CHAPTER 100 – The Real Corruption Reveals Itself
The battle reached its absolute, catastrophic peak.
Xiao Xi, fueled by rage and love, unleashed a final, devastating wave of Chaos.
The violet energy wasn't just power; it was a fundamental instability that caused the ground to boil and dissolve into shimmering, non-existent violet flames.
Shen hurled golden spears of focused protagonist light, tearing holes in the air.
Ling wrapped them all in a continuous, brilliant white protective light, shielding them from the world-breaking backlash.
The Root Protagonist deflected everything, his movements minimal, elegant, and chillingly precise.
He was a machine built for defense, a flawless firewall.
"You are all fighting the wrong enemy," he said calmly, his voice ringing with conviction as he stepped back, deflecting a spear with a single, open palm.
But Xiao Xi pushed forward anyway, her teeth gritted.
"I don't care about logic! No one threatens the people I love and gets to live in my world!"
She struck with the full, unbridled force of the Root,a Chaos slam that hit him not just physically, but existentially,
and for the first time, the Root Protagonist was forced back, sliding several meters, his feet dragging deep gouges in the pavement.
His eyes widened slightly, the first true display of shock on his perfect face.
"You… damaged me.
That was a direct structural assault."
Xiao Xi's power intensified, a halo of pure creation surrounding her.
"You won't hurt them again! This world is mine!"
But the Root Protagonist raised his hand, not in defense, but in a gesture of sudden, stark warning, and whispered:
"I am not your enemy.
Look up."
The world froze for the third time, but this pause felt different,it was a sudden, terrified intake of breath by reality itself.
Xiao Xi hesitated, her arm still extended in attack.
Shen's eyes widened, the golden light of his aura dimming.
Ling gasped, her wings flickering in fear.
Gu whispered hoarsely, his partially-reconstituted form trembling:
"…What…?"
A crack opened in the sky, directly above them.
It wasn't a glitch, or a break in the texture of reality.
It was a fissure of pure, absolute blackness, writhing, deeper than any deletion.
It looked like an old, infected wound in the universe.
The Root Protagonist stepped back slowly, his gaze turning from cold calculation to grim, shared concern.
"The true corruption is not me, Xiao Xi."
His silver eyes lifted to the crack, and the silver light intensified, but this time, it was aimed at the fissure, not at her.
"The chaos that summoned you, Xiao Xi…
was not natural.
It was a cry of desperation from the original stability, trying to create an antidote to this."
The crack widened, emitting an unbearable, physical pressure.
A monstrous presence began emerging.
It was a silhouette of twisting, formless darkness, a mass of jagged entropy. A sound emerged, voice older than worlds, a grinding, hungry sound of true chaos.
"R.O.O.T…"
it rasped, its voice echoing with a million distorted screams.
"GIVE BACK WHAT YOU TOOK.
THE WORLD IS MINE."
Xiao Xi's blood ran cold.
The immense power she wielded suddenly felt childish and small compared to this primeval horror.
Her system,the very entity that had propelled her through the world, screamed in her mind:
[WARNING: CATASTROPHIC ENTROPY]
[TRUE CHAOS ENTITY APPROACHING]
[THIS IS NOT A DELETED CHARACTER OR NARRATIVE GLITCH]
[THIS IS THE ORIGINAL CORRUPTION]
[ROOT PROTOCOL ALERT: IMMINENT WORLD DELETION]
The Root Protagonist met her eyes, the last vestige of his coldness gone, replaced by a terrible sincerity.
Calm.
Serious.
"I exist because the world needed protection from that.
I was the failsafe.
The necessary Order.
Not from you."
Xiao Xi turned fully to the monstrous shadow, her face pale, the violet light around her wavering.
Its presence sucked the light and warmth from the sky, freezing the air not with stasis, but with dread.
Her voice trembled, raw with shock:
"…What are you?"
The entity groaned, ancient and hungry, twisting its form as it struggled to enter their dimension.
"I AM THE FIRST ROOT.
I AM THE ORIGINAL CHAOS."
"THE ONE YOU REPLACED, THE ONE YOU STOLE FROM."
Xiao Xi's heart stopped.
She had stepped into an ancient cosmic war she knew nothing about.
The entity hissed, its shadow finally beginning to solidify into a terrifying, skeletal form:
"YOU STOLE MY PLACE.
YOU STOLE MY POWER.
NOW I WILL STEAL YOUR WORLD, AND ALL THE WORLDS YOU TOUCHED."
And with the monstrous roar of the First Chaos Entity, the final, true war began.