The gray sedan screamed around the corner of Arthur's childhood street.
Arthur didn't need his Spirit Vision to see the disaster. The sky above his apartment building was no longer blue; it was a swirling vortex of violet clouds, and the air tasted like ozone and copper. The building itself looked like a digital photograph that had been corrupted—floors were stuttering, walls were flickering between brick and transparent code.
[SYSTEM ALERT: REALITY ANCHOR UNDER ATTACK]
[NODE: 'HOME' – ERASURE IN PROGRESS: 42%]
"They're deleting the building," Elena whispered, her face pale as she stared at the laptop. "If they erase the place where you grew up, the System will treat you as a 'Null Variable.' You'll lose your physical form, Arthur."
"Not on my watch," Arthur growled.
He jumped out of the car before it even fully stopped. His mother, Mary, was still dazed in the backseat, protected by Sarah.
"Sarah, stay with her! If anything with glowing eyes comes near this car, kill it!"
[The Glitch-Walk]
Arthur sprinted toward the apartment. As he crossed the threshold of the lobby, the world tilted. Gravity shifted 45 degrees. The stairs were no longer made of wood; they were floating cubes of data.
[WARNING: VOLATILE ZONE. SURVIVE OR BE REWRITTEN.]
Small, spider-like drones made of glass and wire—Scrubbers—were crawling over the walls, literally eating the wallpaper and leaving behind a void of white static.
Arthur didn't waste time. He summoned a Phantom Grip, but instead of a hand, he formed a massive spectral hammer. With one swing, he smashed a dozen Scrubbers into sparkling dust.
"You're too late, Arthur," a voice echoed from the third-floor landing.
It was Julian Thorne. But it wasn't the Julian he knew. His skin was translucent, showing the violet gears and wires underneath. He had been fully "Overwritten." He was no longer a person; he was an Avatar of the System.
[The Duel of Two Timelines]
"The Architect offered me a choice," the Julian-Avatar said, his voice a chorus of digital echoes. "Lose everything and die a beggar, or become the Guardian of this Node. I chose to survive."
Julian raised his hand, and the hallway transformed. The walls folded inward like origami, turning the corridor into a cramped, pressurized tube.
[BOSS ENCOUNTER: JULIAN (SYSTEM AVATAR) – LVL 22]
Julian fired beams of pure "Erasure" energy. Where the beams hit, the world simply ceased to exist.
Arthur used Timeline Echo to dance through the fire. He saw the beams five seconds before they fired, weaving through the collapsing reality. But he couldn't get close. The Julian-Avatar was controlling the very geometry of the room.
"I can't hit him if he controls the space!" Arthur yelled.
"Use the Fragment, Arthur." Elena's voice came through his earpiece. "You have Level 2 access now. Don't just fight the reality—EDIT it!"
[The Ultimate Edit]
Arthur skidded to a halt as a beam of violet light erased the floor inches from his feet. He closed his eyes, focusing on the sapphire glow of the Core Fragment in his chest.
[SKILL: REALITY EDIT (RANK: F) → EVOLVING...]
[NEW COMMAND: 'DEFINE SANCTUARY']
"This is MY home!" Arthur roared.
He slammed his palms onto the flickering floor. A shockwave of blue light erupted from his hands. The violet corruption didn't just stop; it was forced backward. The white static turned back into brick. The floating cubes became stairs again.
[EDIT SUCCESSFUL: NODE STABILIZED AT 50%]
[CONSEQUENCE: SEVERE INTERNAL BLEEDING]
Arthur coughed up blood, but he didn't stop. He lunged forward through the stabilized hallway. Julian-Avatar, shocked by the sudden loss of control, tried to reform a shield of code.
Arthur was faster. He summoned Phantom Grip, but this time he didn't grab Julian's body. He grabbed the violet core visible through Julian's translucent chest.
"You aren't Julian anymore," Arthur hissed. "You're just a virus."
He pulled.
The violet core was ripped out of Julian's chest with a sound like shattering glass. The Avatar collapsed, his body dissolving into gray ash before he even hit the floor.
[The Architect's Warning]
The building stopped shaking. The sky outside returned to a bruised evening purple. But as Arthur stood in the middle of his ruined childhood hallway, the white static gathered at the end of the hall, forming a familiar shape.
It was the Chrome King—the Future Arthur.
He wasn't a projection this time. He was a solid, towering presence. He walked toward Arthur, his every step making the floor groan. He stopped inches from Arthur's face.
"Good," the King whispered, his voice like grinding metal. "You saved the house. But look at your hands, Arthur."
Arthur looked down. His fingertips were starting to turn into transparent, flickering pixels.
"The more you edit reality to save your past, the more of your future you burn," the King smiled. "I am not your enemy, little Ghost. I am your inevitability. Every time you 'win,' you take one step closer to sitting on my throne."
The King vanished, leaving behind a single object on the floor: a second Core Fragment, glowing a dark, bloody red.
[NOTIFICATION: CORE FRAGMENT 2/7 ACQUIRED]
[WARNING: SYSTEM ACCESS LEVEL 3 REACHED – 'THE ARCHITECT'S EYES' UNLOCKED]
Arthur picked up the fragment. He could feel its hunger.