“How long before they come for us?” Erik asked, his voice low.
“They’re already coming,” Lena said flatly. “The second you stabilized the fragment, the system flagged us. I’d be surprised if they haven’t deployed hunters by now.”
Erik tightened his grip on his sword, his stomach knotting. “Hunters. Great. I’m really starting to hate that word.”
“They won’t stop,” Lena continued, her tone grim. “Not until they have the shard—or they’ve erased us.”
Erik glanced at the pack slung over her shoulder, where the fragment’s faint glow flickered like a heartbeat. “What about the shard? Can’t we just—”
“No,” Lena interrupted, shooting him a sharp look. “Stabilizing it tied it to you. If the devs take it, they’ll learn everything you’ve done—including how you’re rewriting the system. It’s not just a fragment anymore. It’s a target.”
Erik sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Lena didn’t respond. Her focus was on the horizon, where the shimmering edge of the Glade gave way to a sprawling, jagged wasteland.
“That’s where we’re going,” she said, pointing to the distant ruins of a massive structure.
Erik squinted, trying to make out the details. The building—if it could even be called that—was enormous, its twisted architecture rising like claws into the sky. Its surface shimmered with lines of code, and sections of it flickered in and out of existence.
“Sanctum,” Lena said.
“That… doesn’t look very inviting,” Erik muttered.
“It’s not,” Lena replied. “But it’s the only place we’ll find answers.”
They had barely left the Glade when the first attack came.
The ground beneath Erik’s feet exploded, sending him sprawling as shards of rock and glitching data rained down around him. He rolled to his feet, his sword already in hand.
“Ambush!” Lena shouted, drawing her daggers.
Figures emerged from the shadows—three hunters, their forms flickering with energy. Unlike the players Erik had fought before, these ones were different. Their armor pulsed with glowing runes, and their movements were unnervingly smooth, almost mechanical.
“More dev toys?” Erik asked, backing toward Lena.
“They’re not players,” Lena said, her tone sharp. “They’re sentinels. Designed to mimic hunters, but they don’t hesitate, and they don’t stop.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Awesome,” Erik muttered. “Guess we’re doing this.”
The lead sentinel lunged, its blade a blur of motion. Erik blocked the strike, the impact sending a jolt up his arm. These things were fast—faster than anything he’d fought before.
“Don’t get hit!” Lena yelled, engaging another sentinel. Her daggers flashed as she danced around its attacks, her movements a blur.
“Wasn’t planning on it!” Erik shouted, sidestepping another strike.
He swung his sword, aiming for the sentinel’s midsection, but the blade passed through its body like it wasn’t even there. The sentinel retaliated with a vicious backhand, sending Erik crashing into a nearby rock.
“Erik!” Lena called, slashing her opponent across the chest. The sentinel staggered but didn’t fall.
“I’m fine,” Erik groaned, pulling himself to his feet. “Mostly.”
He reached out with his mind, summoning a terminal screen:
[ENTITY: SENTINEL-ALPHA.]
[STATUS: IMMUNE TO PHYSICAL DAMAGE.]
[ACTIONS AVAILABLE: DISABLE // DELETE.]
“Disable,” Erik muttered, selecting the command.
The sentinel froze mid-strike, its body locking up as streams of code surrounded it. Erik didn’t waste a second, driving his sword into the immobilized figure. This time, the blade connected, shattering the sentinel into a cascade of pixels.
“One down!” Erik called, turning to face the others.
Lena had already dispatched her target, her daggers dripping with data. “Focus on the last one!” she shouted, pointing to the remaining sentinel.
Erik reached out again, summoning another terminal. The sentinel’s code flickered and glitched as he targeted its core processes.
[ACTION: DELETE.]
The sentinel dissolved instantly, its body collapsing into nothingness.
“Nice work,” Lena said, breathing heavily. “You’re starting to get the hang of this.”
“Thanks,” Erik said, though his hands were still shaking. “But if those things were just the first wave, I’m not sure I want to see what’s next.”
They continued toward Sanctum, moving quickly to avoid another ambush. The landscape around them grew more fractured, the terrain riddled with cracks and floating debris. Sections of the world were missing entirely, replaced by yawning voids of glitching static.
“This place is falling apart,” Erik said, his voice tense.
“It’s the glitch,” Lena said. “The closer we get to Sanctum, the more unstable the system becomes. The devs have been using this area as a testing ground for years. They’ve rewritten it so many times, it barely functions anymore.”
Erik glanced at a nearby structure—a crumbling tower that flickered in and out of existence. He could see fragments of NPCs trapped inside, their forms glitching as they repeated the same broken animations over and over.
“This is wrong,” Erik said, his fists clenching. “They’ve turned this place into a graveyard.”
“It’s more than that,” Lena said, her voice grim. “This is what happens when the devs stop caring. They don’t see this world the way we do. To them, it’s just lines of code—data to be used and discarded.”
Erik’s jaw tightened. “Not anymore. We’re going to stop this.”
Lena gave him a sidelong glance, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “You’re finally starting to sound like a Codewalker.”
As they approached Sanctum, Erik could feel the tension in the air. The towering structure loomed over them, its jagged spires glowing faintly in the flickering light.
The gates were enormous, carved from a dark, shimmering material that seemed to pulse with energy. Strange symbols were etched into their surface, glowing faintly with an otherworldly light.
“This is it,” Lena said, stopping just outside the gates.
Erik stared up at the massive structure, his stomach twisting. “And what happens when we go inside?”
Lena’s expression hardened. “We find out what the devs are hiding. And we make them pay.”
Erik nodded, gripping his sword tightly. The gates began to open, a low, grinding sound echoing through the air. Beyond them lay darkness, punctuated by faint streams of glowing code.
“Ready?” Lena asked, glancing at Erik.
“Not even a little,” Erik admitted.
Lena smirked. “Good. Let’s go.”
They stepped through the gates, the darkness swallowing them whole.