The Tokyo Tower didn't look like a landmark anymore. It looked like a jagged, rusted needle stitching the dying earth to a bleeding, red-code sky. As we stepped out of the Glitch Dimension and onto the base of the tower, the very ground felt wrong. It was soft and vibrating, like walking on a layer of heavy static. The air didn't smell like the city; it tasted like ozone, old copper, and the cold scent of a computer lab.
"This is it," Maki said, her eyes fixed on the summit. She gripped her glowing green sword so hard her knuckles turned white. "The heart of the infection. The place where the nightmare is being broadcasted."
[LOCATION: THE SYSTEM CORE - TOKYO TOWER]
[MAP STATUS: FINAL ZONE]
[WARNING: REALITY STABILITY AT 12%]
The world around us was flickering. One moment the street was asphalt, the next it was a grid of blue lines. Before we could take a single step toward the central stairs, the ground in front of us began to bubble and hiss. Thick, oily black liquid pooled on the road, rising up like shadows coming to life. As the liquid hardened, it began to take the shapes of faces we had fought before—ghosts of the enemies we had barely survived.
On the left stood Naobito Zenin, his frame wreathed in flickering blue lightning that crackled with a digital sound. In the center was the Puppet Master, his jester hat now made of jagged, razor-sharp glass. And on the right was a twisted, shadowy version of the Track-Eater Centipede, its many human arms twitching in anticipation.
[SYSTEM REPLICAS INITIALIZED]
[LEVELS: 75 (SCALED TO PLAYER)]
[CORE BUFF: UNLIMITED CURSED ENERGY]
"They aren't real," I said, my voice steady despite the sweat rolling down my neck. I could feel the violet marks on my hands pulsing with heat. "They're just data files. The Architect is pulling them from my memories to slow us down. He's scared of us reaching the top."
"Real or not, they have killing intent," Yuta said, stepping forward. He didn't look tired anymore. The "Special Grade" sorcerer looked like a storm waiting to break, his white aura pushing back the red darkness of the tower. "Maki, take the old man. Nobara, Megumi, handle the jester. I'll crush the beast."
"What about Ren?" Nobara asked. Her nails were glowing with a violet tint, humming with the power of the [Soul Link]. "He can't go up there alone."
"Ren needs to save his strength," Yuta replied without looking back. He unsheathed his katana, and the air hummed. "The Architect is waiting for him. We are the shield that protects the world; he is the sword that cuts the strings. Go, Ren. Don't look back."
The Battle of Echoes
The fight exploded instantly. Maki collided with the Naobito replica, her green sword clashing against his speed-based strikes. The sound was like a hundred hammers hitting an anvil at once. Naobito moved in frames, skipping through time, but Maki's raw physical strength and sharpened senses allowed her to track his every move.
A few yards away, Nobara and Megumi worked in perfect sync. It was a dance of shadows and sparks. Megumi summoned Nue, the giant electric owl, to intercept the silver threads the Puppet Master threw into the air. While the owl distracted the threads, Nobara used her Resonance to shatter the glass jester's illusions. Every time her hammer struck a nail, a burst of soul-energy rocked the replica, cracking its digital skin.
Yuta was a force of nature. He didn't even use a complex technique; he simply swung his katana with such raw, overwhelming power that the Centipede replica was being hacked into pieces of black code. Rika loomed behind him, her giant hands pinning the beast's many arms to the ground, tearing them off one by one with a terrifying roar.
I watched them fight for a split second, and I felt a strange, deep warmth in my chest. For the first time in this game, I wasn't the only one carrying the weight. The [Soul Link] wasn't just draining me anymore; it was feeding me. I could feel Maki's determination, Nobara's fire, and Yuta's immense, calm ocean of power.
[SYNC RATE: 40%]
[EVOLUTION TRIGGERED: THE VOID HEART]
[PASSIVE: ALLY EMPOWERMENT ACTIVE]
The Final Ascent
"Go, Ren!" Maki shouted. She parried a lightning-fast palm strike from the Zenin ghost, the impact sending sparks flying across her face. "Don't let their sacrifice be for nothing! Get to the top and end this!"
I didn't argue. I couldn't. I turned and ran toward the central pillar of the tower. I didn't use the stairs—they were already half-deleted, floating in chunks of blue light. Instead, I focused my gravity on the soles of my feet. I stepped onto the vertical metal beam and began to run straight up toward the clouds.
[SKILL: VERTICAL ACCELERATION]
[STAMINA CONSUMPTION: 15% PER SECOND]
The higher I climbed, the more the world changed. The city of Tokyo below was fading into a sea of grey fog and white static. The sounds of the battle below grew quiet, replaced by the howling, digital wind. The only thing that was real was the cold metal under my boots and the blinding white light at the top.
My lungs burned. Every muscle in my legs screamed for me to stop. But every time I felt like falling, a pulse of energy from the [Soul Link] pushed me forward. It was as if Nobara and the others were pushing my back, lifting me up.
As I reached the main observation deck, the wind became a howling gale that threatened to throw me off. Standing there, silhouetted against the swirling red clouds, was a man.
He didn't look like a monster. He didn't have a sword or a scary mask. He wore a simple, clean grey suit and held a glass tablet in his hands. He looked like an ordinary office worker, except for his eyes—they were glowing circles of pure, white light that looked like camera lenses.
"You're late, Ren," the man said. His voice wasn't loud, but it sounded like it was being spoken directly inside my brain, vibrating against my skull. "I've already begun the final compilation. In five minutes, the Culling Game will end, and the 'New World' will be saved to the hard drive of the universe. All the errors of humanity... deleted forever."
[TARGET IDENTIFIED: THE ARCHITECT]
[LEVEL: 100]
[CLASS: SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR]
"I'm not here to play your game, Architect," I said. I stood up straight, my violet aura flaring up to meet his cold white light. The air around us began to crack and warp from the pressure. "I'm here to delete your account and take the world back."
The Architect smiled—a thin, cold line that didn't reach his mechanical eyes. "You think you're a glitch in my system? No, Ren. You're the Update. You've collected all the energy I needed. And I've been waiting for you to finally install yourself into the Core."
He tapped his tablet with a pale finger. Suddenly, the world spun. The gravity around me didn't just increase—it inverted. One second I was standing on the floor, and the next, I was slammed into the ceiling of the observation deck with the force of a falling car.
The entire tower began to spin like a top, the metal screaming under the pressure. I was pinned to the ceiling, unable to move as the Architect walked calmly on what was now the "floor" below me.
"Let's see how much 'Void' you can hold before your soul finally breaks," he whispered.
[STATUS: GRAVITY INVERTED]
[SITUATION: CRITICAL]
Author's Note: The final battle has begun! Ren is stuck in a room where the rules of physics are being rewritten by a god-like AI. He has to find a way to use his own gravity to fight back.