The shadow lunged.
Carter barely had time to raise his dagger before the thing hit him like a collapsing wall of gravity. The impact hurled him backward across the dead zone, his back slamming into the dirt hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.
He rolled, coughing, vision swimming.
"REI—what is that thing?!"
Her voice crackled with static. "A correction agent. A fragment of the entity attempting to erase you. It should NOT be able to manifest physically."
"Yeah, well—it's doing a great job anyway!"
The agent rose from the ground without bending, its limbs unfolding like broken geometry snapping into place. Its body wasn't flesh — it was a silhouette made of shifting void, a humanoid outline filled with glitching static and violet cracks.
It didn't walk.
It slid.
Straight toward him.
Carter scrambled to his feet and slashed with Twin Arc. Two blades of kinetic force tore through the air—
—and passed straight through the agent.
The shadow rippled, unharmed.
Carter's stomach dropped. "REI—my attacks aren't landing!"
"They are landing," REI said. "They simply do not matter. It is not fully in this plane."
"Then how do I hit it?!"
"You must anchor it."
"Anchor it with WHAT?!"
REI flickered violently. "Your mana signature. The trace it left inside you."
Carter froze. "You want me to use the thing that's trying to kill me… to fight the thing trying to kill me?"
"Yes."
The agent's head snapped toward him.
A sound like tearing metal filled the clearing.
Then it lunged again.
Carter dodged sideways, barely avoiding the swipe of a hand that left a trail of violet distortion in the air. The ground where the attack landed erased — not cracked, not burned, but simply vanished, leaving a smooth, empty void.
Carter's heart hammered. "REI, that thing just deleted the ground!"
"It is attempting to delete you."
"Fantastic!"
The agent lunged again.
Carter raised his dagger — too slow.
The shadow's hand closed around his throat.
Cold.
Empty.
Wrong.
Carter choked, kicking wildly as the agent lifted him off the ground. His vision blurred. The System flickered violently.
> [ERASURE IN PROGRESS]
> [ANCHOR DESTABILIZING]
REI screamed. "CARTER — USE THE TRACE!"
Carter's fingers trembled. He reached inward — toward the strange, foreign pulse inside his mana. The trace the entity left. The thing he feared.
He grabbed it.
And pulled.
A surge of violet energy exploded from his chest, blasting outward in a shockwave.
The agent recoiled, its grip breaking.
Carter collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
The agent staggered — for the first time — its form flickering violently, cracks spreading across its silhouette like shattered glass.
REI's voice sharpened. "You anchored it. Now you can hit it."
Carter rose to his feet, dagger trembling in his hand.
The agent steadied, turning its faceless head toward him.
It spoke for the first time.
A voice like layered static.
"Return to your endpoint."
Carter tightened his grip. "Not happening."
He activated Twin Arc again — but this time, the kinetic blades slammed into the agent with a thunderous crack, sending it skidding backward across the clearing.
The shadow shrieked — a sound like a corrupted file being torn apart.
Carter didn't stop.
He charged.
Slash.
Slash.
Slash.
Each hit landed now, each impact sending ripples of distortion through the agent's form.
REI's voice rose. "Carter — its stability is collapsing! Finish it!"
The agent lunged in desperation, its arm stretching unnaturally, reaching for Carter's chest.
Carter ducked under the swipe, planted his feet, and drove his dagger upward in a clean, brutal arc.
The blade pierced the agent's core.
A burst of violet light erupted outward.
The shadow froze.
Cracked.
Shattered.
And dissolved into drifting particles of static.
Silence fell.
Carter stood in the center of the dead zone, chest heaving, dagger shaking in his hand.
REI floated closer, her glow soft. "You… you defeated a correction agent."
Carter swallowed hard. "Barely."
"No," REI said. "You did something impossible."
The System flickered back to life.
A new notification appeared.
> [QUEST COMPLETE: Divergent Path — Phase 1]
> Reward Unlocked: Class Evolution Path (Accessible)
> New Objective: Survive the next correction attempt
Carter stared at the glowing text.
"REI… this isn't stopping, is it?"
She shook her head slowly.
"No. It has only begun."
Carter exhaled, steadying himself.
"Then we keep moving."
He stepped out of the dead zone.
The world had tried to erase him.
Now?
He was ready to erase back.