The Prototype Sovereign shrieked, its unfinished face splitting wider as golden script blazed across its body.
Its limbs convulsed, claws rewriting into twin blades etched with new runes. Its parchment wings spread, tearing the shelves apart with the force of their beat.
> [Prototype Sovereign is rewriting itself.]
[Power Level: Rising.]
The hunters staggered, pale, wounded, helpless. Guild elites who once boasted of S-rank strength now huddled in broken clusters, their banners in tatters.
Only Elias still stood before it.
---
The Rising Storm
The Sovereign lunged. Elias raised a page.
> [Manifestation: Reflective Guard.]
The shield formed — and shattered instantly as the Sovereign's claws sliced through it. Elias staggered back, blood spraying from a deep cut across his chest.
The beast followed with a second strike, faster than lightning. Elias's Guardian burst into being, catching the blow — only to be torn apart in a single swing.
The hunters gasped.
"He's… he's losing ground!"
"No one can fight that thing alone!"
Lyra's violet light flared as she raised her staff. "Then I'll—"
Elias's voice cut across the chaos. Calm. Sharp.
"Stay."
Her chest tightened. His eyes met hers — bloodied, cracked, but steady.
"You've already done more than they could. Hold the others. I'll hold this."
Her lips trembled. Tears burned her eyes. But she nodded. "Then… don't you dare fall."
---
Caleb crouched near the shelves, ink splattering his parchment as he sketched the Sovereign's movements. His hands shook, but his eyes were wide with revelation.
"No… no, that's it. That's why it's stronger!"
A Spirewatch survivor grabbed him. "What are you babbling about?"
Caleb shoved him off, eyes wild. "It's not just rewriting itself — it's pulling from discarded drafts! Every new limb, every new strike, it's stitching from other abandoned stories!"
He scrambled to his feet, shouting across the battlefield: "Elias! It's not infinite! It's bound by what the Authors threw away! If you can cut the draft-source, you can stop it!"
The Codex flared at Elias's side as if it had been waiting for those words.
---
The Sovereign's wings snapped, and it blurred forward. Its claws slammed into Elias's side before he could fully rewrite. He gasped, blood spraying as the blow hurled him across the hall, crashing into shattered shelves.
The hunters screamed. Lyra's heart stopped.
Elias staggered up, one knee buckling. His glasses cracked completely, one lens falling to the floor. Blood poured from his mouth. The Sovereign loomed, claws glowing with script.
> [Predator's Edict Activated.]
[Target: Elias Crowe.]
Every Prototype left turned toward him at once.
He coughed blood, his voice ragged but steady. "So be it."
Pages flared weakly around him, trembling as though they too were near collapse. His hands shook, his body broken, but he still stepped forward.
One man against a god.
---
The Sovereign lunged. Its claws pierced through Elias's chest.
Lyra screamed. Caleb dropped his notes, his voice breaking. "No—!"
And then the world froze.
The claws halted inches from his heart. The roar of battle stilled. Hunters froze mid-breath, mid-scream. Ink drops hung in the air.
Elias blinked. His body trembled on the edge of death.
The Codex floated before him, brighter than ever. Its pages turned, burning with golden light.
> [Archivist.]
You cannot close this book yet.
The Manuscript is unfinished. And so are you.
Elias coughed blood, his lips twisting into a bitter smile. "You always wait until I'm dying to speak."
> [Because it is only when a reader bleeds that he truly understands the page.]
The Codex's light seared into his wounds, rewriting them line by line.
> [New Feature Unlocked: Reader's Command.]
Authority: Rewrite not only the world… but those who follow your story.]
---
Time lurched again. The Sovereign's claws pierced forward — but this time, they met a page.
Elias stood unbroken, blood dripping, pages swirling like wings of fire. His voice carried across the frozen hunters, calm and absolute:
"No draft… can dictate my ending."
The Codex flared, runes igniting across the battlefield. Hunters felt it — not power, but certainty, binding their wills like iron.
Lyra's breath caught, her heart surging. Caleb's eyes widened, tears falling.
And for the first time, the Prototype Sovereign recoiled.