Chapter 13: The Bridge of Souls
The green pulse from Emily's rifle didn't hit David's chest. At the very last millisecond, the Breath of the Wind flared in his lungs, and he tilted his body just enough for the blast to sear the air where his heart had been.
BOOM.
The stone wall behind David vaporized. He didn't counter-attack. He simply stood there, his eyes burning with a mix of violet flame and cold, obsidian grief.
"Your heart," Emily whispered, her rifle shaking in her grip. "Even now, it's faster than the system's tracking."
"The system didn't give me this heart, Emily," David said, his voice echoing in the narrowing corridor. "I earned it in the Void while the Saint was sitting on a throne of code."
[Warning: The Labyrinth is Collapsing]
[Current Candidates: 7]
[Arena Shrinkage: 60 seconds until Sector 4 is deleted]
The ground beneath them began to disintegrate into glowing blue cubes. The "Bridge of Souls"—a narrow, translucent walkway spanning a pit of raw, turbulent data—was the only path forward. At the end of that bridge stood a massive, golden gate.
And standing in front of that gate was a silhouette wreathed in blinding white light. Rank 1: The Saint.
"He's watching us," Emily said, her voice cracking. "He's waiting for the sacrifice, David! If I don't give you to him, he'll delete us both!"
"Then let him try," David growled.
He moved. Storm-Step turned him into a blur of silver mist. He appeared in front of Emily, but he didn't strike her. Instead, he grabbed the barrel of her rifle and twisted it upward.
"I'm not going to be your stepping stone to a fake heaven," David hissed.
He slammed his palm into her shoulder—not with Soul-Burn, but with a pure concussive blast of wind. Emily was sent flying back toward the edge of the dissolving Bridge. She tumbled, her rifle clattering into the abyss of data below.
"David! Wait!" she screamed, reaching out as she hung over the edge of the Bridge of Souls.
David stood at the center of the bridge. To his left was the Golden Gate and the Saint—the path to the Eternity Realm. To his right, hidden behind a flickering, glitched pillar of rusted metal, was the path back to the Under-City Backdoor.
[Opportunity 'The Lone Ancestor' – 24 Hours Remaining]
[Exit Threshold: You must sacrifice 50% of your Soul Force to break the simulation's lock.]
Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump.
The Pulse of Providence was screaming. It was a chaotic mess of Dread and Fortune.
"Candidate 6," the Saint's voice boomed from the end of the bridge. It was a voice of pure authority, devoid of any human emotion. "The girl has failed. Her will was brittle. But you... you carry the Primal Heart. Bring it to me, and I will bypass the Cull. You alone shall advance."
David looked at the Saint. He looked at the "Heaven" beyond the gate—it looked like a perfect, sterile Lagos, where no one ever cried, no one ever bled, and no one was truly alive. It was a museum for souls.
Then he looked at Emily. She was clinging to the edge of the bridge, her amber eyes wide with terror. She wasn't a goddess. She wasn't a traitor. She was just a scared girl who had been tricked into thinking her only choice was to climb over his corpse.
"The Saint is right about one thing," David said, walking toward Emily. "The gate needs a sacrifice."
"David... please..." Emily sobbed.
David reached down and grabbed her hand. He pulled her up, but he didn't stop there. He leaned in close to her ear.
"The 5th Blessing isn't behind that gate, Emily. It's back on Earth. The real Earth. The one you called a wasteland."
"What are you doing?"
David grabbed the obsidian stone in his chest—the Primal Heart—and forced it to beat in a reverse frequency. He felt his veins screaming as he began to pour his Soul Force—the very energy that made him Rank 6—directly into Emily.
[Warning: Soul Force Depletion Detected]
[Rank 6 -> 8 -> 12 -> 15...]
"You wanted Godhood?" David whispered as Emily's body began to glow with a blinding green and silver light. "Take it. Take the rank. Take the target. I'm going home."
He shoved her toward the Saint. Because she now possessed David's residual Ancestral energy, the System flagged her as the "Successor."
[Rank Update: Emily – Rank 4]
[Condition Met: Top 4 Identified]
[The Gate to the Eternity Realm is Opening]
The Saint reached out, his golden hand closing around Emily's wrist. He didn't care who it was, as long as the energy was sufficient. Emily looked back at David, her face a mask of horror and confusion as she was pulled toward the blinding light of the gate.
"DAVID!"
The gate slammed shut, the golden light vanishing.
David stood alone on the crumbling bridge. He was no longer Rank 6. He was Rank 20. The lowest of the low. A candidate with almost no Soul Force left, standing in a deleting world.
But his heart gave a light, steady Pitter-patter.
[Backdoor 009: Status Open]
[Location: Earth-Prime]
David turned away from the "Heaven" he had rejected and jumped into the dark, rusted pit of the Under-City.