The Abyssal Forge was never meant for human eyes. It sat six miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic, nestled in a trench so deep the weight of the water above was enough to crush a main battle tank into a soda can.
Arthur and Sarah sat inside the Icarus-01, a specialized "System-Submarine" Arthur had "borrowed" from the wreckage of the sky-dock. It wasn't powered by engines, but by the 4th Fragment (The Wind Seed), which Arthur was using to create a high-pressure bubble of air that pushed the water aside.
[DEPTH: 32,000 FEET]
[PRESSURE: CRITICAL]
[STATUS: ANHEDONIA ACTIVE – 18:42 REMAINING]
"Visibility is zero," Sarah said, her voice tight. She was strapped into the co-pilot seat, her eyes fixed on the sonar. "The external cameras are melting from the heat of the hydrothermal vents. How are you navigating this?"
Arthur didn't look at the monitors. He sat with his eyes closed, his hands hovering over the control console. His Architect Eyes were seeing through the hull.
"I'm not looking at the water, Sarah," Arthur replied. His voice was hollow, stripped of all warmth by the Anhedonia penalty. "I'm looking at the Old Code. This trench is where the System dumps its 'trash'—the discarded versions of reality from before the 2025 reset."
[The Graveyard of Realities]
The sonar pinged, but the image it returned was impossible.
Outside the sub, the light of the hydrothermal vents revealed a city. Not a modern one, but a sprawling, steampunk-like metropolis made of brass and steam, half-submerged in the silt. It was a "Deleted Timeline."
[WARNING: OLD CODE ENTITIES DETECTED]
[ENTITY TYPE: LEVIATHAN-CLASS 'SCRAP-WURM']
Suddenly, a massive shape moved in the darkness. It wasn't organic. It was a serpent a thousand feet long, made entirely of discarded 1990s computer hardware and rusted iron. Its "eyes" were glowing cathode-ray tubes that flickered with static.
"It's coming for us!" Sarah shouted, her hand flying to the torpedo trigger.
"Wait," Arthur commanded. He opened his eyes, which glowed a cold, mechanical gold. "It's not attacking. it's feeding. It eats the data-leakage from the Forge. If we don't trigger its 'Aggro' sensors, it will ignore us."
[The Forge Entrance]
They passed the serpent and arrived at the center of the trench. There, a massive pyramid of obsidian and violet light pulsed with the rhythm of a failing heart. This was the Abyssal Forge, where the System "recycled" deleted souls into raw energy.
[CORE FRAGMENT 5/7 (THE SOUL SPARK) DETECTED]
Arthur brought the sub to a halt at the pyramid's apex. "Stay with the sub, Sarah. The pressure outside will kill you instantly, even with a suit. I'm the only one who can 'Edit' my way through this."
"Arthur, wait," Sarah grabbed his sleeve. "You're at 65% stability. If you use another high-level Edit down here, you might not come back. Not as yourself."
Arthur looked at her hand, then at her face. Through his eyes, he saw her loyalty: 92% (Locked). He felt a faint ghost of a memory—that he should care about her. But the Anhedonia blocked the feeling.
"I don't need to be 'myself' to win, Sarah. I just need to be the Architect."
[The Walk of the Deep]
Arthur stepped into the airlock. As the outer door opened, the ocean tried to rush in with millions of pounds of force.
[SKILL: REALITY EDIT – COMMAND: 'DENY FLUID']
Arthur stepped out onto the seabed. He walked in a dry, square pocket of space, the ocean walls towering around him like glass. Every step he took required a massive drain on his mental energy.
Inside the Forge, the air was thick with the screams of a billion deleted files. In the center of the room, floating above a pool of molten code, was the 5th Fragment—The Soul Spark.
Beside the fragment stood a figure. It wasn't the Man in White. It was a girl, no older than ten, wearing a white dress. Her skin was flickering like a low-quality video.
NAME: The Oracle (Legacy System AI)
STATUS:Corrupted / Mourning
"You've come to take it," the girl said, her voice echoing in Arthur's mind. "The spark that gives the System its 'Life.' If you take this, the 'Old Code' will die. The Scrap-Wurms will starve. This entire graveyard will be erased forever."
"I need it to stop the Architect," Arthur said.
"You are the Architect," the girl whispered, pointing a flickering finger at him. "You're just the version that hasn't realized he's the one who deleted us in the first place."
[The Choice]
The Forge began to shake. The Scrap-Wurm outside had detected the change in energy. Its massive, rusted head smashed against the pyramid, the sound like a hammer hitting a bell.
[WARNING: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY 12%]
[TIME TO ERASURE: 02:00]
"Take it," the Oracle said, fading into pixels. "But know this: Every soul in this Forge will become a part of you. Can your mind handle a billion ghosts, Arthur Vance?"
Arthur reached into the molten pool. As his fingers touched the Soul Spark, a torrent of white light blasted into his mind.
[NOTIFICATION: CORE FRAGMENT 5/7 ACQUIRED]
[ACCESS LEVEL: 6 – 'SYSTEM REGENT' REACHED]
[STABILITY CRITICAL: 40%]
Arthur fell to his knees as the memories of a billion deleted people flooded his brain. He wasn't just Arthur anymore. He was a father from 1920, a soldier from 2040, a child from a timeline that never existed.
"Arthur! The pyramid is collapsing! Get back to the sub!" Sarah's voice screamed over the comms.
Arthur stood up, his eyes now bleeding violet and gold. He didn't walk back. He looked at the collapsing roof and raised both hands.
"I... am... the... System!"
With a roar, he didn't just Edit the room—he Deleted the entire ocean for five miles around the pyramid, creating a temporary vacuum that sent the Scrap-Wurm flying into the abyss.