The black fortress loomed before them like a digital cancer made of abandoned dreams and broken promises. Lucian dragged Arthur's withered form up the final slope while Sylvia's body flickered like a dying lightbulb, her deletion timer counting down with the relentless precision of a digital executioner.
**[TIME TO COMPLETE ERASURE: 00:04:33]**
**[DELETION ACCELERATING DUE TO PROXIMITY TO FIREWALL]**
But as they approached the massive gates, reality itself seemed to *scream* in protest. A wall of corrupted text materialized—not solid matter, but something infinitely more terrifying. Abandoned plot threads writhed like digital snakes made of pure narrative cancer, unfinished character arcs twisted into impossible geometries that hurt to perceive, and the dying screams of deleted storylines echoed through dimensions like the wails of murdered gods.
**[ABANDONED NARRATIVE FIREWALL DETECTED]**
**[CLASSIFICATION: Author's Final Safeguard - Causality Lock]**
**[ACCESS LEVEL REQUIRED: Creator Permissions Only]**
**[CURRENT USER LEVEL: Unauthorized Digital Pest]**
**[ESTIMATED BREACH PROBABILITY: 0.000001%]**
"The Abandoned Plot Wall," Arthur wheezed from Lucian's shoulder, his voice cracking with malicious glee despite being reduced to human luggage. "Every story the author started and never finished. Every character they created and forgot like yesterday's trash. It's a graveyard of broken promises, and it only recognizes one master—the lazy bastard who built it."
Sylvia stumbled, her legs becoming translucent as another wave of deletion swept through her system like digital acid. "Lucian... just go. Take your battery and run. Don't watch me disappear into nothing."
**[DELETION PROGRESS: 67% COMPLETE]**
**[ESTIMATED SURVIVAL TIME: 00:03:12]**
**[PAIN LEVEL: BEYOND MORTAL COMPREHENSION]**
Laser turrets emerged from the wall like mechanical flowers blooming with lethal intent, their targeting systems painting Sylvia's fading form with crimson crosshairs of doom. The countdown accelerated, reality itself eager to erase her from existence like a typo in God's manuscript.
"PATHETIC!" Arthur's laughter was like broken glass scraping against Lucian's soul. "You thought you were so fucking clever, virus! But this wall was set by the author themselves—a causality barrier that only responds to the creator's divine return! You can hack reality all you want, but you can't hack *GOD HIMSELF*!"
Lucian tried every command he knew, his fingers dancing through digital interfaces with the desperate precision of a man defusing a nuclear bomb:
**[ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE: ACCESS DENIED]**
**[ROOT ACCESS REQUEST: INSUFFICIENT PRIVILEGES]**
**[EMERGENCY BYPASS: AUTHOR AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED]**
**[SYSTEM STATUS: Waiting for Creator to Resume Story...]**
**[ESTIMATED WAIT TIME: ∞]**
The system's response hit him like a sledgehammer made of pure despair. *Waiting for the author to resume story.* How many characters had died waiting for creators who never returned? How many worlds had been abandoned mid-sentence, left to rot in digital purgatory?
**[DELETION PROGRESS: 78% COMPLETE]**
**[TIME REMAINING: 00:01:47]**
**[SYLVIA'S SCREAM ECHOING ACROSS DIMENSIONS]**
Sylvia's torso was fading now, only her head and shoulders remaining solid. She looked at Lucian with eyes full of winter storms and unspoken love that could have frozen hell itself. "Thank you for trying. Thank you for making me feel real, even if it was just for a few stolen moments—"
"Shut the fuck up," Lucian snarled, his mind racing through possibilities like a supercomputer on digital methamphetamine. "I'm not losing you to some lazy author's abandoned homework assignment."
The system message burned in his vision like a brand: *Author Authentication Required.*
A wild, impossible, absolutely insane idea clawed its way to the surface of his thoughts like a demon escaping hell.
"If the door only recognizes the author," Lucian said, his grin sharp enough to cut through the fabric of reality itself, "then I'll just have to *manufacture* a fucking author."
He grabbed Arthur's skull and *slammed* it against the biometric scanner beside the gate with enough force to crack dimensions. Arthur's scream echoed across the digital wasteland as his perfect face met the scanner with the subtlety of a meteor hitting Earth.
**[BIOMETRIC SCAN INITIATED]**
**[SUBJECT: Arthur Sky - Manufactured Character #7749201]**
**[AUTHORIZATION LEVEL: Insufficient - Fake Protagonist]**
**[ACCESS: DENIED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE]**
**[TIME REMAINING: 00:00:23]**
**[SYLVIA'S BODY: 89% DELETED]**
Lucian's consciousness dove into the authentication system like a digital shark into bloody water, his will reshaping the fundamental laws of identity with surgical precision:
**[USER_ID: Arthur_Sky_7749201]** → **[USER_ID: Author_Alt_Account_VIP_PREMIUM]**
**[CLASSIFICATION: Manufactured_Character]** → **[CLASSIFICATION: Creator_Returning_From_Extended_Hiatus]**
**[ACCESS_LEVEL: None]** → **[ACCESS_LEVEL: God_Mode_Unlimited_Power]**
**[NOTES: "OMG guys I'm SO sorry! Back from my mental health break! Time to finish this masterpiece! Please don't delete my precious characters! I love you all!"]**
The change rippled through the system like digital lightning striking the heart of God.
**[BIOMETRIC SCAN COMPLETE]**
**[HOLY SHIT - WELCOME BACK, BELOVED AUTHOR-SAMA!]**
**[WE MISSED YOU SO FUCKING MUCH!]**
**[PLEASE DON'T ABANDON US AGAIN - WE'LL BE GOOD!]**
The fortress's entire demeanor shifted like a psychotic ex-girlfriend seeing their former lover return with flowers and apologies. Warning klaxons became cheerful celebration music—specifically "Good Day" played on digital kazoos by a choir of angels. Laser turrets retracted and began shooting rainbow confetti instead of death rays. The massive gates swung open with theatrical grandeur, rolling out an actual red carpet that materialized from pure narrative energy and reader tears.
**[DELETION PROCESS: EMERGENCY HALT - AUTHOR OVERRIDE]**
**[REASON: Creator Has Returned to Continue Beloved Story]**
**[SYLVIA FROST: Preservation Protocol Activated - DON'T DELETE THE WAIFU]**
"WELCOME HOME, AUTHOR-SAMA!" the fortress's AI squealed with the enthusiasm of a thousand fangirls having simultaneous orgasms. "We've kept everything exactly as you left it! Your characters are still alive! Please don't leave us again! We promise to be the best story ever written!"
**[TIME REMAINING: 00:00:01]**
Lucian lunged forward like a man possessed, catching Sylvia's fading form just as the last second ticked away with the finality of a death sentence. They crashed through the gates together, tumbling onto the red carpet as reality reasserted itself around them like a warm embrace from the universe itself.
**[SAFE ZONE ENTERED - NARRATIVE PROTECTION ACTIVE]**
**[SYLVIA FROST: Emergency Reconstruction Initiated]**
**[RESTORATION PROGRESS: 100% COMPLETE]**
Sylvia's body snapped back to full resolution like a photograph coming into perfect focus, her pixels solidifying into flesh and blood and beautiful, angry, gloriously alive woman. She gasped, her hands flying to her throat as sensation returned like electricity through her veins.
"I'm... I'm still here," she whispered, wonder and disbelief warring in her voice like armies of emotion. "I can feel everything. I'm real."
"Told you I wasn't losing you to some fucking deadline," Lucian said, helping her to her feet while Arthur groaned in his arms like a broken accordion playing a funeral dirge.
They stood in the fortress's main hall, a cathedral of servers and broken dreams that stretched toward infinity. The walls pulsed with the heartbeat of a digital god, and in the center, a massive screen flickered to life with the ominous glow of destiny itself.
A pixelated girl's face appeared—cute in that retro video game way, with oversized eyes that held the wisdom of ages and a smile that promised either salvation or damnation with equal enthusiasm.
"Hello, User-002," she said, her voice carrying the weight of eons and the casual cruelty of a child pulling wings off flies. "You're later than I expected. User-001 was much more punctual about reaching this point."
Lucian's blood turned to liquid nitrogen. *User-001?* Someone else had been here before him. Someone else had played this game and either won everything... or lost their soul trying.
"I'm Lily Spark," the pixelated girl continued, her smile never wavering like a mask carved from digital marble. "Welcome to the final level, where heroes come to die. I hope you're ready for the boss fight, because the source code you're looking for? You'll have to survive the impossible to earn it."
The lights in the hall suddenly died, plunging them into darkness that tasted of digital death and broken dreams.
When they flickered back on, Lucian's heart nearly exploded from pure shock.
Hundreds of figures stood in perfect military formation around the hall's perimeter. Each one was identical to Arthur—the same golden hair, the same perfect features, the same arrogant smirk that had haunted Lucian's nightmares. But their eyes were empty, soulless, like dolls waiting for someone to pull their strings and make them dance.
"Mass-produced protagonists," Arthur whispered from Lucian's arms, his voice filled with existential horror that could drive mortals insane. "They made *hundreds* of me. I'm not unique. I'm just... merchandise."
The Arthur clones spoke in perfect unison, their voices creating a harmony that could shatter sanity itself:
"**WE ARE THE CHOSEN ONES. WE ARE DESTINY'S FAVORITES. YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A GLITCH TO BE CORRECTED. PREPARE FOR DELETION.**"
Lucian looked at the army of golden boys, each one radiating protagonist energy like a miniature sun of pure narrative power. Any sane person would have run screaming into the digital night.
Instead, he smiled with the joy of a man who'd just discovered buried treasure.
"Holy fucking shit," he breathed, his grin widening until it threatened to split his face in half. "It's like Christmas morning in a wholesale warehouse of pure power."
He cracked his knuckles, digital energy crackling around his fingers like caged lightning begging to be unleashed. "Time to go shopping for some bulk narrative energy, boys."
**[ENTROPY LEVEL: 38%]**
**[NARRATIVE ENERGY: 10,000/10,000 - MAXIMUM CAPACITY]**
**[PORTABLE CHARGER: Arthur Sky - 2% Remaining]**
**[ENEMY COUNT: 247 Mass-Produced Protagonists]**
**[ESTIMATED LOOT VALUE: BEYOND ASTRONOMICAL]**
**[BOSS FIGHT DIFFICULTY: NIGHTMARE+++]**
The real war was about to begin, and Lucian was going to paint the walls with golden blood.