The silence after a godfight is never silent. It hums.
Broken crystal settling. The hiss of steam. Someone's shallow breathing.
Brian lay flat on the arena floor, staring up at the shattered heavens. Every inhale hurt like a punishment. His hand twitched once, trying to move, then didn't.
Aurora's voice cracked through the haze. "Brian! Stay with me—hey!"
Flames sputtered around her palms, wild and unfocused.
Lyra was kneeling by his side, eyes glowing faintly as she tried to hold the rubble above them in place. "He's fading! His vitals are—" She stopped, realizing there was no System to scan them. "Damn it!"
Kira was pacing, limping, blades flickering in and out like nervous thoughts. "That thing's regenerating. We don't have time!"
Selene floated nearby, her cosmic aura barely holding form. "If we attack again, we die."
For once, nobody argued.
The Hunter Supreme towered over the ruin, molten shadows dripping from its wings. One eye—just one of the dozen—fixed on Brian. The others scanned the girls, calculating.
Predator math.
Brian's lips twitched. "...still ugly," he murmured, voice like broken glass.
Aurora grabbed his collar. "Don't talk. You need to—"
He smiled weakly. "You yell when you're scared."
She froze. Because he was right.
The Hunter's blade arm crackled with anti-light.
It raised the weapon, slow and ceremonial, like an executioner honoring a fallen rival.
Lyra screamed, trying to move him with telekinesis, but her power barely lifted dust.
Selene stretched both hands, cosmic energy flickering—too weak.
Kira ran forward anyway, even knowing she'd never make it in time.
The blade came down.
And the world glitched.
A high, pure tone cut through reality. The Hunter's motion froze mid-swing, the light in its eyes dimming. Space warped around Brian's body, lines of blue code crawling over his skin like fireflies.
> [REBOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED]
Aurora stumbled back, shielding her eyes. "What the—"
Brian gasped. His heart kicked back to life like a detonator going off in his chest. The ground beneath him pulsed, crystal veins lighting up with System-blue energy.
> [System core integrity: 4%]
[Restoration in progress…]
The Hunter Supreme roared, trying to move, but its body glitched again—half in this plane, half not. The arena itself seemed to reboot with him, bits of shattered platforms rewinding, dust freezing midair.
Selene's voice trembled. "It's syncing… with him."
Kira stared. "The System's—connected to Brian?"
Aurora knelt beside him, eyes wide. "Hey… can you hear me?"
Brian's eyes opened, glowing faint blue. His voice was barely a whisper, but it carried.
"Yeah… I hear you."
He grinned, cracked and bloodied but real.
"And I'm done playing defense."
The crystal floor beneath him erupted with light.
> [SYSTEM ONLINE]
[New Protocol Detected: HUMAN OVERRIDE MODE]
The Hunter Supreme screamed—a sound of fury and fear—as reality shuddered.
Brian rose slowly, blue code bleeding from his shadow. He cracked his neck.
"No more limits," he said. "Let's finish this."
And then he stepped forward, the arena trembling under his bare feet, the world reassembling around him.
> [TO BE CONTINUED…]