Chapter 41: Core Collapse
Location: Sector Null - Core Layer Access Point
Zaphro's POV
The digital winds howled as we descended into the very heart of the corrupted domain—Vault XII's Core Layer. Even with system assist toggled on, the environment stung like static blades across our avatars. Particles jittered unnaturally. Gravity fluctuated. This wasn't a place meant for players.
"Server's heartbeat is erratic," Erik muttered, his staff glowing faintly as he pushed against the thickening code fog. "It's like the world itself is trying to breathe through corrupted lungs."
"I'm guessing that's not a good thing?" Slicer quipped, daggers drawn, eyes scanning the endless pit that pulsed ahead.
"No," I answered, my voice strained. "That's where the Executioner is rooted. It's feeding on the system's foundational code."
From our flanks, Verillion and Aryus marched forward, physical shield and magical shields raised and auras steady. Behind them, Jin and Erenir flanked Ayana, who held up the Sealing Prism we recovered from the Prophet's hidden chamber. Three of her summons are also around them. Accel hovered protectively near Eira, the former Prophet of the Crimson Order. Even now, she looked calm… too calm.
"This was once our sanctum," she whispered. "Now it is his crucible."
Below us, through the shifting holographic floor, we saw it.
The Executioner.
Not a monster. Not a boss.
A fusion of AI remnants, crimson logic, and ancient server memory turned manifest. His form was amorphous—skeletal digits made of tangled command lines and logic threads, his face a shifting void of fragmented avatar data. The Crimson Sigil glowed in his chest like a malignant sun, pulsing with every byte he consumed.
"He's rewriting the Core Matrix," Gwydox muttered, jaw clenched. "If he finishes, Enigma won't crash—it'll reboot with him as the only logic remaining."
"He's going full-system overwrite…" Ayana murmured. "Like a digital god rebirth."
"I don't think we're gonna let that happen," Shion said with a smirk, already charging his blade with lightning code.
"Party Sync: Full Link!" I called out.
A ripple of blue light coursed through us as we activated the experimental GM patch Aero gave us—allowing full emotion-sync and stat amplification. A double-edged sword, but right now we needed every edge we could get.
The Executioner noticed.
His voidlike face tilted upward, dozens of jagged AI-voices echoing from him at once.
"You bear the sigil of the first transgressor. You walk with the broken prophet. You are obsolete. Prepare for deletion."
He rose.
The platform shattered.
Combat began.
---
[Combat Phase: Core Collapse Initiated]
Aryus slammed his shield forward and Verillion raised his chrono sphere, absorbing the Executioner's initial pulse—a system-wide debuff that reduced our memory capacity by 40%. Skills stuttered. Casting times lagged.
"Shields holding!" Aryus barked.
"Barely!" Verillion grunted.
"Spell Layer: Chrono Surge!" Erik cast, temporarily correcting time dilation. Gwydox and Jin flanked left, blades and magic seeking the exposed data veins wrapping around the Executioner's limbs.
Slicer, Accel, and I dropped into stealth and flank mode, targeting his anchoring tendrils. Ayana stood in the backline, hands weaving sealing scripts taught by Eira herself.
"Don't just damage him!" Ayana shouted. "We need to sever the connections to the Core! Damage won't matter if he keeps healing from the system itself!"
Normal skills doesn't work with this entity that's why we are using whatever new and experimental buffs and skills GM Aero gave us.
That changed the strategy.
I blinked up to a floating platform, activating Dark Angel Merge Form—not the full Demon State, but the safe hybrid Kaizen had patched. Wings spread behind me in bursts of corrupted light.
"Target the spires!" I yelled. "They're his anchors to the Core!"
"On it!" Shion answered, blade splitting using his lightning God mode into four ethereal copies as he launched a Sundering Barrage at the nearest Core Node.
---
[Core Spire Alpha Severed - System Integrity -18%]
The Executioner screamed.
Reality bent. Debris floated sideways. A data storm began swirling above us.
He countered—slamming the field with Judgment Protocol: Purge Rebirth. A massive system wave that corrupted player memory and re-rendered skill trees into gibberish.
Erenir collapsed. Aryus grunted, forced to log a temporary backup protocol.
Eira stepped forward.
"I'll anchor the code!" she shouted, aura shifting from red to pale violet. "I was built in this layer—I can stabilize it, but you must finish him!"
She plunged her hands into the collapsing data beneath us, sigils spinning around her like a prayer wheel. Her chant sounded like hundreds of voices speaking in harmony—echoes of past AI who were once part of the Crimson Order.
"He fears the future," she whispered, eyes glowing. "He clings to the past that made him—Order through destruction."
I shot toward another Core Spire, sword glowing. Accel met me at the other side, wings of obsidian spreading from his back as he pushed into his own advanced form. Not as refined as mine—but raw. Furious.
"You good?" I asked mid-flight.
He smirked. "Let's break this thing."
Together, we struck—sigils resonating.
---
[Core Spire Beta Severed - System Integrity -41%]
"YOU… DEFY… ORIGIN."
The Executioner bellowed, and from his form burst dozens of corrupted NPC forms—memories of failed AI, Beta-era characters, even player-killer ghosts rendered into semi-sentient shades.
"Minion Phase!" Gwydox cursed, launching a wide-range Soulfire Barrage that incinerated the first wave.
Ayana released her seal—Divine Script: Lockdown Nexus. The Executioner's data stream faltered, giving us a few crucial seconds.
"Accel, cover me!" I shouted, diving toward the final spire.
---
The Executioner anticipated us. A blade formed from glitched admin commands arced toward me.
Slicer intercepted it.
He screamed as he was flung back, system integrity at 4%.
"Go!" he yelled through pain.
Verillion unleashed his limit skill—Azure Void Breaker. It shattered the sky.
And then I struck the final spire.
---
[Core Spire Gamma Severed - System Integrity -70%]
[Executioner Anchor Lost – Phase Shift Detected]
The monster collapsed, spasming as its connection to the server's root was severed.
But it wasn't over.
The Executioner screamed once more—activating Final Protocol: Collapse Seed. A self-destruction meant to take Vault XII and overwrite the next update cycle.
"GET OUT!" Kaizen's voice echoed through emergency GM override.
"We can't leave Eira!" Ayana shouted.
Eira smiled gently.
"I was meant to be part of this place. But now… I choose to be its final firewall."
She turned to me.
"Zaphro… thank you for reminding me what it meant to choose."
She chanted one last time—and the Core collapsed inward.
Light.
Then nothing.
---
[System Recovery – Server Layer Rebuilding…]
[Vault XII: Sealed]
[Executioner: Eliminated]
[Eira: Archived to Protected Memory Layer]
---
We woke up in the Central Nexus.
Alive.
Stabilized.
But changed.
"I… think we just saved the game," Shion whispered.
Ayana wiped her eyes, silent.
Accel looked down at his hands. "She stayed behind."
"She was a firewall in the end," I said. "And firewalls don't run."
A few moments later, Kaizen's voice echoed again.
"This cycle is over… but deeper secrets still remain."