screeched—an electronic distortion—and sprinted forward, claws spreading, code unraveling, every part of it fighting with desperation.
I raised my staff—
And the whole district lit gold.