POV: Aria
Dominic's attack hit me right in the chest.
Except it didn't.
At the last second, he twisted. The killer blow that should have pierced my heart slammed into the wall beside my head instead. Stone exploded. Dust everywhere.
"Run!" he screamed, fighting against his own body. "I can't—the contract—"
Celeste laughed. "Oh, this is wonderful. He's trying to resist. How sweet. How utterly pointless."
Dominic lunged again. This time his punch connected with my shoulder. I felt bones crack. Pain burst through me.
But I saw his face. Saw the pain there. The tears streaming down his face.
He was fighting the deal with everything he had. And it was killing him.
"Stop!" I gasped. "Dominic, just stop—"
"Can't." Blood poured from his nose, his ears. "Contract is absolute. Have to finish the mission. Have to—"
His hand wrapped around my throat.
Then something inside me broke.
Not broke. Awakened.
Power rushed through me like a dam bursting. All the fear I'd collected from Silent Apartment 404. All the focused terror from dozens of players. It had been building inside me, and I'd barely noticed because I'd been too busy running, too busy living.
Now it burst outward.
My Spirit rank jumped. D to C in a flash. C to C+ in another.
Dominic flew backward, thrown by the force of my waking. He crashed into the opposite wall.
Celeste's smile faltered. "No. You're not meant to be that strong yet—"
I stood up. My broken shoulder healed as power flowed through it. For the first time in my life, I felt full. Not hungry. Not weak. Not inadequate.
Strong.
"Get out," I said quietly.
"Excuse me?"
"I said get out. Both of you. Before I do something we'll all regret."
Celeste's face rippled. Her true form starts to show. "You think because you jumped a few ranks you can—"
I made a nightmare.
Not a game. Not a terminal situation. Just raw, concentrated fear pulled straight from my memories and made semi-real.
The room filled with shadows. Walls bleeding. The sound of something huge breathing in the darkness.
Celeste stumbled backward. For the first time, she looked afraid.
"What are you?" she whispered.
"You already know. You've been feeding on it for seventeen years."
I let more power leak out. The shadows grew teeth. Grew eyes. Grew hungry.
Celeste ran. Actually ran. The parasite wearing my sister's face fled like a scared kid.
That left Dominic. Still on the floor. Still fighting the deal. Still bleeding from trying to resist killing me.
I knelt beside him. Touched his face gently.
"The contract says you have to kill me if I awaken, right?"
He nodded, unable to speak.
"Then we have a problem. Because I definitely just woke. And you definitely can't finish your mission while I'm this strong." I smiled sadly. "So now what?"
"Contract will... keep trying... until I succeed... or die..."
"That's what I thought."
I leaned closer. Whispered in his ear.
"Then I guess you'll just have to die trying. Because I'm not going anywhere, Dominic Ashford. Not until I get answers. Not until I understand what my mother really asked you to do. And definitely not until I make everyone who hurt me pay."
I stood up. Left him there fighting against magical bindings he couldn't break.
And I got to work. —
Three days later, the Underground was on fire with stories.
The Architect's games were still running. Despite Council raids. Despite the War Commander's probe. Terminals kept appearing in new places. And the power they produced was insane.
I'd made three more games in seventy-two hours. No sleep. Barely any food. Just pure creative rage fueled by power I'd never imagined having.
The Basement. The Mirror Room. The Doll House.
Each one more mentally devastating than the last. Each one producing concentrated fear that made my earlier work look like child's play.
My power climbed. C+ to B-rank in two days. B to B+ by the third night.
The energy flowed into me like a river. Like I'd been dying of thirst my whole life and only now discovered water existed.
But with each surge came dreams.
Not my dreams. Not Raven Xu's thoughts.
Something older. Darker. Deeper.
I saw cities burning. Saw people screaming as their fears became real. Saw a figure standing in the middle of the chaos, made of shadow and starlight, watching it all with ancient eyes.
The Nightmare King.
And in the dreams, it spoke to me.
Finally, it whispered. Finally, you remember.
Remember what? I asked in the dream space.
That you were never Raven Xu reborn.
The dream changed. Showed me Earth. Showed me living as Raven, making games, dying under that collapsed stage.
That was your schooling. Your planning. I picked that life specifically to teach you what you needed to know.
I don't understand.
You are not a tool for the Nightmare King, child. You ARE the Nightmare King. You always have been. You just forgot when you chose to be born human.
The dream city burned brighter. And I saw myself—not as Aria, not as Raven, but as something else. Something that had lived for thousands of years before choosing mortality.
Why? I breathed. Why would I choose to forget?
Because monsters don't understand what they damage. Because power without humanity is just devastation. Because the Nightmare King wanted to learn what it meant to hurt, to lose, to be betrayed—so it could finally understand the fear it gathered.
You spent five hundred years preparing for this moment. Learning humanity through stories and games. Then you were born as Raven Xu and learned to turn fear into art. Then you died and were born again as Aria Chen to learn what it meant to be helpless.
Now you remember. Now you understand both sides. Monster and person. Power and weakness. Fear and understanding.
Now you're complete.
I woke up screaming.
My apartment—a new one, hidden deeper in the Rust District—was dark except for my computer screens. Five of them now, all running different games, all feeding me power.
But the dreams were getting stronger. More real. More insistent.
And I was starting to remember things I shouldn't. Things about the Nightmare King's past. About why it had been locked. About what happened last time it woke fully.
Millions dead. Cities destroyed. Reality itself warped by concentrated fear made visible.
My tablet buzzed. Message from Lyric.
We need to talk. Your games are changing. Last three players didn't just get dreams—their nightmares became REAL. Shadows following them. Whispers they can't stop hearing. Whatever you're making, it's bleeding into reality.
My hands started shaking.
Also, Dominic's been admitted to the hospital. The Spirit Contract is killing him. Doctors say he has days left, maybe hours. He's looking for you.
I looked at that message.
The man ordered to kill me was dying. And he wanted to see me.
Trap? Probably. Did I care? Not really.
Because I needed information about what my mother had really done. What the deal actually said. Why everything in my life had been planned toward this moment.
Another message. Unknown number. My secret informant.
Don't go to the hospital. It's not Dominic asking for you. It's Celeste. She's taken over his body. She's going to use the contract to force you into a trap. The moment you enter that room, you'll be bound by the same magic.
My blood went cold.
Then what do I do?
Simple. Finish awakening. Stop fighting what you are. Let the Nightmare King take full control. It's the only way to break the deal, save Dominic, and destroy Celeste.
Of course, it might also destroy the entire city. But that's a small price for power, right?
I threw the tablet across the room.
Everyone wanted something from me. Dominic wanted me dead. Celeste wanted me absorbed. The mystery messenger wanted me to become a monster. Mom had wanted me sealed away.
What did I want?
My screens flashed. All five games going simultaneously. And in each one, I saw the same word appearing: THE KING REMEMBERS. THE KING RETURNS. THE KING HUNGERS.
It wasn't part of the game code. I hadn't programmed that.
It was coming from inside me.
The Nightmare King was waking up. Whether I wanted it to or not.
And I had maybe hours to decide: fight it and probably die, or submit and definitely become the monster everyone feared.
My phone rang. Hospital number.
I answered.
Dominic's voice. Weak. Desperate. Wrong.
"Aria... please... it hurts so much... I need to see you... need to explain everything... before I die... please..."
But underneath his words, I heard something else. A woman's laughter. Celeste's voice stacked beneath his.
Come to me, sister. Let's finish this.