The Editor rose up from the edge of the platform.
It wasn't a knight anymore. It wasn't a cloud. It had evolved. It was now a towering giant made of pure, absolute void, outlined in jagged red correction marks. It had no face, only a single, vertical cursor that pulsed with the rhythm of a heartbeat.
[FINAL ERROR DETECTED.]
[SOLUTION: FORMAT DRIVE.]
The voice shook my bones. It wasn't sound; it was the vibration of data being overwritten.
"It’s huge," I whispered.
The Editor raised a massive fist. The air around its hand warped and deleted.
"Arthur, the console!" Seraphina screamed.
She didn't run away. She didn't hide behind me. She charged.
She was five-foot-something of exhausted, traumatized woman against a fifty-foot tower of antivirus software. She jumped, her cape snapping in the digital wind, and drove Star-Caller into the Editor’s knee joint.
CLANG.
The sword didn't cut. It sparked against the red static. The Editor looked down, indifferent. It swatted her like a fly.
Seraphina flew across the platform and slammed into one of the giant typewriter keys—the 'Z' key.
"Seraphina!" I yelled.
She crumpled to the floor, her sword clattering away. The golden glow of her Plot Armor shattered like glass.
[System Alert: Protagonist Critical. Immunity Bypassed.]
She tried to get up, but she couldn't. She was mortal now. The story was ending, so her protection was gone.
The Editor turned its gaze toward me. It stepped over Seraphina, raising its foot to stomp her into deleted history.
"No!"
I scrambled up the side of the desk. I threw myself onto the massive keyboard. It was like climbing a rocky cliff face. I hauled myself up onto the Space Bar.
The holographic screen loomed above me.
[ADMIN ACCESS GRANTED]
[Enter Command:]
I looked at the Editor. It froze. The System recognized that an Admin was at the keys. It waited for input.
I had the power. I could do anything.
My hands hovered over the keys. A dialogue box popped up in my mind, offering the default solution.
[Option 1: Restoration]
Delete all enemies. Reset world to Chapter 1. Wipe character memories. Keep Admin Control.
It was the easy way. I could save Seraphina. I could save the world. All I had to do was reset her. She would forget her pain. She would forget her hate. She would go back to being the farm girl in the prologue, happy and ignorant.
And I would still be God. I would still be safe.
I looked down at Seraphina. She was lying on the obsidian floor, blood trickling from her mouth. She was looking up at me. Her eyes weren't glowing anymore. They were just human eyes. Terrified, angry, and alive.
"Don't you dare," she whispered. She knew. Somehow, she knew what I was thinking. "Don't you dare rewrite me."
She didn't want to be saved. She wanted to be real.
I looked back at the screen.
If I kept the power, I was a tyrant. If I fixed the glitches, I was just painting over the cracks. The only way to stop the Editor—the only way to stop the world from being seen as "flawed data"—was to stop treating it like data.
I had to crash the system.
"Hey, Editor!" I shouted, standing on the Space Bar. My voice cracked. "You want to clear the bugs? Fine. Let's make them features."
I jumped.
I didn't aim for the delete key. I aimed for the command line. I stomped on the keys, dancing across the giant keyboard like a madman.
`> S - E - L - E - C - T _ A - L - L`
The screen flashed. Every object, every person, every blade of grass in the database was highlighted.
`> C - H - A - N - G - E _ P - E - R - M - I - S - S - I - O - N - S`
The Editor roared. It lunged at me, its red hand sweeping across the desk. It knew what I was doing. It was trying to stop the upload.
"Arthur!" Seraphina screamed.
I dodged a flying delete-beam and landed on the 'Enter' key.
`> S - E - T: [ADMIN] = "PUBLIC"`
I looked at the giant red hand rushing toward my face. I looked at the screen one last time.
[Warning: This action will remove all Author Privileges. You will become a standard User. You will be mortal. Are you sure?]
I smiled. It was the first time I’d smiled in this world without being cynical.
"Submit," I whispered.
I jumped with both feet onto the Enter key.
ns216.73.216.10da2
and then Add to home screen.