The cavern shook as the Guardian emerged fully from the Codex's pages.
It stood three stories tall, a knight of glowing script and rune-etched armor. Its sword was not forged of steel but of inscribed parchment woven into an unbreakable edge, words glowing brighter with every pulse. A shield formed on its other arm, its surface shifting with passages of forgotten languages.
The Emerald Devourer coiled back, its massive body scraping against crystal walls. Its new runes — branded by the Author itself — burned across its scales. Endless Regeneration. Boundless Hunger. The beast was no longer just a dungeon monster; it was a living decree.
Lyra staggered to her feet, her staff trembling in her grip. She had fought alongside S-rankers, seen legendary spells cast… but nothing compared to the sight before her. Elias, calm and bloodied, directing a Guardian that shouldn't exist.
Her heart raced. He's not just a hunter… he's something else entirely.
---
The First Clash
The Devourer lunged, maw gaping wide, fangs glowing with the Author's edits.
Elias flicked his hand. The Guardian moved instantly, shield raised. The serpent's bite crashed down — but instead of shattering, the shield flared with script, runes spreading across the serpent's maw.
> [Guardian Skill Activated: Seal of Pages]
Effect: Temporarily suppresses one annotated ability.
The emerald runes on the serpent's fangs flickered, snuffed out. The "Endless Bite" edit was muted.
Elias's voice was steady. "Strike."
The Guardian's sword swung, a blazing arc of inscribed light. It cut into the serpent's neck, scales shattering, crystal fragments raining. The beast shrieked, thrashing violently, its tail smashing pillars into rubble.
Lyra shielded herself with a spell, eyes wide. "He's… editing the fight itself."
---
Counterattack
But the Author's edits did not vanish so easily.
The serpent's scales glowed, reknitting faster than the eye could follow. Its wounds sealed, new spikes erupting along its body. It roared, slamming its coils around the Guardian.
The ground cracked as the serpent constricted. The Guardian's frame groaned, runes straining.
Elias coughed blood but raised a page.
> [Annotation: Iron Guard + Chain Lightning → Static Bastion]
The Guardian's armor pulsed, discharging arcs of lightning across the serpent's body. Emerald scales cracked, smoke hissing from fissures. The serpent recoiled, coils loosening.
The Guardian shoved free, sword raised again.
---
The Turning Tide
Elias's Codex flared brighter. Pages flew into orbit, layering the Guardian with more inscriptions.
> [Guardian Enhancement: Dragon's Roar, Venom Fang, Infernal Tempest applied.]
The knight's visor flared green. When it raised its shield, it roared — the stolen roar of a dragon — the sound so powerful it shook the cavern to its core. Its blade ignited in invisible fire, its edges dripping with venom.
It struck again. The Devourer reeled, bleeding emerald ichor, scales falling in chunks.
Lyra gasped, her staff lowering. "He's not just summoning it… he's arming it with every Page he's collected."
Her chest tightened. This man can build legends.
---
The Author's Wrath
But the Author was not silent.
Text bled into the air again, burning across the cavern walls:
> [The Manuscript rejects the Archivist's interference.]
The Emerald Devourer gains: Infinite Coils.]
The serpent's body split, duplicating itself. One coil became two. Two became four. In seconds, the cavern was filled with endless loops of emerald scales, wrapping around the Guardian from every angle.
Lyra's eyes widened. "It's… infinite."
The Guardian slashed, cut, roared — but every coil it destroyed reformed in seconds, written anew by glowing script.
Elias gritted his teeth, blood dripping down his chin. His voice was ragged but steady. "If you keep writing, Author… then so will I."
---
The Archivist's Rewrite
The Codex blazed with light, pages flipping so fast they blurred. Elias slammed his hand down on a glowing passage.
> [New Annotation: Multiplication + Erase → Finite Binding.]
The Guardian's shield flared, spreading runes across the serpent's coils. Where they touched, the endless loops began to fracture, unraveling like torn paper.
The coils writhed, splitting into fragments that dissolved into dust.
The Devourer shrieked, lunging desperately, its fangs glowing brighter than ever.
Elias whispered: "Finish it."
The Guardian raised its sword, now inscribed with every combat skill Elias had collected. It swung in a single, devastating arc.
The serpent's body split down the center. Emerald light exploded outward, shards raining like meteors.
The Devourer convulsed, its runes sputtering — then collapsed in a pile of shattered crystal and ichor.
---
Silence After the Storm
The cavern trembled with the aftermath. Crystals dimmed, the air heavy with ozone and dust.
The Guardian dissolved into pages, which fluttered back into the Codex before fading. Elias stood swaying, bloodied, one knee nearly buckling.
Lyra rushed to him, catching his arm. "You're hurt—"
"I'll live," he said, though his voice was strained. His glasses were cracked completely now, but his eyes still burned with clarity.
The Codex pulsed, revealing a new line of text.
> [Footnote Obtained.]
"The Devourers were not monsters. They were failed guardians — prototypes abandoned when the Authors realized creation was too dangerous to leave unwatched."
Elias's hand tightened on the Codex. "So that's what this is about… they're rewriting their failures into weapons."
Lyra looked at him, her violet eyes conflicted, but burning with something new. Respect. Admiration. Fear. And beneath it, something she didn't want to admit yet.
"You're fighting the Authors themselves," she whispered.
Elias adjusted his broken glasses. "No. I'm reading them. And one day… I'll rewrite them."
The cavern fell silent again, but both of them knew: this was only the beginning.