The System-Breaker moved first.
Without hesitation, he raised his hand, and a lance of corrupted code twisted into being — a nightmarish mass of broken data and red static.
In the next instant, it split into tendrils, each whipping through the air like hungry snakes.
I threw myself to the side, narrowly avoiding the first lash.
Even so, a strand grazed my arm — pain exploded, burning like acid through my nerves.
> [HEALTH -12%]
I gritted my teeth, landing in a clumsy roll behind a crumbling pillar.
The air itself distorted with every movement the Breaker made, as if reality couldn't decide whether to exist or collapse around him.
> [WARNING: Local Environment Stability 24%. Immediate Action Required.]
His laughter echoed, mechanical and cruel.
"Pathetic. You patch and delay, but you don't understand, little one," he said, voice dripping with mockery.
"This world is already dead. Your efforts are meaningless."
I ignored him, pressing my back against the broken stone.
I had maybe seconds before he tore through my cover.
Fighting him directly was suicide.
I needed another way — something to turn the battlefield in my favor.
My eyes scanned desperately — and then I saw it:
a server pylon, battered but still functioning, flickering at the far side of the ruined plaza.
If I could stabilize even part of the environment with it, I could slow him down.
---
A tendril smashed through the pillar, sending shards of stone and static flying.
I bolted, dodging low as corrupted code lances rained down around me.
Pushing my Patch tool to its limit, I fired rapid suppression bursts behind me, forcing the tendrils to slow — but it was draining my energy fast.
Each step felt heavier, the corrupted gravity of the zone fighting against me.
The server pylon flickered weaker and weaker — it was now or never.
The Breaker shifted, sensing my intention.
With a roar that shook the ground, he unleashed a wave of glitch-fire, cutting off my path.
---
Think. Move. Trust yourself.
I activated Field Rewrite, the highest risk tool I had left.
> [CASTING: Field Rewrite — Stabilizing Local Reality Zone…]
The Patch tool shuddered in my grip, straining.
Lines of pure, clean code burst outward, slamming into the corrupted fire midair.
For a heartbeat, the world froze.
The fire paused, static dropped.
The ground under my feet solidified.
I ran.
Sliding under a broken beam, I reached the server pylon and slammed the Patch tool against its core.
A surge of stabilizing energy roared outward, bathing the entire area in blue-white light.
> [LOCAL STABILITY +20%.]
The glitch-beasts disintegrated into harmless data fragments.
The crumbling walls solidified.
The heavy gravity lifted, just a little.
Even the Breaker staggered, his monstrous form flickering uncertainly.
---
"You won't...!" he snarled, his voice glitching.
I stepped away from the pylon, raising my tool defensively.
"I'm not here to survive," I said, breathing heavily.
"I'm here to fix what you broke."
The Breaker's mask cracked wider, showing the edge of a hollow, synthetic face beneath.
Not human. Not alive.
Just a broken thing that wanted to drag everything else down with it.
---
The ground trembled violently.
The Breaker extended both arms wide —
and the sky itself shattered.
Crimson data rained down like blood.
> [ALERT: BOSS FIGHT — PHASE 2 INITIATED.]
His form twisted, growing larger, darker.
Glitch-fire wings burst from his back, each feather a shard of corrupted code.
His lance warped into a massive cleaver made from severed system threads, humming with pure destruction.
The temperature dropped to freezing.
Even breathing hurt.
He had shed whatever limiters were holding him back.
This was his true form.
The final weapon of the glitch.
---
I staggered back, coughing, but kept my tool raised.
The server pylon at my back pulsed steadily, sending out stabilizing signals — but it wouldn't hold forever.
If I was going to win, it had to be now.
---
Memories flickered across my vision.
...the day the system first glitched out.
The people screaming as buildings folded into themselves.
The guilds collapsing, the cities vanishing...
And me —
the foolish kid who believed that if you just kept patching, you could fix anything.
I clenched my fist tighter around the tool.
This wasn't just survival anymore.
This was everything.
---
The Breaker let out a distorted howl —
then launched forward, cleaver raised high.
Reality tore in his wake.
---
I sidestepped desperately, activating a Burst Shield.
The cleaver smashed down, slamming into the barrier.
Cracks spiderwebbed instantly, but the shield held — barely.
I countered, firing a concentrated Pulse Shot directly into his exposed chest.
The Breaker grunted, stumbling half a step.
Not enough to kill him — but enough to prove something:
He could bleed.
Even this corrupted monster could be hurt.
Even this broken world could still be healed.
---
The next exchange would decide it all.
I squared my shoulders, readying the final Patch override routine in my HUD.
One shot.
One chance.
The server pylon pulsed again — weaker now.
Time was running out.
But so was he.