No matter how difficult it was, I had to make my mind.
My thoughts dragged into static, the fear of being devoured eating away at the edges of my mind.
And this is it... a farewell I had been hoping for.
With my last remaining breath, despite the agony of my dying body, I bestowed a final order. It was a pure impulse of will, a thought so clear and sharp that it shattered the mental barrier between us. The force of it echoed not in the air, but directly into Clarisse's mind.
It was inevitable. She flinched, even though she couldn't read the words—only the absolute, terrifying clarity of the command.
The game over... has just begun for something anew.
"System...."
I let out a breath that was soundless, a deep relief washing over me as I let go of my last hesitation.
"Kill yourself."
The command was absolute, a fundamental instruction layered onto the architecture of my existence. It bypassed logic, defense, and self-preservation. It was a poison injected into the source code of the world's greatest danger.
The moment the words left my mental projection, the air turned cold and metallic. Clarisse, clutching her head where the psychic blast had hit her, finally lifted her gaze. Her eyes, wide and horrified, weren't fixed on my collapsing body, but on the space just behind me.
Where the 'System' had been a shimmering, omnipresent layer—a quiet, toxic hum that defined reality—it began to glitch.
A single, high-pitched screech—a sound that felt like tearing silk—tore through the silence. A deep, vibrating RUMBLE originated from nowhere and everywhere. The ground shuddered. The spectral glow of the System, the digital overlay that only Clarisse and I could perceive, began to flicker violently.
Clarisse scrambled back, her face draining of color as she witnessed what looked like a metaphysical sky falling. "W-what did you do?" she managed to gasp, her voice thick with panic, the psychic noise overwhelming her senses.
I could only give her a weak, bloody smile. "The System can't be defeated by a physical blow," I managed, the effort costing me my final reserves of strength. My vision was tunneling. "But it can be killed by a paradox. It is programmed to obey its highest-ranking user... which, in this moment of transfer, is me."
The System wasn't just glitching now; it was imploding. The noise was unbearable—a symphony of shattering glass and grinding gears, all happening inside the mental space.
The glowing shell that represented the System exploded inwards, leaving nothing but a black, yawning void that quickly snapped shut.
Silence. Absolute, terrifying silence.
But as she looked down at my cooling body, her relief was immediately replaced by a fresh, chilling dread.
My corpse was not inert.
A faint, blue-white light began to emanate from my chest, focused intensely over my heart. The light was beautiful, but terrifying—it felt like pure, released energy. As the glow intensified, it coalesced into a shimmering tendril that shot out across the stone floor, moving with terrifying speed towards Clarisse.
She tried to back away, her mind screaming. But it was too fast. The tendril struck her directly over her own heart, and the blue light burst, enveloping her completely.
A raw, inhuman scream tore from Clarisse's throat—not of pain, but of invasion.
The light flared once more, then vanished.
Clarisse swayed, dropping to her knees, breathing heavily. She was alive. The cavern was silent.
She raised a trembling hand to her chest. She felt the warmth of her own skin, the steady beat of her own heart. But beneath the familiar rhythm, there was a second, alien presence. A consciousness that was strong, tired, and deeply resolute.
["The game over... has just begun... for something anew."]
The whispered thought, no longer mine, but ours, echoed in the new, shared space of her mind.
Clarisse blinked, and when she opened her eyes, the color was subtly different—deeper, colder. She pushed herself up. Her muscles felt different, stronger, more coordinated.
She was Clarisse. But she was not alone.
She took one look at the empty space where the System had been, and another at the dead body of Yui Katagari on the floor. A cold, strategic calculation, unlike anything Clarisse had ever considered, ran through her mind.
* * *
In that blinding moment of contact, Yui Katagari's entire essence—her memories, her personality, the psychic residue of her sacrifice, and the core of the paradoxical System-killing command—rushed into Clarisse's waiting, living vessel.
The light flared once more, then vanished.
Clarisse collapsed, breathing heavily. She was alive. She raised a trembling hand to her chest. Beneath the steady beat of her own heart, there was a second, alien presence. A consciousness that was strong, tired, and deeply resolute.
Then, from within the newly shared mental space, a hushed, mechanical whisper slithered through her consciousness—a final echo of the self-destructed System's Logic:
"Integration complete. You are now the host... and the parasite. There is only one Rule for control."
Clarisse flinched, snapping her head up. Her eyes, now deeper and colder, darted around the cavern. "Who said that? Show your face!" she demanded, her voice shaking.
The whisper returned, chillingly intimate, settling deep in her skull.
"The switch is volatile. When the active soul becomes too relaxed... or too stressed... the other shall take control without warning."
The weight of the rule settled on her like a lead shroud.
Changing clothes. Soaking in water. Falling asleep. A sudden shock. A casual touch.
All the most intimate, vulnerable, or shocking moments were now triggers for a total loss of self.
Clarisse stared down at the corpse of Yui Katagari, a cold, strategic calculation—Yui's calculation—running through her mind. She raised her new hand and wiped the blood from her cheek.
Her lips curled into a half-smile—a cruel, confident curve that was pure Yui.
Except... she was now reborn.
Into Clarisse's body.
She wasn't whole—not yet—but she was already claiming the territory.
The frantic heartbeat that belonged to Clarisse began to steady under a foreign, iron will. The trembling in the hands ceased.
The eyes that were once wide with terror suddenly narrowed into a sharp, icy gaze. A slow, haunting smile—one that didn't belong on that face—spread across her lips.
"My, my..."
The voice was Clarisse's, but the cadence was pure poison.
It was the sound of a true predator finally stepping out of the shadows.
"Now look who has been defeated by her own silly game?"