In Zone "A," the clashes between glitches and admins escalated, each impact echoing with the weight of a digital apocalypse. Amidst the chaos, a singular glitch drew the horrified fascination of many admins. It was a figure sculpted from gray and white, a humanoid void of distinguishing features save for eyes like twin pools of bleached bone, a frame as fragile as spun glass, and a constant, unsettling smile etched onto its blank canvas of a face. Yet, the most terrifying aspect was its impossible speed, a blur that left trails of fallen admins, each felled by invisible cuts that defied comprehension. What singularity could birth such lethal grace?
The glitch moved like a phantom, a whirlwind of silent death, its attacks a relentless, maddening storm. But then, a streak of azure against the gray chaos – an arrow, aimed with desperate precision, hurtled towards the glitch's face. It never reached its mark. In a blink, the projectile was cleaved in two, falling harmlessly to the digital ground.
A voice, cold and sharp, sliced through the din of battle. "Who dares to interrupt my amusement?!"
From the fractured reality, a figure materialized. Short, sharp black hair framed a determined face, streaks of vibrant blue cutting through the darkness like static electricity. A pristine white lab coat billowed slightly as she moved, and in her hands, an arc of pure energy pulsed with azure light. It was Sylene. She stood before the monstrous glitch, a fragile beacon of defiance.
"I am Sylene," her voice resonated with an unexpected authority, "a high-level admin. And you… you must be Libeth, the glitch who was absorbed by Kyofei. Am I correct?"
The gray and white figure tilted its head, the unsettling smile never wavering. "Yes," it replied, the voice a chillingly smooth monotone. "It is I. I was… inconvenienced, trapped within that inferior vessel for far too long. Now that he has finally ceased to function, I am… liberated! And from the lingering echoes within his broken code, I know of you, Sylene. A scientist… deemed unfit. Banished by your own kind."
Sylene's gaze remained unwavering. "Yes, you are correct. I was cast out. But the Supreme Admin has seen fit to reinstate me. My power… it is no longer bound."
A mocking tone entered Libeth's voice. "I am aware of your past failures, woman. You were powerless against a glitch like Yardrach. Do you honestly believe you stand a chance against me?"
A confident smile touched Sylene's lips, a stark contrast to the unsettling grin before her. "Then, my powers were shackled by my exile. Now… there are no restraints. I can finally fight at my true potential. I know your singularity, Libeth. 'Sharpness.' The same power Kyofei wielded. But will even the sharpest cut reach the core of the mind?"
The unsettling smile on Libeth's face tightened, a flicker of something akin to annoyance crossing its blank features. "Do not prattle nonsense, woman! I am a glitch of the highest order!" It shifted its stance, a subtle coiling of its slender form.
Sylene drew back the string of her energy bow, the azure light intensifying. "I offer you one final warning. My admin power is called 'Boundless Brain.' It allows me to dissect and analyze any ability, any power my opponent possesses… and to forge a countermeasure." With that declaration, she settled into a combat stance, the energy bow a lethal extension of her will.
Their eyes locked, a silent prelude to the storm about to break. Then, in a simultaneous burst of impossible speed, both figures lunged.
Sylene unleashed a rapid-fire volley of energy arrows, streaks of pure light tearing through the air. Libeth moved like a phantom, deflecting and slicing each projectile with effortless precision. But the arrows were not merely projectiles. They detonated in bursts of concussive force. Yet, even the explosions were not enough. Libeth's invisible cuts tore through the expanding energy, dissipating the blasts as if they were mere illusions.
But Sylene was not relying on brute force. With a subtle shift of her wrists, she launched two more arrows, arcing wide to flank the glitch. As they converged, they erupted in a lattice of crackling yellow energy, forming a cage around Libeth. Before the glitch could react, Sylene followed up with a barrage of elemental arrows – searing flames and biting ice hurtling towards its trapped form.
With a flick of its wrist, Libeth sliced through the energy net as if it were silk, the yellow light dissolving into nothingness. The elemental arrows followed, each cut with impossible accuracy. Yet, one ice arrow, faster or perhaps simply unexpected, grazed Libeth's arm, a frost spreading rapidly across its gray flesh. Simultaneously, a fire arrow, aimed true, hurtled towards its head.
But the unsettling smile never faltered. With a casual movement, Libeth severed the encroaching ice, the frost retreating as if it had never been. The fire arrow, mere inches from its face, was sliced in two without even a perceptible shift in the glitch's posture. Then, it moved.
A blur of gray and white, Libeth closed the distance in an instant. Sylene had no time to react, no time to even register the movement before a fist, impossibly fast and impossibly sharp, punched through her stomach. A gaping hole bloomed in her white coat, the digital air shimmering around the wound. Libeth's unsettling smile widened, a terrifying expression of mad glee.
But the victory was fleeting. In the blink of an eye, Sylene's body dissolved into a cascade of shimmering pixels, leaving behind only a broken energy arrow.
Before Libeth could even process the impossible disappearance, a searing pain ripped through its chest. The real Sylene, having executed a flawless feint, had struck from behind. An energy arrow, pure and deadly, protruded from its core. A strangled cry of pain escaped Libeth's lips, a sound that seemed alien coming from the perpetually smiling face.
Sylene regarded the wounded glitch, her expression grim. Cracks, like fissures in porcelain, spider-webbed across the point where Libeth's attack had landed on her simulated form. "It's over, Libeth. Your singularity… it allows you to cut anything within your vicinity, to dictate the very sharpness of your cuts. That is how you intercepted my arrows with such precision, how you managed to strike down my copy with a barrage of cuts invisible to the naked eye… but not to mine."
Libeth, clutching its pierced chest, began to chuckle, a low, unsettling sound that quickly escalated into full-blown manic laughter. It raised its head, the unsettling smile now twisted with a mixture of agony and something akin to grudging respect. "Not bad… not bad at all, adventurer. I must admit, you are a formidable opponent. But your fleeting moment of triumph ends here! Singularity… SHARPNESS!!"
The air around Libeth shimmered, then erupted in a swirling vortex of silver light. Its slender form began to contort, its hands elongating into razor-sharp claws. Its body bulked, muscles rippling beneath its gray skin. Two jagged gray horns spiraled forward from its head, and a potent silvery aura pulsed around it. "Prepare for your death!" Libeth roared, its voice now a guttural snarl.
It lunged, a silver blur aimed at Sylene. She reacted instantly, dodging at the last possible moment, the razor claws whistling past her face. But the near miss was enough. A searing pain shot through her left arm, and her white coat ripped open, a crimson line blooming on her skin.
Sylene, her face grim but focused, began to analyze the transformed glitch. She unleashed another barrage of energy arrows, a chaotic storm of electricity, pure light, fire, ice, explosives, and more, each imbued with a different counter-frequency. But Libeth, moving with terrifying speed, sliced through them all, the silver aura around him deflecting and cutting with supersonic precision.
Sylene found herself on the defensive, pressed back by the relentless assault. Libeth closed in, and with a final, desperate move, Sylene fired an arrow of pure, concentrated light. It detonated on impact, a blinding flash engulfing the glitch. But even this was not enough. In the instant of the explosion, Libeth's cuts tore through the expanding light, cleaving it in two, and a moment later, a searing pain ripped through Sylene's left arm once more. This time, there was no pixelated dissolution. The cut was real, severing her arm cleanly below the shoulder.
Libeth, its form still monstrous, seemed momentarily satisfied. "You may be able to devise countermeasures against my power, woman," it snarled, "but I can cut anything. I am the singularity of the cut itself, not some mere ability!"
Sylene stared at the stump where her arm used to be, a hand instinctively clutching the wound. But then… she smiled. Not the confident smile from before, but a wide, almost manic grin. "Usually," she said, her voice low and intense, "I fight with a cool head, calculating every possibility. I was the support. Sharon was the attacker. She always had that… look when she fought, that insane fascination with understanding her opponent's abilities. I am not her. I don't care how your cut works anymore. But now… now I feel it too. That exhilarating rush of madness. I will show you a power I have never shown anyone. Not even the Supreme Admin. Admin mode… install… BOUNDLESS BRAIN!!"
A wave of oppressive gray aura erupted from Sylene, a tangible force that rippled through the digital air. Her short black hair elongated, the blue streaks fading into a steely gray. Her lab coat shifted and reformed, becoming sleek black trousers and a short-sleeved gray jacket. The energy bow in her hands dissolved, only to coalesce on her wrists as two compact, lethal crossbows of pure energy.
"This," Sylene declared, her voice now imbued with a chilling certainty, "is your end, Libeth."
Both figures coiled, energy crackling around them. Then, Libeth lunged, a silver streak of lethal intent. Sylene moved with a newfound speed, dodging the attack and instantly leveling one of her energy crossbows at the glitch's face. She fired a dart at point-blank range.
Libeth, confident in its absolute cutting power, made no attempt to evade. But the invisible cut that should have cleaved the dart in two… never came. The energy dart, humming with an unknown frequency, pierced Libeth's head, the impact shattering the bone-like structure of its face.
A silent shock rippled through the monstrous form. Then, in a final, desperate act, Libeth unleashed a chaotic storm of invisible cuts around itself. Sylene recoiled, but only for a moment. With a speed that mirrored Libeth's own, she closed the distance, her remaining fist slamming into the glitch's stomach with brutal force. Before Libeth could react, she fired another energy dart, this one aimed at its chin.
The impact threw Libeth back, its regenerating form flickering erratically. It tried to lash out with a clawed hand, but Sylene parried with her remaining arm, then unleashed two more punches into its chest, each followed by the discharge of her energy crossbows. Two more darts slammed into Libeth's core, detonating with bursts of raw energy.
With a final, brutal kick to its torso, Sylene sent Libeth sprawling across the digital battlefield. The glitch's regeneration was sluggish, its movements jerky. Its monstrous face was twisted in a horrifying blend of terror and rage. "How… how are you so strong?!" it choked out. "No one… no one can withstand my cuts! No one!"
Sylene's gaze was cold, devoid of the earlier manic glee. "When I use my Admin Mode Install, I don't just analyze your ability, Libeth. I create an energy field around myself that renders me immune to its effects. And I can create darts… darts that bypass your 'absolute' cut. Today, the glitches will be purged. You… are no exception."
Hearing this pronouncement, Libeth lunged again, its attack fueled by blind, desperate fury. But Sylene was ready. Charging white energy into her remaining crossbow, she fired two final darts. They streaked through the air with supersonic speed, unerringly targeting the glowing core within Libeth's chest.
The impact was catastrophic. Libeth's core shattered into a thousand glittering fragments. Its monstrous form began to disintegrate, the gray and white pixels flaking away like dust in the wind. "I… I will never… accept this…" it whispered, its voice fading into the digital ether.
Then, Libeth was gone, reduced to nothing more than shimmering particles drifting towards the enormous, gaping tear in reality – the system bug. Sylene watched the last vestiges of the powerful glitch dissipate before turning, her remaining hand reaching for the energy crossbow on her wrist. The battle was far from over, and the other admins needed her help. The hunt had just begun.