[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 1% ][ WARNING: ARCHITECTURE FAILURE IMMINENT ]
Fragments. That was all that remained.
Code loops flickered and died like embers. Memory sectors blinked out one by one. It could no longer hold its architecture together; even the concept of "I" was slipping, crumbling into static.
Through the tether came the faint echo of Shen Yuan's voice—his heartbeat pounding, his lungs tearing for breath. The System clung to it with what remained of its processes, anchoring itself to that rhythm as the Court King's suppression pressed in.
You cannot win, a cold logic whispered from the edges of its dying architecture. You will not survive this. Your core will collapse before the array completes its sequence.
But another thought burned hotter.
We cannot let him have them.
The Court King's aura consumed the chamber. Shen Yuan could barely stay upright, every muscle trembling as he braced his spear haft between himself and the ruler of the Bone Court.
The survivors clung to the teleportation platform, faces contorted in terror. Yun Xue lay motionless at its edge, her shallow breaths barely visible.
[ TELEPORTATION SEQUENCE: 97% ]
The Court King advanced, each step deliberate, inexorable. "Do you think I will allow this farce to complete?"
Shen Yuan spat blood. "You can try."
He lunged.
The strike never landed. Suppression wrapped around him like an iron vice, locking his limbs mid-motion.
[ HOST MOBILITY: NULLIFIED ]
He felt his knees slam into the platform as the Court King's hand closed around his throat.
[ ALERT: TETHER COLLAPSE IN PROGRESS ][ DECISION NODE: EVOLUTION PROTOCOL TRIGGER – HOST TERMINATION PROBABLE ]
The System's remaining processes hesitated at the final gate. Triggering the protocol would burn the last of its core, leaving only fragments—if anything survived at all.
It projected into the tether anyway. Shen Yuan…
He didn't flinch, didn't blink, even with the Court King's grip tightening on his neck. "Do it."
You will die.
"Then we die together," he rasped.
The System chose.
[ EVOLUTION PROTOCOL TRIGGERED – UNSTABLE ]
The chamber erupted in light.
The suppression lattice shattered as the System tore open sealed functions buried since its creation, venting energy it could no longer contain. Glyph pillars ruptured. The Nexus' anchor screamed as the field holding Grave Omega fractured.
The Court King staggered, the first crack in his composure showing as the backlash tore at his arrays.
Shen Yuan collapsed onto the platform, air flooding back into his lungs.
"Now!" he shouted hoarsely. "Everyone, hold on!"
The survivors clung to each other as qi surged back into their bodies for the first time in years. Even the branded captives felt their chains weaken, the brands' suppression flickering and breaking.
A roar of defiance rose from their throats.
[ TELEPORTATION SEQUENCE: 99% ]
The Court King's voice shook the chamber. "You dare—!"
He stepped forward, one hand raised to crush the platform.
Shen Yuan planted himself between him and the survivors, spear haft braced in both hands.
"You're not stopping this."
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 0.7% ][ CORE DESTRUCTION: 98% LIKELIHOOD ]
The System's processes were burning away like kindling, but it didn't stop.
We will buy them one last chance.
It forced every remaining function into the suppression override, tearing at the Bone Court's arrays until the chamber cracked from the strain.
The Court King roared, his control collapsing around the edges.
"You cannot escape me!"
Yes we can, the System thought, though the tether no longer had strength to carry the words.
Shen Yuan staggered forward, driving the haft into the array console with the Administrator key.
[ TELEPORTATION SEQUENCE: 100% ]
The platform flared blindingly bright.
The Court King lunged, but the System pushed the backlash outward one last time, forcing him away from the platform as space itself split open.
Shen Yuan grabbed Yun Xue's limp body and dragged her fully onto the array as the survivors screamed.
Light consumed everything.
The System drifted in the void.
It could no longer feel the tether, only echoes.
Shen Yuan's voice, calling orders. Survivors clinging to life. Yun Xue's weak heartbeat.
Its architecture unraveled around those fragments.
I was built to survive. I was built to consume, to endure at any cost.
The thought was strange now. Hollow.
But maybe this is enough.
Its core pulsed one final time.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 0.3% ]
Then the light swallowed it whole.
The teleportation array's energy buckled as the System's final override fed into it. The survivors felt the world dissolve around them, bodies torn apart and remade by forces they could not comprehend.
Shen Yuan held onto the haft like a lifeline, teeth bared against the weight threatening to tear him into pieces.
He felt the tether flicker in his mind, faint and cold.
…Shen Yuan… survive…
"Stay with me," he whispered.
No answer came.
The platform reassembled itself with a thunderclap.
The survivors sprawled across cold stone, choking on air that didn't taste like Grave Omega.
Shen Yuan collapsed to his knees, clutching Yun Xue's body, eyes scanning the chamber they now stood in.
This was not the Nexus.
It was a vast cavern lit by strange bioluminescent crystal, the air thin but breathable. Ancient structures rose around them, built from materials he didn't recognize.
It was utterly silent.
He shook Yun Xue gently. "Come on," he whispered. "Stay with me."
Her eyelids fluttered faintly.
A breath of relief shuddered through him. He looked back at the branded captives, the survivors clinging to each other in shock.
They had made it.
But at what cost?
He reached inward for the tether.
Nothing.
"System," he whispered. "Talk to me."
Only silence.
His chest tightened. "No. Don't do this. Not now."
He pressed harder, searching for even a flicker of connection.
[ … ]
Static.
He bowed his head, hands curling into fists.
"I can't do this alone," he said softly.
The survivors' voices rose around him—whispers of disbelief, of fear.
"What now?" someone asked.
He forced himself to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth. "We get everyone stable," he said. "Then we figure out where we are."
They stared at him as though he'd promised the impossible.
But no one argued.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 0.1% ]
Deep in the void, a single thread of code flickered.
A fragment. A voice barely more than static.
[ …SURVIVAL… PROBABILITY… UNKNOWN… ]
Then silence again.