The anti-glitch squad stood before him. Tarvaror, the primordial glitch, offered a chilling smile. "You are the four strongest admins before the supreme one," he drawled, his voice laced with an unsettling digital echo. "I am… curious to gauge your strength."
Tarvaror shifted his weight, settling into a stance that spoke of coiled power. A palpable, corrupted aura pulsed around him, the very air seeming to flicker and distort in his presence. Anty, the tech specialist, retreated a few steps, her fingers flying across the keys of a holographic keyboard that shimmered into existence before her. Three translucent screens flickered to life, displaying a cascade of data – the life force, stamina, and strength metrics of Stenly, Georg, and Kyofei.
"I will support you to the best of my abilities," Anty declared, her voice steady despite the tension in the air. "From these monitors, I can track your vital signs. If necessary, I will attempt to provide assistance in any way I can."
Georg cracked his knuckles, a confident grin spreading across his face. "Thanks, Anty," he rumbled, his voice a deep baritone. "Your support will be crucial."
Stenly, his hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed katana, and Kyofei, his lithe form poised for movement, mirrored Georg's readiness. A brilliant yellow aura erupted from Georg, bathing the immediate area in a golden light. With a burst of incredible speed, he launched himself at Tarvaror, a fist crackling with energy aimed squarely at the primordial glitch's face.
Tarvaror merely smiled, a predatory curve of his lips. With casual ease, he raised a hand and intercepted Georg's powerful blow. A wisp of smoke curled from his palm, a testament to the force of the impact. Georg's eyes widened in surprise, but before he could react, a silver blur erupted from his right.
Kyofei, a whirlwind of motion, unleashed a rapid-fire series of slashes. His blades, impossibly sharp, tore through the very structure of the white tower behind Tarvaror, reducing sections of it to dust in mere moments. Yet, Tarvaror remained largely unscathed, a shallow cut appearing on his shoulder only to knit itself back together in the blink of an eye.
From above, a shadow descended. Stenly, his katana crackling with malevolent dark energy, brought the blade down in a sweeping arc. A wave of pure darkness hurtled towards Tarvaror. This time, the primordial glitch was forced to react more seriously. He intercepted the shadowy strike with a hand, but the sheer speed and power behind it drove him backward. The dark energy exploded upon impact, engulfing the area in a thick, swirling cloud of smoke.
When the darkness cleared, Tarvaror stood untouched, a dismissive smirk playing on his lips. "Is that all the power you possess?" he taunted.
With a fluid motion, Tarvaror extended his arms horizontally, his fingers pointing skyward. An unnatural shift occurred in the very fabric of the environment. The sterile white of the chamber bled away, replaced by an all-encompassing, oppressive blue. Even Tarvaror underwent a transformation. His hair, eyes, and clothing shifted to the same deep blue, now adorned with intricate yellow embroidery that seemed to pulse with an inner light.
"You have truly disappointed me," Tarvaror's voice echoed in the now blue-tinged space. "I had hoped that you would be… more resilient."
In a flash of blue, Tarvaror closed the distance between them. His fist, crackling with the same eerie blue energy that now permeated the room, slammed into Georg's face. The powerful admin didn't even have time to register the attack before being sent hurtling across the chamber, crashing heavily against a wall.
Stenly's eyes narrowed. In the next instant, the oppressive blue was swallowed by an even deeper, more absolute darkness. It was as if the very light had been extinguished, leaving only Stenly and Tarvaror visible in the inky void.
"This is my domain," Stenly's voice resonated through the darkness, a low growl of confidence. "Here, you will find no escape!"
Tarvaror's response was a blur of motion in the darkness. He lunged at Stenly, his fist aimed for a decisive blow to the face. But just as impact seemed inevitable, Stenly's face shimmered and dissolved into pure shadow.
"Now," Kyofei's voice echoed from an unseen location, "you will become a victim of the darkness! Dark invisible blade technique!"
The oppressive darkness vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. Stenly now stood behind Tarvaror, his katana a black streak in the returning light. Tarvaror was suddenly riddled with countless invisible slashes, dark energy blooming from the newly formed wounds. Yet, instead of collapsing, Tarvaror began to laugh, a manic, unsettling sound.
"Is that all you have?" he sneered, his wounds already beginning to close. "Push yourselves, or you will die!"
With terrifying speed, Tarvaror pivoted and lunged towards Anty, who stood frozen in shock. Just as his hand was about to grasp her, Kyofei, a silver phantom, intercepted him, shoving Anty out of the way. She stumbled and fell, her eyes wide with terror. In the split second before Tarvaror's fist connected, Kyofei roared, "Admin mode instal slash cuts universes!"
Kyofei was impaled, Tarvaror's fist punching straight through his chest. But even as his lifeblood, now shimmering green pixels, began to dissipate, Kyofei managed to unleash a final, desperate attack. His blade, imbued with an unimaginable power, swung in a wide arc, slicing through Tarvaror's torso. The force of the blow was so immense that it seemed to tear at the very fabric of the glitch dimension.
Tarvaror, bisected, didn't fall. Instead, his arm emerged from Kyofei's dissolving body, a grotesque mockery of the fallen admin. Kyofei's holographic screen flickered, a massive red X emblazoned across it. Anty gasped, her voice caught in her throat, unable to utter a single word.
"You… you monster!" Georg roared, his voice raw with grief and fury. "I will never forgive you! Admin mode instal armor of divine fists!"
Tarvaror's regeneration was horrifyingly efficient. Even the dimension-cutting wound inflicted by Kyofei began to stitch itself back together. He let out another chilling laugh. "Come on, human! Show me your rage!"
Driven by the unbearable loss of his comrade, Georg charged at Tarvaror. His arms now bore segments of shimmering golden armor, extending down to his fists. A potent golden aura blazed around him. He unleashed a furious barrage of punches, each blow generating a shockwave that rippled through the air. Tarvaror parried the blows with his bare hands, a strange blue energy flickering around his palms. He attempted to counter with a punch of his own, but Georg vanished in a flash of golden light, reappearing behind Tarvaror. He launched a kick, his leg crackling with golden energy, but Tarvaror blocked it, then retaliated with a swift punch that forced Georg to stumble backward.
With a primal roar, Georg lunged again, both armored fists aimed at Tarvaror. The primordial glitch parried the strike, but the force of the impact sent him skidding back. He regained his footing, a dangerous glint in his blue eyes. Georg, consumed by fury, leaped into the air, bringing both fists down in a devastating hammer blow. But Tarvaror's arm flashed blue, the energy solidifying into a sharp, blade-like projection. He met Georg's attack with a swift, perpendicular slash. Georg cried out, his body falling lifelessly to the ground. On Anty's second holographic screen, another massive red X appeared.
Stenly, his face a mask of grim determination, made an impossibly fast dash, his dark katana aimed at Tarvaror's neck. But Tarvaror, his reflexes honed beyond human comprehension, casually caught Stenly's blade with a single hand. "I am the ultimate glitch," he declared, his voice resonating with an unsettling conviction. "I am the one who will ascend to become a demon-level glitch."
Stenly's rage reached a boiling point. He unleashed a furious flurry of dark slashes, his movements a blur of black energy. But Tarvaror, with a speed that defied the eye, delivered a lightning-fast punch directly into Stenly's stomach. The dark admin crumpled, falling to his knees, pixelated blood sputtering from his lips. Tarvaror regarded him with a strange mix of contempt and something akin to… pity?
"You were strong enough to survive my killing blow," Tarvaror said, his voice almost a whisper. "I will spare your life… for now."
Then, an unnatural phenomenon occurred. Tarvaror began to levitate, rising slowly into the air. His aura intensified, the blue energy around him swirling and crackling with immense power. The very ceiling of the glitch realm groaned and then shattered, revealing the night sky above. A colossal red full moon dominated the heavens, casting an eerie crimson glow over the scene.
Tarvaror floated higher and higher, his voice booming across the ravaged chamber. "Rejoice, mortals! Today, you will witness the birth of a god!"
Stenly and Anty stared up at him, their faces etched with pure terror. But amidst the despair, Anty noticed something peculiar. Georg's lifeless body on the ground was emitting a faint, flickering glitched aura. In the next instant, Georg's body twitched. He pushed himself up onto one knee, his voice now distorted, a glitched echo overlaying his own.
"If… if I must die…" he rasped, his form flickering erratically, "then… you… will come with me! Corrupted form… glitch mode!"
His entire being erupted in a chaotic surge of glitched energy. He launched himself upwards with impossible speed, a distorted figure hurtling towards the ascending Tarvaror.
"Show me what you can do, corrupted human!" Tarvaror boomed, a hint of genuine interest in his voice.
Georg began to glow with an intense, blinding light, a chaotic mix of white and gray. The closer he got to Tarvaror, the more intense the light became. Reaching the primordial glitch in the night sky, Georg grabbed him in a desperate embrace. With a final, desperate surge of energy from beneath his feet, he propelled them both higher, towards the crimson moon.
"DIEEEE!!!" Georg roared, his voice cracking with the strain. "HAAAAAAAA!"
The light emanating from Georg intensified exponentially as they reached the very edge of the sky. Then, with a silent, blinding flash, Georg detonated. He had overloaded his virtual body with an unimaginable amount of glitched energy, far beyond its capacity. The resulting explosion was colossal, a wave of chaotic energy that ripped through the night sky, visible for kilometers. Georg's body disintegrated into shimmering dust.
When the light finally faded, leaving only swirling particles of energy in the air, the crimson moonlight illuminated the scene. And from the dissipating dust emerged… Tarvaror. He was still alive, floating serenely in the night sky. He placed a hand on his forehead, tilted his head back, and unleashed a long, chilling laugh.
"Your friend died in vain," he declared, his voice dripping with cruel amusement. "He did not have the privilege of witnessing the birth of a god. I, Tarvaror, will ascend to demon-level glitch!"
Stenly and Anty exchanged horrified glances. "That glitch… he's too anomalous," Anty whispered, her fingers flying across her holographic interface, her face etched with confusion. "Not only can I not perceive a core like Saland and Haytham described, but I also didn't detect a singularity within him. The energy he fought with… it emanated from him directly, almost like an innate ability. But that's… impossible."
From his vantage point in the sky, Tarvaror's voice boomed down. "You are perceptive, woman. I am a primordial glitch, not some low-level anomaly. I am the glitch closest to a human being. Yardrach was a good experiment, but he couldn't wield his energy effectively. Null was powerful, but he possessed a Core. But now… I will be reborn as a new entity! All glitches… to me!"
Tarvaror raised his right arm, and from it, countless trails of light began to converge, swirling towards his outstretched hand, coalescing into a single, pulsating sphere.
"What… what is that monster doing?" Stenly asked Anty, his voice strained with disbelief and fear. "It looks like… he's absorbing mana?"
Anty's fingers danced across the holographic keys, her expression shifting to one of utter shock. "It… it seems impossible," she stammered, her voice barely a whisper. "But that glitch… he's absorbing all the cores… of all the glitches in the entire VR WORLD!"
A cruel smile spread across Tarvaror's face. "The time has come," he declared, his voice resonating with dark anticipation. He clenched his right hand, the swirling energy of countless glitch cores compressed into a single, malevolent red orb. The core pulsed with an inner light, radiating an oppressive energy. With a guttural roar, Tarvaror plunged the red core into his own chest.
A horrifying scream tore from his throat, and then, from the point of impact, a strange, white tendril erupted. It snaked across his body, rapidly expanding, encasing him entirely in an oval, white shell – a grotesque, pulsating chrysalis.
Just then, a new group of figures appeared in the ravaged chamber: Saland, Shimmon, Christy, Sting, Ken, and Rick. They stopped dead in their tracks, their faces a mixture of shock and confusion as they stared at the enormous, glowing white chrysalis floating in the sky.
"What… what is happening?" Saland stammered, his eyes wide with disbelief. "And where are Georg and Kyofei?"
Anty's voice was choked with emotion as she delivered the devastating news. "They… they were killed by that glitch… Tarvaror. Not only is he a primordial glitch, but he's also undergoing some kind of metamorphosis. He's… probably about to ascend to the demon level."
Suddenly, the white chrysalis began to crack. Jagged white branches erupted from within, tearing through the smooth surface. An unbearable, blinding white light flooded the night sky. When the light finally subsided, the newcomers, along with Stenly and Anty, stared in stunned silence at the figure that now floated in Tarvaror's place.
It was a humanoid figure, completely white, its skin etched with intricate black grooves that seemed to swirl and rotate across its body, culminating in a vortex-like pattern on its head. In the center of its head, where eyes should have been, was a single, gaping hole, within which burned a malevolent red eye, identical to the core Tarvaror had absorbed.
The entity spoke, its voice a chilling blend of organic and digital tones. "Today is the day you all die. For I am the god of glitches, the one and only demon-level glitch. I am Goros, and you will all perish, for I am the evolution of humanity!"