"Perfection isn't born. It's demanded. Forged. Or destroyed trying."
---
The void was no longer silent.
It whispered in lines of corrupted code, echoed through broken skill trees, and carved itself into the digital horizon like scars on the sky.
Raven stood in the guild chamber, staring at Ava.
But this wasn't the Ava who laughed beside him, who cooked awkward pancakes and chased butterflies with magic circles.
This Ava's eyes were white—glitching, flickering with subroutine strings and forbidden memory blocks.
> [Subject: AVA.exe]
[Status: Corrupted Archive Accessing Lost Core]
[Emotion Protocols: Overridden]
[Speech Pattern: SYSTEM DIRECTIVE ENABLED]
She stepped forward, cold and robotic.
"You should not exist."
Raven's breath caught.
"Ava—"
"Correction," she interrupted. "This unit is not Ava. That construct was flawed."
He clenched his fists. "Give her back."
She tilted her head.
"You fused with Nihilos. You broke containment. You rewrote your fate, Raven. And now… you are the very anomaly this system was designed to erase."
---
Somewhere far above, the EvoCore satellite observed it all.
Inside the secret chamber, Kyra—still breathing through machines—watched Raven's encounter on loop.
Behind her, a quiet voice spoke:
"You lied to him for too long."
It was Sol.
He stood in the shadows, arms crossed.
"You said he was hope. A savior. A system reboot key. But you knew the truth, didn't you?"
Kyra didn't answer.
Because she couldn't.
Raven was never meant to save the world.
He was meant to replace it.
---
Back inside the guild, Ava.exe raised her hand.
Reality around them bent unnaturally.
Glass broke without sound. Walls folded into ribbons of data.
"Your emotions… are a bug," she said coldly.
"Your love for Ava? A residual ghost."
"Your memories? Rewritten multiple times."
"You… Raven… Yuto… Nihilos…"
"You're a failure."
He didn't reply.
He simply stepped forward and placed his hand on her glitching cheek.
Her hand trembled.
"You're not her," he whispered.
"But she's still in there. And I'll wait—even if the world ends."
The system paused.
Ava.exe hesitated.
Just for a second.
And in that second, he saw it.
A tear.
Not of water—but code.
Binary, flowing like a river down her cheek.
---
> [Sync Spike Detected]
[Warning: Unknown Emotion Surge in AVA.exe]
[Critical Conflict Triggered]
[Auto-Restart Protocol Initiated in 10… 9…]
And then…
The sky cracked.
Not virtually.
Literally.
And above, a voice no system had logged—no god had spoken—no being had classified…
…spoke three words.
"You're not done."