The darkness surged toward Ethan.
It wasn't like falling. It wasn't like being pulled. It was a feeling beyond description—like he was being unmade and rewritten at the same time.
> [Entity Stability: Failing]
[System Recognition: ERROR]
[Anomaly Processing…]
Ethan clenched his fists, fighting the overwhelming force pressing against him. His body flickered—one moment solid, the next pure data, then something else entirely.
"Not yet," he growled. "I'm not breaking. I'm not disappearing."
The abyss trembled.
Something watched him.
Not just a presence. Something deeper. Something buried beneath the layers of the System itself.
> [Observation Detected]
[Countermeasure Engaged]
[You Are Not Supposed to Be Here]
A shape emerged from the void.
It wasn't human. It wasn't a creature. It was a concept given form—a swirling mass of shifting energy, half-glitched, half-divine. It had no eyes, no face, but Ethan felt its attention.
It knew him.
And it feared him.
> [Eradication Protocol Initiated]
The void collapsed inward.
The entity lunged—
Ethan moved.
And in that moment, something snapped inside him.
---
Awakening the Corruption
A surge of black lightning crackled across Ethan's body. His limbs felt weightless—more than that. Limitless.
For a brief second, he saw it.
The System itself.
It wasn't just code. It wasn't just a program. It was a living thing, an entity vast beyond comprehension, shaping reality according to its rules. And Ethan—he was outside those rules now.
The entity roared, a soundless cry of pure command.
> [RETURN TO DATA FORM]
[OBEY]
Ethan laughed.
"No."
He moved forward, faster than thought, his body flickering between existence and nonexistence. The System's enforcer tried to strike—its shifting limbs phasing through him like he wasn't bound by the same reality.
Because he wasn't.
Ethan's hand closed into a fist. Power surged.
And when he struck—
The void shattered.
The enforcer screamed.
And Ethan's vision exploded with new understanding.
---
The Forbidden Code
The void trembled. Reality flickered, glitching between states—one moment a vast emptiness, the next an endless data stream stretching in every direction.
Ethan stood amidst it, his body unstable but whole. His hand was still clenched from the punch that had shattered the enforcer's form. But instead of feeling triumph, he felt… something deeper.
A pulse.
A vibration within his very code.
> [System Override Detected]
[Error: Entity Cannot Be Processed]
[Recalculating…]
Ethan exhaled. "Yeah, you do that. See what it gets you."
The remnants of the enforcer whispered as they dissolved. Not in words, but in sensations—fading memories of those who had come before. Anomalies. Errors. People like him, erased before they could become something greater.
But not him.
Something was different.
---
The Fragment's Message
As the void struggled to repair itself, a fragment of data remained where the enforcer had fallen. A jagged sliver of light, pulsing like a dying star.
Ethan approached, instinct pulling him closer. He reached out. The moment his fingers touched it—
A flood of information hit him.
Visions. Words. Code rewritten over and over.
And then, a message.
A voice—not from the System, but from someone else.
> "If you're hearing this… then you survived."
Ethan's heart stopped.
> "I don't know who you are. I don't know how far you've come. But if you're here… that means you've broken past the point of no return."
The voice was human. Male. Tired, but steady.
> "The System won't stop. It was built to erase anything that doesn't fit. And you, right now, are the biggest threat it has ever encountered."
Ethan gritted his teeth. "Tell me something I don't know."
> "But here's the thing."
The voice hesitated.
> "You're not the first. And you won't be the last."
Ethan's breath caught.
> "Find me. Before it's too late."
The message ended.
The fragment disintegrated in his palm.
And the void began to collapse.
---
The System Strikes Back
The walls of darkness rippled, turning jagged and unstable.
Ethan barely had time to process what he had just heard before the void cracked apart.
> [Containment Breach Detected]
[Forcing System Purge]
[Eliminating Corrupted Entity]
A wave of white fire erupted from the void's edges. It wasn't normal flame—it was pure System authority, rewriting everything it touched.
Ethan turned to run—
Too late.
The fire hit him.
Pain unlike anything he had ever felt ripped through his body. His very existence felt like it was being peeled away, layer by layer.
> [Purging Anomaly…]
No.
> [Erasing Unauthorized Code…]
NO.
Ethan's vision darkened. His body burned from the inside out. His thoughts started to fragment.
> [System Reset Initiating…]
And then—
Something deep within him pushed back.
> [Override Accepted.]
> [Corruption Level: UNDEFINED]
His eyes snapped open.
And for the first time…
The System itself hesitated.
---
The System's Fear
The white fire consumed everything.
The void. The data streams. The very fabric of the System's hidden domain.
And yet… Ethan remained.
His body burned, but he did not vanish. The fire licked at his skin, but he did not dissolve. The pain was unbearable, but he endured.
Because something inside him had changed.
Something the System could not process.
> [System Override Failed]
[Anomaly Persisting…]
[Reevaluating Threat Level…]
Ethan grinned through the agony.
"You don't get to erase me that easily."
A pulse of black lightning erupted from his core. The fire wavered. For the first time, the System's power hesitated.
Ethan clenched his fist. His veins pulsed with something beyond corruption now—something more.
He took a step forward. The flames parted.
Another step. The void shattered further.
And then—he ran.
---
Breaking the Chains
The world around him was crumbling. Data collapsed into fragmented shards, twisting in impossible shapes. The System was desperately trying to repair itself—but Ethan was already outside its control.
> [Warning: System Integrity Failing]
[Anomaly Must Be Contained]
The pressure around him intensified. The System was shifting tactics. It wasn't just trying to erase him anymore.
It was trying to trap him.
Ethan saw the new walls forming ahead—barriers of shifting data, locking down every exit.
His mind raced. There had to be a way out.
Then he heard it.
A whisper.
Faint. Distant.
> "You're almost there."
Ethan's eyes widened. It was the same voice from before—the one who had left the message.
> "Break the chains. Find the rift. Before it seals you in forever."
His heart pounded.
Chains?
He turned—and then he saw them.
Thick, black chains woven through the collapsing void, wrapping around him like unseen bindings.
The System wasn't just erasing him.
It was trying to bind him to itself.
Ethan roared.
A surge of corrupted energy exploded from him. The chains shuddered—but didn't break.
> [Containment Lock: 83% Complete]
Not enough. He needed more power.
Ethan clenched his fists. The corruption surged inside him, demanding release. It wasn't just something that happened to him anymore.
It was part of him.
He let it consume him.
And the chains snapped.
---
The Rift Opens
The moment the chains shattered, the void rippled.
A crack formed in the collapsing world—a thin, jagged rift leading somewhere else.
Somewhere the System did not control.
> [Warning: Rift Detected]
[Unauthorized Entity Approaching Exit]
Ethan didn't hesitate. He ran for it, the System screaming warnings around him. The void crumbled faster, reality distorting as the System tried to rewrite everything at once.
Too late.
He leapt into the rift.
And the world vanished.