The light faded from the backup's explosion but it didn't bring peace
Only silence
Azel stared at his hands
They were flickering between solid and transparent strands of code breaking off like dust
Aya rushed to his side catching him before he collapsed completely
You're glitching
I thought you won
Azel tried to speak but his voice fractured mid-word
The rewrite wasn't built for humans
It was meant for systems
I forced it
Aya's hands trembled gripping his shoulders
Then undo it use the core again reset yourself
Azel shook his head slowly eyes steady but dimming
If I use it now the rewrite collapses
Everything resets again
This world this freedom you
Gone
Aya looked down biting her lip
So what then
You just disappear
He laughed weakly
Not disappear
Just return to the parts I rewrote
The system can't hold a contradiction forever
And I am the biggest contradiction left
Aya held him tighter
We fought too hard for this
We bled for it
I'm not letting you fade
Azel smiled
Then remember me
He pulled out a shard of rewrite code and handed it to her
This has my anchor
If things ever fall apart again
You use it
No matter what
She took it but her hands were shaking
Azel you're not just code
You're not a program
You're you
Azel looked up at the sky
Not for long
The flickering worsened
His legs started to fade
Aya screamed but he just smiled again
You were the only variable I never calculated
And the only one that mattered
As the last of him vanished into golden particles
Aya knelt alone in the field
Clutching the rewrite shard to her chest
And above her
The sky turned quiet again
But something in the distance pulsed once
As if the system wasn't done yet