The monster loomed before them, a nightmare stitched together from broken reflections. Its body was an amalgamation of shadows and fragmented memories, flickering between shapes—sometimes his mother's face, sometimes Lyra's family, sometimes his own corpse lying in the road after the car accident.
It was wrong in every way. Too tall. Too thin. Too familiar.
[Zone Event: Fear-Eater Manifested]
[Boss Encounter Initiated]
Arin tightened his grip on his weapon, though his palms were slick with sweat. Every instinct screamed at him to run. His stability meter ticked down just from looking at the thing.
Lyra's voice was steady, but her hand trembled. "This is what the Abyss was leading us to. A monster born from fear itself."
The Fear-Eater's voices overlapped in dozens of tones, male and female, young and old, all taunting."Feed me your despair. The more you fear, the stronger I become."
Arin's jaw clenched. Great. A boss that grows stronger the more terrified I am. And I'm already terrified.
The Fear-Eater moved first. Despite its massive size, it glided forward silently, its claws trailing corrupted data like smoke. With a sudden lunge, it slashed at Arin.
"Pause!" Arin shouted.
The world froze—his signature exploit kicking in—but the monster's eyes glowed with burning red pixels.
[Exploit Resisted.]
The pause shattered instantly. Time resumed, and the claw nearly tore through him. Arin barely rolled away, the ground sizzling where the blow landed.
The Fear-Eater's mouths laughed in unison. "You fear your weakness. Delicious."
Arin's heart hammered. His pause—his most reliable trick—was useless. If it could resist exploits, how could he win?
Lyra struck from the side, her corrupted arm extending like a spear and piercing through the monster's torso. For a moment, it staggered—then reformed, her arm sliding out as if through water.
She grit her teeth. "It's not physical. It's feeding on us. We have to cut off its source."
Arin's eyes widened. "You mean… our fear."
The Abyss seized its chance. The whispers surged louder, drowning out thought.
"You'll never be enough.""You died already. You don't belong here.""You'll fail Lyra. You'll fail everyone."
Arin's knees buckled. His vision swam, showing the moment of the car crash again. The headlights. The horn. The pain.
His chest burned. His grip loosened. If this is what I am—if all I do is fail—then maybe I should just let go…
A hand grabbed his arm. Lyra. Her silver eyes locked on his, steady despite the chaos.
"Don't feed it, Arin. Use it. Turn it against the Abyss."
Her words cut through the fog like a blade.
Arin's breath came ragged, but he forced his thoughts into focus. Fear was tearing him apart—but maybe, just maybe, it didn't have to be weakness.
He activated Code Rewrite, not on the enemy, but on himself. He carved glowing glitch symbols into the air, each one pulsing with raw emotion.
[Exploit Activated: Fear Channel]
Converts emotional instability (fear) into raw exploit power.
Risk: Accelerated stability loss.
The fear didn't vanish. It burned hotter, sharper, coursing through his veins like fire. His body shook, but his mind sharpened. His hands no longer trembled.
The Fear-Eater hesitated. For the first time, it recoiled.
Arin smirked, though his voice shook. "Yeah. I'm afraid. But that just makes me stronger."
The monster roared and lashed out with Mirror Strike. The ground rippled, and illusions surged upward—Arin's mother screaming his name, Lyra being torn apart by corruption, Kael standing over his dead body.
For a split second, Arin faltered. Then he clenched his teeth. No more running from this.
He threw his hand forward, pausing one of the illusions mid-charge. Instead of freezing him, the pause froze the memory itself.
With a scream, he shattered it into shards of light.
The Fear-Eater shrieked as its own weapon was destroyed.
Arin lunged, weapon glowing with glitch energy. He activated his newest skill.
[Exploit Skill: Nullpiercer Activated.]
Effect: Bypasses exploit immunity and strikes core code.
His blade tore across the monster's chest. Its shadows rippled violently, fragments of corrupted code spilling out like blood.
The Fear-Eater retaliated, summoning dozens of illusions at once—every failure, every regret, every nightmare they had ever known.
Lyra cried out, fighting back shadows of her lost family. Her corrupted arm lashed in all directions, tearing through the phantoms.
"Arin!" she shouted. "Finish it!"
Arin's heart pounded. His stability meter flashed dangerously low.
[Exploit Stability: 16%… 15%… 14%]
But he didn't care. He poured everything into Fear Channel, flooding his body with burning terror. His blade blazed with glitch light, brighter than ever before.
He roared and charged through the illusions, shattering them one by one, until only the monster remained.
With a final strike of Nullpiercer, he pierced the Fear-Eater's chest, driving the blade deep into its shifting heart.
The monster screamed, its voices breaking into static. Its body split apart, dissolving into harmless fragments of light.
[System Message: Fear-Eater Defeated.]
[Reward: Exploit Skill – Terror Breaker Acquired.]
Passive: Reduces fear-based effects.
Active: Amplifies combat power when resisting psychological attacks.
Arin collapsed to his knees, chest heaving, sweat dripping down his face. His veins still glowed faintly from the exploit, but the burning fear within him dulled at last.
[Exploit Stability: 14%]
He was close to the edge. Too close. One more slip, and he'd be erased.
Lyra knelt beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder. Her voice was soft, almost human. "…You faced it. Your death. Your fear. And you turned it into power."
Arin managed a weak grin. "Guess being broken has its perks."
Lyra's lips curved in the faintest of smiles. For the first time in this cursed Abyss, she laughed—quiet, fragile, but real.
The ground trembled, and the path forward revealed itself, glowing faintly in the distance.
Arin pushed himself to his feet, his weapon still glowing faintly. He looked at the path, then at Lyra.
"Six layers down," he muttered. "And the Abyss is only getting hungrier."
They walked forward, side by side, into the shadows of the seventh layer.