The courtyard of Westminster was no longer made of stone. Under the influence of the Zero-Point, the ground had become a liquid mirror, reflecting a sky that was being swallowed by white static.
Arthur stood ten paces from his future self—the Chrome King. Between them sat the Zero-Point, a black sphere the size of a marble that held the compressed data of the entire planet.
[SYSTEM STATUS: FINAL UPDATE – 00:03:59]
[SYNC RATE: 94%]
"Look at her, Arthur," the Chrome King said, gesturing toward Sarah, who stood trembling behind Arthur. "In every other version of this story, she is a memory. A ghost. A 'Motivation.' But here she is. Flesh and blood. Don't you want to keep her?"
"Not like this," Arthur said. He gripped the Architect's Key so hard his knuckles turned white. "You're not saving her. You're 'Pinning' her to a dead world. You're turning her into a museum exhibit."
[The Duel of the Architects]
The Man in White moved first. He didn't use a blade; he simply pointed at Arthur and commanded: [ERASE: TARGET_LEGS].
Arthur's knees began to dissolve into pixels.
[COUNTER-COMMAND: 'RESTORE_EXISTENCE']
Arthur slammed his staff down. The gold light of his Key met the white void of the Man's power. The shockwave shattered the remaining windows of Westminster Abbey.
"Sarah, get to the Zero-Point!" Arthur roared. "If you can touch the sphere, your 'Human Signature' will act as a virus! It'll stop the update!"
Sarah didn't hesitate. She sprinted across the liquid floor. The Chrome King laughed, a hollow, digital sound. He raised his hand, and the gravity around Sarah increased by 1000%.
"She stays," the King whispered.
[The Glitch in the King]
Arthur lunged. He didn't target the King; he targeted the Time-Gear (6th Fragment) inside himself.
[SKILL: CHRONO-STUTTER – COMMAND: 'OVERCLOCK SELF']
Arthur moved so fast he became a blur of golden light. He collided with the Chrome King, and for a split second, their code merged. Arthur saw the King's memories—ten thousand years of loneliness, ten thousand years of watching Sarah die in car crashes, sickness, and war. He felt the King's crushing grief.
"You think I'm the villain?" the King's voice screamed inside Arthur's head. "I am the only one who loved her enough to break reality!"
"No," Arthur gasped, his hands locked around the King's throat. "You're the only one who didn't love her enough to let her go."
[The Human Variable]
While the two Arthurs were locked in a struggle of wills, the Man in White stepped toward Sarah. He raised his hand to delete her—to remove the "Anomaly" that was causing the Architects to fight.
"You are the error in the equation," the Man in White said.
But Sarah Vance didn't look at the Man in White. She looked at the Zero-Point. She saw the black sphere pulsing, and she saw the $10 bill Arthur had dropped during the fight.
She grabbed the bill. It was the only object in the courtyard that wasn't "System-Generated." It was a piece of the old, dirty, imperfect world.
As the Man in White's deletion beam hit her, she slammed the $10 bill into the Zero-Point.
[CRITICAL ERROR: NON-SYSTEM DATA DETECTED IN CORE]
[SOURCE: UNIDENTIFIED_PAPER_CURRENCY]
[INCOMPATIBLE_FORMAT: 'REALITY_V1.0']
The Zero-Point turned from black to a chaotic, screaming red. The "Final Update" stopped.
[The Crash]
"No!" the Chrome King screamed, his body beginning to unravel like a loose sweater. "The Archive! It's corrupting!"
The White Wall outside didn't just stop; it began to vomit back everything it had eaten. Cars, trees, and buildings were spat out in a jumble of broken geometry.
Arthur felt the 7th Fragment—the Black Box—vibrate in his chest. It was the "Undo" button.
"It's over," Arthur said, looking at the King. "We aren't the Architects anymore. We're just the deleted scenes."
Arthur turned to the Man in White. "And you? You're just a program. And I'm the user."
Arthur raised the Architect's Key and drove it into the liquid floor.
[COMMAND: 'FORMAT ALL']
[CONFIRM?]
Arthur looked at Sarah one last time. She was fading. The world was fading. Everything was turning into a screen of pure, beautiful blue.
"I'll find you," Arthur whispered. "In a world without a System."
[EXECUTE: YES]