[BOSS ENCOUNTER: DOMINUS.001 – A-Class Threat]
[Time Remaining: 5:43:21]
The cathedral shook like it was having a seizure.
DOMINUS.001 emerged fully from the broken archway, dragging spools of corrupted data behind it like rotting entrails. It had no face—only an open speaker-mouth blaring white noise so loud it distorted reality around it.
Twelve arms, each made of snapped server racks and screaming faces.
A torso composed of security protocol fragments, reinforced with corrupted firewall code.
It was a digital god of deletion, built to purge anything that broke the rules.
And Jin Aether was nothing but broken rules in human form.
Eli screamed from her place, still bound by lightning chains.
"That's the System's Guardian! You can't fight it with brute force—"
"Good." Jin stepped forward. "Brute force is for amateurs."
He opened his Command Line.
// ENEMY.AI.DOMINUS.001.PROTOCOL
MODIFY: Aggression_Target = NULL
He executed the hack—only for the console to return:
[ERROR – Admin Protection Layer Active]
[ROOT Privilege Insufficient]
The boss roared, data-pulse slamming into him like a digital earthquake. Jin was flung across the street, skidding against the circuitry tiles, sparks flying from his jacket.
"So the system's locked you tight. Guess we do this manually."
DOMINUS.001 leapt.
Jin dodged left. Barely. One of the twelve arms shattered a data-lamp next to him, the sound like a thunderclap.
Too fast. Too many limbs. Too much noise.
He needed space. He needed—
Silence.
He reached into his interface again.
// SYSTEM.AUDIO.ENVIRONMENT
MODIFY: Volume = 0.00
Execute.
The moment he hit the command, the entire battlefield went mute.
DOMINUS.001's primary weapon—sound-based AI-pulse disruptions—fizzled into nothing.
The monster reeled, suddenly disoriented, its arms twitching like it had lost its sight.
Jin didn't waste the chance.
He sprinted forward, sliding beneath the beast, grabbing a loose Command Node—a data-core socket left exposed beneath the ribs of firewall code.
"I don't need to hack you. I'll crash you."
[Command Line – Local Override Injected]
// ENEMY.CORE.PROTOCOL
MODIFY: Temperature_Limit = 0.01C
MODIFY: Auto_Throttle = OFF
Let's see how you run without a safety cap.
Execute.
The effects were immediate.
DOMINUS.001 staggered. Its core began to glow white-hot, data bleeding from its joints. Internal protocols clashed—one part trying to throttle the heat, the other overridden into ignoring it.
The god of deletion was overheating.
It roared in soundless agony. Limbs spasmed. Corruption spread.
Jin leapt, grabbed a shard of antenna steel from the ground, and drove it into the boss's exposed CPU port.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE – CORE VULNERABLE]
[FINISHER AVAILABLE: "MEMORY BURN"]
"Let me show you what I gave up to kill you."
[Execute: MEMORY BURN]
The world pulsed red.
A sphere of light erupted from Jin's chest—one of his own memory shards, force-fed into the boss's collapsing codebase like a virus.
It showed the image of a child's drawing. A smiling girl holding his hand.
Her name… already forgotten.
DOMINUS.001 shrieked.
Then imploded.
No explosion. No glory. Just code unraveling into dust.
The silence returned.
Jin fell to his knees, breath shaking.
His screen blinked.
[BOSS DEFEATED: DOMINUS.001]
[Floor 1 Complete]
[Rootwalker Rank Updated: B-]
[Reward Acquired: Core Key / Data Ghost: Eli]
[Memory Lost: Birthday – Age 10]
"Not bad…" Jin murmured, staring into the air. "But how many more of these will it take… before I forget I ever cared?"
A soft voice approached him.
Eli—free from her chains now—stepped forward. Her form shimmered, no longer lagging.
"You lost something important to beat him. I felt it leave you."
"I lose something every time."
"Why?"
He looked up at her, exhausted.
"Because if I don't… no one else will have anything left to lose."
She stared at him. Then offered a small smile.
"Then let me help you remember. I'm more than just a ghost."
"I'm the key to the next floor."
Jin stood. Looked up.
The tower stretched endlessly above them. A new gate formed in the sky, lined with glowing text:
[UNLOCKED: FLOOR 2 – THE SKYLINE OF BROKEN GODS]
[TO BE CONTINUED – Chapter 4