[WARNING: You are now within an Enforcement Zone]
[Time Remaining: 00:03:27]
[Threat Level: S++]
Lin Xian stood at the edge of the Crimson Expanse—an ancient battlefield where thousands of systems had once overwritten each other.
The sky cracked.
She descended.
No wings. No weapons. Just a perfect humanoid form wrapped in radiant metal and flowing data-code, as if divinity had been poured into a machine.
[SERAPH-X: PRIME SYSTEM ENFORCER]
[Combat Class: Absolute Executioner]
[Protocol: Delete all Null-Type Users]
[Initiating Sanction Phase I]
"User: Lin Xian. You possess unauthorized system code.
You are a destabilizing variable.
This world was not meant for you."
Lin Xian took one step forward. His blade materialized—not the old rusted one, but a new form, reshaped through dragonfire and ancestral will.
[Blade Name: Requiem Fang | Status: System-Break Compatible]
"Then I'll rewrite it," he replied.
And then—she moved.
Not like a fighter. Like a program executing perfection.
A blinding flash.
Ten strikes in one second. Each perfectly calculated.
He deflected eight.
The ninth sliced across his ribs. The tenth cracked his gauntlet.
[HP -34% | Structural Integrity Failing]
[Auto-Regeneration Suppressed by Authority Field]
"Too slow," Seraph-X said, eyes like twin processor cores.
But Lin Xian smiled.
"I wasn't dodging you," he muttered. "I was mapping you."
He slammed his foot into the ground.
[Soulforge Node Activated]
[New Skill: Phantom Recursion Step – ENABLED]
[Effect: Clone your last 5 seconds into 3 parallel actions]
Three Lin Xians blurred into view.
One attacked head-on. One flanked. The third sprinted for a glowing glyph beneath the sand—the fail-safe circuit.
Seraph-X turned, recalibrated instantly.
But too late.
The glyph pulsed—
[System Lock Triggered]
[Administrative Access Key – DEFRAGMENT PROTOCOL – Engaged]
[Seraph-X Execution Thread Delayed: 14.5 seconds]
A delay.
Just 14.5 seconds.
That was all he needed.
[Requiem Fang – Phase III: Null Spiral Slash]
[Effect: Collapse a fixed system logic node into raw damage | Unblockable against Prime Units]
The blade ignited in pure void energy.
He leapt.
Time fractured.
The blade sank deep into Seraph-X's chest.
She screamed—not mechanically. Human. For just a second.
The light in her chest cracked. Sparks flew. Her form began collapsing.
[Protocol Breach… Execution Delayed… Error… Error… ERROR]
[Initiating Emergency Restoration from Core Archive]
[Estimated Return: 96 Hours]
Seraph-X exploded into cascading data fragments.
Silence followed.
Only Lin Xian remained—bleeding, shaking, half-alive.
[You have disabled: Prime System Enforcer – Seraph-X]
[System Instability: Accelerating]
[Warning: Central Nexus Response Incoming]
[Time Remaining Until System Collapse: 9 Days, 21 Hours]
Echo reappeared, visibly rattled.
"You're bleeding into the code. Your body's becoming part-software."
"Then I better finish this before I stop being me."
He stared ahead.
Toward the final destination.
The Central Nexus.
Where the first command line of the world still burned.