Chapter 116: The Echoes of the Code and the Village of Stolen Will
The journey south from Twilight City wasn't the heroic march it used to be. Without the "Fast Travel" nodes or the ability to ignore stamina drains, the group was forced to feel every mile in their boots. The lush plains were slowly being replaced by a jagged, gray landscape where the grass felt like rusted wire and the wind whistled in a frequency that sounded like a distorted system error.
"I'm starting to think 'Diplomatic Mission' is just Von-talk for 'Walking until our shins explode,'" Aki groaned, pulling his scarf tighter against the biting wind. "And I still haven't forgiven you for making me leave my Mayor's hat behind. I looked dignified in that hat, Von. I looked like someone who shouldn't be eating trail mix in a ditch."
Von (Volt) stopped at the crest of a hill, his eyes narrowed as he looked at a small village nestled in the valley below. "Quiet, Aki. Look at the smoke."
The smoke rising from the village chimneys wasn't gray or white. It was a flickering, neon blue.
Rena stepped forward, her hand reaching for the non-magical staff she now carried for balance. "That's not fire. That's 'Mana-Bleed.' Someone is trying to force a connection to the deleted server. They're literally burning the local atmosphere to create a temporary System-Zone."
Sai gripped the hilt of his heavy blade. "The villagers... they aren't moving naturally. Look at them."
Through a pair of rusted binoculars, Aki saw the people in the village square. They were walking in perfect, repetitive loops. One man was slamming a hammer into a fence post that was already broken, over and over again. A woman was pouring water into a bucket that was already full, her eyes blank and glazed.
"They're stuck in a loop," Aki whispered, his voice losing its usual humor. "Like... like NPCs in a glitched tutorial. This is sick, Von. Even for the Architect, this is low."
"It's not the Architect," Von said, his voice dropping an octave. "It's 'The Fragmented'—cultists who believe that a world without stats is a world without purpose. They want to be slaves to the numbers again because they're too afraid to be masters of their own lives."
The Ambush of the Glitched
As they entered the village, the air suddenly felt heavy. A blue translucent wall shimmered into existence behind them, cutting off their exit.
[SYSTEM ECHO (Distorted): Welcome... Level 0... Mortal... Warning... Intruder detected in Zone 404...]
"I hate that sound," Aki hissed, drawing his daggers. "It sounds like a fork scraping against a plate made of souls."
Suddenly, from the shadows of the houses, figures emerged. They were wearing white robes stitched with binary patterns, and their faces were covered by masks that flickered with low-resolution displays.
"The Sovereign of Twilight," the leader of the cultists spoke, his voice modulated by a cracked voice-box. "You destroyed the paradise of order. You took away our progress bars. You made us feel the passage of time without the comfort of a 'Save Game' button. For that, you must be deleted."
"You want stats?" Von stepped forward, his iridescent cloak billowing. "I'll give you a stat: 100% chance of regret."
The cultists didn't fight like regular warriors. They used 'System Remnants'—jagged shards of the old code that functioned like grenades. One cultist threw a blue sphere that, upon impact, froze the space around Sai, trapping him in a box of un-rendered pixels.
"Sai!" Rena shouted, slamming her staff into the ground. "Aki, flank them! They're relying on the zone's logic! If you move outside their 'hit-boxes,' they can't track you!"
Aki didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted toward a nearby roof, using his natural agility to leap over a series of flickering obstacles. "outside the hit-boxes? Rena, I've spent my whole life being where I'm not supposed to be! I'm the king of 'Collision Errors'!"
Aki performed a risky dive over a cultist, mid-air he pulled out a handful of 'Iron-Filings'—a trick he'd learned from a blacksmith. He threw them into the air, and as they interacted with the Mana-Bleed, they created a massive cloud of static that blinded the cultists' masks.
"Now, Von!" Aki yelled.
The Twilight Reaper Returns
Von didn't have his System-granted skills, but he had something better: the raw, untamed power of the 'Sovereign' that had merged with his soul. He closed his eyes, feeling the pulse of the world. He didn't look for 'Hit Points'; he looked for the flow of energy.
He lunged. His sword—a simple steel blade—glowed with a violet-grey light as it cut through the blue barrier. He wasn't just hitting the cultists; he was cutting the connection between them and the 'System Echo.'
"You think the numbers gave you strength?" Von roared, parrying a laser-like blast from the leader. "They only gave you an illusion! This is what real strength feels like!"
With a powerful horizontal sweep, Von unleashed a wave of twilight energy. It didn't kill the cultists, but it shattered their masks and dissolved the blue smoke. The 'System Echo' let out a final, dying screech and vanished.
The villagers instantly collapsed, the 'loops' finally broken. They were exhausted, but their eyes were clear again.
The Price of Freedom
As the dust settled, Aki was sitting on a pile of broken binary masks, panting for breath. "That... was... way too much work. My 'Stamina Bar'—which I know I'm not supposed to mention—is definitely in the red."
Rena was already busy tending to the villagers. "They'll be okay, Von. But this was just one village. The Cult of the Fragmented is spreading. They're using the people's fear of the unknown to rebuild the cage we just escaped."
Von looked at the leader of the cultists, who was now just a terrified man shivering on the ground. "The System was a drug, Rena. And like any drug, the withdrawal is painful. People would rather be predictable slaves than unpredictable free men."
Aki walked up to them, holding a small, glowing blue cube he'd found in the leader's pocket. "Hey, look at this. It's a 'Server Key.' I think I know where they're getting their power from. There's a massive underground facility about three days' walk from here. They call it 'The Archive'."
Von took the key, its cold, digital hum vibrating against his palm. "The Archive... that's where the Architect kept the original source code. If they activate the core, the System will reboot globally. This time, there will be no 'Errors' like us to stop it."
Aki groaned, looking at his worn-out boots. "Three more days of walking? Can we at least steal a cart? Or a very large goat? I'm the Mayor of Twilight City, I have a reputation to uphold!"
Von smiled, placing a hand on Aki's shoulder. "You're not the Mayor anymore, Aki. You're a Savior again. And Saviors walk. It builds character."
"I have enough character!" Aki shouted at the sky as they began to trek toward the horizon. "I want a horse! I want a horse and a very large wheel of cheese