"Let's write a better ending."
I said it with bravado, but as my fingers hovered over the keys of the antique typewriter, I realized I had no idea how to actually do that.
The keys weren't marked with letters. They were marked with runes that shifted and writhed like living ink. One second the 'A' key looked like a flame, the next it looked like a screaming face.
"Don't just stare at it," the Editor snapped, his ink-body rippling as the bunker shook from an explosion outside. "The deletion wave has already consumed the perimeter. If you don't stabilize the narrative thread in thirty seconds, we turn into error codes."
"It's not QWERTY!" I yelled back, panic rising. "How do I type on this?"
"You don't type letters," the Editor said, floating closer. "You type intent. The machine translates willpower into reality. But be warned: it costs."
"Costs what? Mana?"
"Sanity."
Outside the heavy vault door, the sound of combat erupted.
BOOM.
"Hold the line!" Kaelen's voice roared, echoing down the metal corridor.
I glanced at the monitor screen—the GPS device I'd placed on the desk. It showed a swarm of red dots converging on the Relay Point.
"Ren!" Ria shouted, standing by the doorway with her dagger drawn. "Less chatting, more typing! Kaelen just kicked a guy in the face, but there are at least twenty of them!"
I looked back at the paper.
The Hero fails. The world loops. I can't fix the Kaelen variable. He always turns.
The Architect had given up. He believed Kaelen's descent into villainy was inevitable. That was the "bug" in the code.
I reached out and grabbed the carriage return lever. It was cold as ice. I yanked it. The paper slid up.
I focused. I needed to rewrite the condition. If Kaelen turns because he is isolated, then the solution wasn't power. It was connection.
I pressed a key.
Pain.
A sharp, electric jolt shot up my arm and exploded behind my eyes. It felt like someone had driven a nail into my frontal lobe. I gasped, doubling over.
[Mental Stability: 75%]
"Focus!" the Editor barked.
I gritted my teeth. I forced my hand down again.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The keys hit the paper with the sound of gunshots. The runes burned into the page, glowing gold.
The Hero...
My vision blurred.
...does not stand alone.
Outside, the battle was getting desperate.
"Tybalt! Wall!" Kaelen screamed.
"I'm trying!" Tybalt shrieked. "Earth Wall!"
A rumble shook the bunker. I could hear the grinding of stone against metal. Then, a metallic clang and a sizzle.
"They have Null-Iron!" Cian yelled, his voice cracking. "My gravity spells are bouncing off their shields! Ren! Hurry!"
Null-Iron. The Iron Covenant's signature metal. It disrupted magical waveforms. Against mages, they were walking tanks.
I slammed the keys harder, ignoring the blood dripping from my nose.
He trusts...
[Mental Stability: 60%]
The room started to spin. The white walls of the bunker seemed to bleed, turning into lines of scrolling green code.
...his team.
I hit the period key.
PING.
The typewriter dinged. A wave of golden light pulsed out from the machine, passing through me, through the walls, and out into the crater.
[Narrative Correction Applied.]
[Sector Stability: Restoring...]
[The Kaelen Variable: Updated.]
The shaking stopped. The "glitchy" feeling in the air vanished.
"Did it work?" Ria asked, looking around.
"I think so," I wheezed, wiping my face. My hand came away red. "The forest didn't delete itself."
"Great," Ria said, turning back to the door. "Now we just have to deal with the army that wants to delete us."
She looked out into the corridor. "Ren, we have a problem. They aren't just trying to get in. They're setting up a Mana-Breaker."
"A what?"
"A siege cannon," Kaelen said, backing into the room. He was bleeding from a cut on his cheek, and his sword was chipped. Tybalt and Cian stumbled in behind him, looking terrified.
Kaelen slammed the control panel on the wall. The heavy vault door began to slide shut.
"Hold it!" a voice shouted from outside.
A metal gauntlet jammed into the gap between the closing doors.
It was the Scarred Mercenary—or someone who looked like him. No, this guy was bigger. Armor plated in dull grey metal.
"Open it," the soldier growled. "By order of the Covenant."
Kaelen didn't hesitate. He kicked the gauntlet.
Crunch.
The soldier yelled and yanked his hand back. The door slammed shut and sealed with a heavy thud.
We were safe. For now.
"Okay," Tybalt panted, sliding down the wall. "We're trapped in a box. With a skeleton. And a ghost made of ink. This is the worst field trip ever."
"We bought time," Kaelen said, checking his sword. "But that door won't hold against a Mana-Breaker for long. Maybe ten minutes."
He looked at me. "Ren. You look like a corpse. What did you do?"
"Rewrite," I mumbled, leaning back in the Architect's chair. "Fixed the sky. You're welcome."
I looked at the skeleton sitting next to me. The Architect.
Now that the panic of typing was over, I noticed something. The hoodie the skeleton was wearing... it wasn't fantasy cloth. It was a cotton blend. And on the zipper, there was a small, rusted metal tag.
I leaned in closer.
Property of MIT Robotics Lab.
My breath hitched.
MIT? Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
This wasn't just another transmigrator from a random world. The Architect was from my world. Or a version of it.
"Ren?" Cian asked, stepping closer. "What is it?"
"Nothing," I said quickly. I reached into the skeleton's hoodie pocket.
My fingers brushed against something hard and plastic. I pulled it out.
It was a keycard. A plain, white plastic keycard with a magnetic strip. And a photo ID.
The photo was faded, but I could make out a young man with glasses and a messy beard.
Name: Arthur Penhaligon.
Project: Aethelgard Simulation.
Access Level: Admin.
I shoved the card into my pocket before anyone else could see.
"Simulation," I whispered.
"Ren!" Ria snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Focus! The cannon outside? The impending death?"
"Right," I said, shaking my head. "The cannon."
I looked at the Editor. The ink figure was floating near the ceiling, looking bored.
"Hey," I said. "You're the Editor. Can't you just... delete the cannon?"
"I manage the narrative flow, not the combat encounters," the Editor said. "Besides, the Covenant uses Null-Iron. I can't touch them directly. They exist outside the standard magic system. That's why they're such a pain."
"So we have to fight them physically," Kaelen said. "There are twenty of them. We have five. And one sword."
"And a dagger," Ria added.
"And dirt," Tybalt offered weakly.
"And a typewriter," I said, looking at the machine.
An idea formed. A stupid, desperate idea.
"Cian," I said. "Come here."
The genius boy trotted over. "Yes?"
"This machine," I pointed to the typewriter. "It channels willpower into reality, right? But it connects to the Source Code."
I looked at the glowing crystal in the skeleton's hand.
"What happens if we overload the output?"
Cian squinted at the crystal. "Overload it? You mean... create a feedback loop?"
"I mean," I said, pointing at the massive bundle of cables running from the typewriter into the floor, "this place is a Relay Point. It broadcasts a signal to the whole forest. If we change the signal frequency..."
Cian's eyes went wide. "We could hijack the local mana field. Instead of broadcasting 'Stability', we could broadcast..."
"Noise," I finished. "High-frequency sonic noise."
"Like a screech?" Ria asked.
"Like a banshee screaming into a microphone," I said. "The Covenant wears heavy plate armor. Null-Iron blocks magic, but it vibrates like a tuning fork if you hit the right sound frequency."
Kaelen looked at the door. THUD. The first hit from the Mana-Breaker cannon shook the room. Dust fell from the ceiling.
"Do it," Kaelen said.
"Cian, I need you to hotwire the crystal to the broadcast array," I ordered. "Tybalt, reinforce the door. Buy us time."
"On it!" Tybalt ran to the door and slapped his hands on the metal. "Stone Fuse!" He began merging the stone floor with the metal doorframe, sealing it tighter.
Cian scrambled under the desk, pulling at wires. "I need a conductor! Something to bridge the gap!"
I looked around. I didn't have wire.
"Ria," I said. "Your coin."
"My what?"
"The gold coin. It's conductive and holds a mana charge."
Ria hesitated for a split second, then tossed it to Cian. "If you melt it, you owe me a castle."
Cian jammed the coin between two sparking terminals.
"Ren!" Cian yelled. "Type something! Anything! I need a signal spike!"
I sat back at the typewriter. My head was pounding, but I raised my hands.
THUD. The door buckled inward. A dent the size of a melon appeared in the center.
"They're breaking through!" Kaelen shouted, bracing his shoulder against the metal.
I slammed my hands on the keys. I didn't type a sentence this time. I typed raw, chaotic noise.
JGSDF^&%#@!!!!
HUMMMMM.
The crystal on the desk flared blindingly bright. A high-pitched whine filled the room, escalating instantly to a bone-rattling shriek.
But it didn't hurt us. The broadcast array directed the sound outward.
Outside the door, the banging stopped.
Then came the screaming.
"MY EARS!"
"THE ARMOR! IT'S VIBRATING!"
"RETREAT! FALL BACK!"
The Null-Iron armor, designed to stop magic, was acting as a perfect resonance chamber for the sonic attack. It was shaking them apart inside their own suits.
"Keep typing!" Cian yelled, holding the coin in place as sparks flew around him.
I mashed the keys like a madman.
GAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
[Asset Library Updated: Sonic Resonance (Temporary)]
After ten seconds, the crystal flickered and died. The typewriter smoked.
Silence returned to the corridor outside.
Kaelen stepped back from the door, sword raised. He listened.
Groans. The sound of metal clattering on stone. Retreating footsteps.
"They're gone," Kaelen breathed. "Or incapacitated."
I slumped over the typewriter. "I think... I broke the 'R' key."
The Editor floated down, looking mildly impressed. "Weaponizing the narrative broadcast system. Crude. Ugly. But effective."
"We need to move," I said, standing up on shaky legs. "That cannon is still out there. They'll come back with earplugs."
"We go up," Ria said. "The elevator shaft."
She pointed to a hatch in the ceiling I hadn't noticed.
"Wait," I said. I looked at the skeleton one last time.
"We can't leave him," I said. "He... he's the reason we're here."
"He's bones, Ren," Ria said gently.
"He's a warning," I corrected. I grabbed the Source Code crystal from the skeleton's hand. It was warm.
[Item Acquired: Source Code Fragment (1/5)]
[Target for Ending: 20%]
The number jumped. 20%.
"Let's go," I said.
We scrambled up the maintenance ladder in the shaft. We emerged back into the crater, but on the far side, hidden by the piles of excavated dirt.
The scene below was chaos. Covenant soldiers were writhing on the ground, clutching their helmets. The massive Mana-Breaker cannon sat silent.
We slipped into the forest, bypassing the "Glitchy" zone which had now stabilized into normal trees.
We ran north for another hour until we hit the main road leading out of the Forest of Whispers.
When we finally stopped to rest, the sun was rising properly. A real sun.
"We did it," Tybalt whispered, collapsing onto the grass. "We tagged the flag. We survived the army. We fixed the sky."
"And we found this," I said, holding up the crystal shard.
Kaelen looked at it. "What is it, really?"
"It's a piece of the truth," I said. "The Iron Covenant wants to destroy the world because they think it's broken. This..." I squeezed the crystal. "This proves they might be right. But we can fix it."
I looked at the group.
Kaelen, the Hero who didn't turn.
Ria, the Rogue who fought for free.
Cian, the Genius who weaponized sound.
Tybalt, the Sidekick who held the door.
"This is our long-term goal," I said. "There are four more of these fragments hidden in the world. The Architect left them. If we find them all, we don't just save the kingdom."
I looked at the ID card in my pocket, thinking of 'Arthur Penhaligon'.
"We break the loop," I said. "We finish the story."
Kaelen stood up and offered me a hand.
"Then we'd better get back to class," he said, a smirk playing on his lips. "I think we have a lot of explaining to do about why Vance is tied to a tree covered in wasp stings."
I laughed, taking his hand.
[Arc 1: Arrival & Early Experiments - COMPLETE]
[Arc 2: The Academy's Shadow - BEGINNING]
"Let's go home," I said.
But as we walked away, I felt a vibration in my pocket. Not the GPS. Not Ria's coin.
The ID card.
I pulled it out secretly. The magnetic strip was glowing. A text scrolled across the plastic surface.
Admin Access Recognized.
Welcome back, Arthur.
Beware the Editor. He is not what he seems.
I stared at the card, then looked up at the ink ghost floating invisibly behind us.
The Editor waved.
I shoved the card back in my pocket.
"Yeah," I whispered. "I figured."