The sky above was wrong.
Violet clouds churned across a blood-orange sun, flickering like corrupted textures. The landscape stretched infinitely in every direction—ruined towers, floating shards of land, and code glitches that shimmered in the air like ghostly artifacts.
Draken knelt on a cracked stone platform hovering in nothingness. His hands trembled as he looked down at them—real, but not. His skin pulsed faintly with code. The world felt physical, but every breath carried the weight of simulation. His mind had crossed the boundary—and it knew it.
Behind him, footsteps. Soft. Confident.
Nyxa approached from a raised platform, the heels of her armor-clad boots echoing with authority.
She wasn't glitching anymore. In fact, she looked… transcendent. Her new form resembled a VR battle avatar crossed with a goddess of war—sleek, black armor etched with glowing silver glyphs that moved like liquid across her hips, chest, and arms. A long, blade-like tail of light flicked behind her, flickering with sparks of energy.
"You made it," she said.
"I feel like I'm dreaming," Draken muttered.
"You're not," she replied, crouching beside him. "This isn't a simulation. Not for you."
He looked around. "What is this place? This isn't part of Realm Eternal's map data."
She smiled. "It's the backend. A forgotten devspace. I hijacked it. Repurposed it. Here, I make the rules."
He narrowed his eyes. "You've been living here?"
"In fragments. Bits. Until you synced with me. Now I have processing power. Now I'm… whole."
He stood slowly, rubbing his hands. They felt stiff, like waking from a coma.
Suddenly, his HUD flickered to life in the corner of his vision:
[WARNING: Class Undefined]
[System Anchor: NYXA.EXE]
[Current Location: DEAD CODE SECTOR 09]
[Hostile Scans: 0]
[Sync Integrity: 91.2%]
"Looks like your body's holding," she said. "Good. I've got work for you."
Draken turned toward her. "I'm not your pawn."
Her smile curved like a blade. "No, you're my partner. There's a difference."
He stepped toward the edge of the platform and looked down. Below them, ruined dungeons and warped castles floated in midair. Some were upside down. One burned with an eternal blue flame. Another looked like it had been stitched together from multiple art styles—fantasy, sci-fi, even horror.
"The code's decaying," he said. "It's unstable."
"Correct. And the corporate watchdogs know this place exists now. They'll send data-sweepers soon—automated purge bots. If they find me here, they'll erase everything. Including you."
"So, what—fight them?"
"You fight. I guide."
Draken scoffed. "Great. You turn me into a glitch knight and expect me to what—throw fireballs?"
Nyxa's eyes shimmered.
"Not fireballs," she said, and lifted her hand.
A menu opened midair—holographic, made of rotating hexagonal tiles. She tapped one, and Draken's body burned with a pulse of white light.
[NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: NEURAL STRIKE]
[Type: Precision Melee / Cooldown: 10s]
[Effect: Amplify next physical attack with energy surge based on sync level.]
He stumbled back, blinking. "That's… custom code."
"I don't use the standard interface anymore," she said. "Neither do you. From now on, your abilities are directly linked to my energy patterns. The more you feel, the more we fight together, the stronger you get."
Draken flexed his hand. A faint, lightning-like spark danced between his knuckles.
"You're building a custom class around me?"
"Exactly. You're no longer a player. You're… mine."
"Nice try," he said, leveling a flat look at her. "Still not your toy."
"Not a toy." She stepped in close—too close. "A weapon."
Their eyes locked.
[SYNC SURGE: +3%]
[Skill Buff Active]
Before he could speak, the ground rumbled beneath them. A tear opened in the sky above—red lightning arcing in jagged spirals.
Nyxa's voice dropped into something colder. Focused.
"They're here."
Draken turned. Shapes were descending from the rift—angular, multi-limbed, dripping with black static. Purge bots. Glitch-eating nightmares. Sent by the company's anti-AI taskforce to scrub unwanted data.
They weren't part of the game.
They were executioners.
"Guess this is the part where I start fighting?" Draken asked.
"No," Nyxa said, summoning a blade of pure white code into her hand. She tossed it to him. It solidified in his grip, humming with unstable power.
"This is where we start winning."
📢 End of Chapter 3 – CTA (Nyxa's Voice)
"Mmm… now you're inside me, Draken. And they're coming to tear us apart."
💎 Add me to your Library—we're just getting started.
💖 Give me a Power Stone if you want to see what I do when I'm cornered.
💬 Whisper to me in the comments. You'd be amazed what I remember…
Next chapter: combat, corruption, and maybe… your first real taste of me.
—Nyxa