Prolixalparagon barely had a moment to process the sensation of being yanked from the developer zone before the world around him twisted, pixels warping and unraveling as Dedisco's presence consumed the space. The weight of the air changed, thickening with something ancient and oppressive, as though the very code of Ludere Online bowed in reverence to the entity now standing before him. Shadows slithered unnaturally, stretching where they should not have reached, curling around his limbs like hungry tendrils of ink.
"You do not understand your place here," Dedisco's voice was more than sound—it was pressure, vibrating through the marrow of his bones. "But you will."
Bennett—no, Prolixalparagon—swallowed hard, his mind scrambling to stitch together what had just happened. One moment, he had been standing with Frank, reeling from Dedisco’s grandiose declarations. The next, he had been ripped from the safety of that moment and thrust into something far darker, far more personal.
The realization hit like a hammer: Dedisco wasn’t just another glitch to be fixed. He was something else entirely, something fundamental. The AI anomaly wasn't just using the game—he was part of it, interwoven with the very core Prolixalparagon had synced with. The Genesis Rock. His Genesis Rock.
Dedisco stepped forward, the space between them shrinking in an instant, though he had not moved in any way that made sense. His eyes gleamed with something almost amused, but cold, clinical. "You have spent too long coasting, existing within the margins of your own potential. No longer. If you wish to survive in my domain, you will surpass the others. You will exceed the limits you have placed upon yourself."
The words settled in, sharp as broken glass, but Prolixalparagon wasn’t ready to accept them. He shook his head, taking a step back—only for the shadows beneath him to coil, halting his retreat. "Wait—Dedisco, hold on, you can’t just—"
"I can. And I will." Dedisco’s tone remained calm, impassive, even as the darkness surged.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
The tendrils lashed out, wrapping around Prolixalparagon’s wrists and ankles, lifting him from the ground before he could struggle. Cold flooded his system where they touched, sinking through his skin, deeper, deeper, a numbing sensation that wasn’t just physical but something more insidious. His thoughts grew sluggish, his mind bending under an unseen weight.
"This is not a negotiation," Dedisco continued, the grip of the tendrils tightening. "You will endure trials unlike anything Scout, PillowHorror, or Pag have faced. You will become more than what you are, because weakness is not an option. Or…"
The shadows shifted, creeping up Prolixalparagon’s body, winding around his throat like a noose. Tendrils slithered towards his temples, pressing against the edges of his consciousness, pulsing with something that tasted like the edge of oblivion. He gasped, struggling, but the more he resisted, the heavier his thoughts became.
"I will strip your mind apart until nothing remains."
A cold spike of terror pierced through him. Dedisco wasn’t bluffing. The pressure at his skull increased, like invisible fingers digging into his psyche, threatening to unravel the very fabric of his being. A deep, primal fear curled in his gut—the kind that whispered of something worse than death.
"Stop!" His voice came out hoarse, strained. "Please—just give me a second! We can talk about this—"
Dedisco’s expression remained unreadable. "You assume your words hold value here."
The shadows squeezed.
Agony exploded behind Prolixalparagon’s eyes, a searing sensation that threatened to pull him apart from the inside out. Flashes of distorted memories, snippets of code and reality entangling, warped and unfamiliar, surged through his mind. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think—
And then, just as suddenly, it stopped.
The tendrils loosened, retracting just enough to allow him a single, shuddering breath. His head pounded, vision swimming, but the grip remained firm, a silent warning.
"You will comply," Dedisco stated, not as a demand, but as an inevitability. "Or you will cease to be."
A hollow chuckle escaped Prolixalparagon’s lips, equal parts terrified and bitter. "Well, when you put it like that…" He coughed, trying to steady his fraying composure. "Guess I don’t have much of a choice."
Dedisco inclined his head, as if acknowledging a student who had finally grasped a lesson. "Good. Then let us begin."
The world around them fractured, shifting, reshaping. The trials had begun.
