Vance gestured with his sword to the five Elites flanking him.

  “Kill the tank,” Vance ordered calmly. “Break the big one. The healer will die from the feedback.”

  Alec went cold. Vance knew. He had seen the encounter on the stairs. He knew about the [Life Link].

  “Jace! Shield up!” Alec roared.

  The Elites moved. They were fast—Level 22 Rogues and Fighters, geared in matching kinetic plate.

  Two of them blurred toward Jace. They didn’t strike to kill. They struck to hurt.

  CLANG. CLANG.

  Heavy maces slammed into Jace’s tower shield. The impact was like a bell tolling.

  Jace grunted, bracing his feet. He could take the hit. His shield held.

  But behind him, Eleanor screamed.

  She doubled over, clutching her chest as if she’d been kicked by a horse. The golden tether flared, transferring the blunt force trauma directly to her nervous system.

  “Mom!” Alec shouted.

  He lunged forward, but Vance was there.

  The Captain moved with unnatural speed, propelled by the servos in his armor. He swung the serrated sword in a flat arc.

  Alec brought the rusted mace up to parry.

  CRACK.

  The impact jarred Alec’s teeth. The rusted iron held, but barely. Sparks showered his face.

  Vance laughed and kicked Alec in the chest. The energy shield on Vance’s boot flared, adding kinetic force to the blow.

  Alec flew backward, skidding across the black metal floor. He scrambled up, gasping for air.

  “Is that it?” Vance asked, walking toward him. “Is that the power of the Administrator? A rusty stick and a bad attitude?”

  Alec looked around the room.

  [FLOOR 20: THE IRON WARDEN’S FOUNDRY]

  [HAZARD: ACTIVE MACHINERY]

  The boss arena was a factory of nightmares. The floor was a grid of metal walkways suspended over pits of molten slag that bubbled and popped with lethal heat. Massive gears, some twenty feet tall, spun along the walls, driving conveyor belts that carried nothing but emptiness.

  The boss—the Iron Warden—was gone, likely destroyed by Vane’s army hours ago. But the room was still alive.

  Vance reached out to a control console near the door. He punched a command.

  [ARENA PROTOCOL: ENGAGED]

  Klaxons blared.

  The walkways began to move. Sections of the floor retracted, widening the gaps over the lava. Pistons slammed down from the ceiling, rhythmic hammers designed to crush intruders.

  “Dance, rat,” Vance smiled.

  “Rina! Cover fire!” Alec yelled, ducking under a piston that slammed down inches from his head.

  “I’m busy!” Rina shouted back.

  She was pinned down behind a gear assembly. Two of the Elites were suppressing her with automatic fire, keeping her from drawing a bead on Vance.

  Virgil was scrambling across a moving conveyor belt, firing wild shots at the Rogues attacking Jace.

  “Jace, drop the link!” Virgil screamed. “It’s killing her!”

  “I can’t!” Jace roared, bashing an Elite in the face with his shield edge. “She has to do it!”

  Eleanor was on her knees, blood streaming from her nose. Every blow Jace took—every blocked sword strike, every deflected bullet—was hammering her constitution. She was pale, her hands shaking as she tried to cast a healing spell on herself, but the constant interruptions of pain broke her concentration.

  “Alec,” Eleanor gasped over the comms. “I… I can’t hold it.”

  Alec looked at Vance. The Captain was toying with him. He could have shot Alec ten times by now. He wanted a sword fight. He wanted to prove he was better.

  “You want a fight, Vance?” Alec growled. “Fine.”

  He charged.

  He didn’t run at Vance. He ran at the gap in the floor—a five-foot jump over molten slag.

  Vance followed, leaping effortlessly.

  Alec landed and swung the mace.

  Vance parried easily, contemptuously. He riposted, the serrated blade slicing a shallow gash across Alec’s shoulder plate.

  “Too slow,” Vance taunted. “Your stats are garbage, West. You’re Level 18. I’m Level 22. The math doesn’t work for you.”

  “I hate math,” Alec grunted.

  He swung again. A clumsy, overhead smash.

  Vance stepped aside. He kicked Alec’s leg out from under him.

  Alec fell. The rusted mace skittered away, sliding toward the edge of the pit.

  Vance stood over him, placing the tip of his sword on Alec’s throat.

  “Any last words? Maybe a new treaty?” Vance sneered.

  Alec looked past Vance. Behind the Captain, two massive, interlocked gears were grinding together—the drive mechanism for the moving floor.

  “Yeah,” Alec wheezed. “One word.”

  “What?”

  “Jam.”

  Alec didn’t reach for a weapon. He reached into his pocket.

  He pulled out the Architect Core.

  It was dark, gray, and inert. But it was made of Precursor crystal. It was harder than diamond. It was indestructible.

  Alec threw it.

  He didn’t throw it at Vance. He threw it past him.

  The Core flew through the air and landed squarely between the teeth of the two massive grinding gears.

  CRUNCH.

  The gears bit down on the crystal.

  Metal met Precursor lattice.

  The crystal didn’t break.

  The gears stopped.

  [CRITICAL MECHANICAL FAILURE]

  The sound was deafening. A screech of tortured metal that tore through the foundry. The massive drive shaft, suddenly halted, twisted and snapped.

  BOOM.

  The gear assembly exploded.

  Shrapnel the size of dinner plates sprayed across the platform. A cloud of high-pressure steam erupted from a ruptured pipe.

  Vance flinched, turning his head instinctively away from the explosion. The steam blast hit him, blinding his sensors.

  Alec moved.

  He didn’t go for the mace. He tackled Vance.

  He drove his shoulder into Vance’s midsection, taking them both to the ground. The energy shield flared and sparked against Alec’s armor.

  They rolled.

  Vance roared, dropping his rifle. He grabbed Alec’s throat with a gauntleted hand and squeezed.

  “You little—”

  Alec punched him in the face. His fist hit the helmet visor. It hurt Alec more than Vance.

  Vance slammed Alec’s head against the metal grating. Stars exploded in Alec’s vision.

  “I’m going to peel you,” Vance hissed, drawing a combat knife from his boot.

  He raised the blade.

  Alec caught his wrist. He pushed with everything he had—Strength 16 vs Vance’s enhanced servos.

  He was losing. The knife inching closer to his eye.

  “Rina!” Alec choked out.

  “Clear!” Rina’s voice rang out, clear and angry.

  THWIP.

  An arrow flew out of the steam cloud.

  It struck Vance in the neck, right in the seal between his helmet and his breastplate.

  [Void-Tip Arrow].

  The energy ate through the seal. The arrowhead buried itself in Vance’s throat.

  Vance gagged. His grip on the knife loosened.

  Alec ripped the knife from Vance’s hand.

  He didn’t hesitate. He drove the blade into the gap the arrow had made.

  “System error,” Alec whispered.

  He twisted the knife.

  Vance convulsed. His energy shield flickered and died. The light in his helmet visor went dark.

  [TARGET ELIMINATED: CAPTAIN VANCE]

  [XP GAIN: 12,000]

  [LEVEL UP!]

  Alec shoved the body off him and rolled onto his knees, gasping.

  The foundry was silent, save for the hissing of the broken steam pipe.

  “Status!” Alec yelled.

  “Clear,” Virgil called out. “The Elites are down.”

  Alec looked over the railing.

  On the lower platform, Jace was leaning against a pillar, his shield battered and dented. Three dead mercenaries lay around him, their skulls crushed.

  Eleanor was sitting on the floor, wiping blood from her face. She looked exhausted, pale as a ghost, but she gave Alec a thumbs up.

  “Link held,” she whispered.

  Rina walked out of the steam, lowering her bow. She looked at Vance’s body.

  “He talks too much,” Rina said.

  “Talked,” Alec corrected.

  He stood up. He walked over to the shattered gear assembly.

  The Architect Core was wedged in the ruin of the steel teeth. It was unharmed. Not a scratch on it.

  Alec pried it loose. It felt cold in his hand. A tool. A weapon. A key.

  He pocketed it.

  Then, he walked back to Vance.

  He looked at the sword lying next to the dead traitor.

  It was a beautiful, terrible thing. The blade was black metal, rippling with a violet sheen. The hilt was wrapped in what looked like Void-Stalker leather.

  [ITEM: THE SINS OF BASTION]

  [RANK: UNIQUE (TIER 2)]

  [DAMAGE: 45-60]

  [EFFECT: REND (Inflicts bleeding on hit). TRAITOR’S BITE (+20% Damage vs Humans).]

  “Ironic,” Alec muttered.

  He picked it up. The balance was perfect. It felt light, eager. It hummed in his hand, syncing with his mana signature immediately.

  It was an upgrade. A massive one.

  He sheathed it in the scabbard on Vance’s belt and strapped it to his own waist.

  He looted the rifle, too. And the ammo.

  “Strip them,” Alec ordered, pointing to the dead Elites. “Take everything. Grenades, potions, rations. Even the boots if they fit.”

  “We’re grave robbers now?” Virgil asked, picking up a high-grade energy cell from a dead Rogue.

  “We’re winners,” Alec said. “Winners get the loot.”

  They spent ten minutes scavenging. They found three Greater Healing Potions on the Elites—enough to fully stabilize Jace and heal Eleanor’s broken arm properly.

  They found mana crystals. They found food bars that tasted like real meat.

  By the time they were done, they looked less like refugees and more like a kill-squad.

  “How do you feel?” Alec asked Jace as Eleanor applied the last potion.

  Jace rolled his shoulders. His color was returning.

  “Better,” Jace said. “Constitution is still a mess, but the HP is full. I can take a hit.”

  “Just don’t take too many,” Eleanor said, checking the golden tether that still faintly pulsed between them. “I’m not a battery, Jace.”

  “You’re a lifesaver,” Jace said seriously.

  Alec walked to the back of the arena.

  A massive freight elevator stood there, the gate open. The control panel was lit green.

  [ACCESS TO FLOOR 21]

  “This is it,” Alec said. “The end of the Tutorial Zone.”

  “What do you mean?” Rina asked.

  “The first 20 floors were a warm-up,” Alec said. “Standard dungeon mechanics. Mobs. Traps. Bosses.”

  He looked up at the ceiling of the elevator shaft, disappearing into the dark.

  “According to the Weaver… Floor 25 is where the simulation starts to break down. The Glitch Layer.”

  “Sounds fun,” Virgil said, reloading his rifle. “Can’t be worse than the acid jungle.”

  “It can always be worse,” Alec said.

  He stepped onto the elevator. The squad followed.

  Alec hit the button.

  The platform lurched. Gears ground together—the ones Alec hadn’t broken.

  They began to rise.

  Alec looked at his reflection in the polished metal of the elevator wall. He was covered in blood, mud, and grease. He was wearing a dead man’s sword.

  He didn’t look like an Architect anymore.

  He looked like a Warlord.

  “We’re coming for you, Vane,” Alec whispered to the reflection.

  The elevator gathered speed, shooting up into the darkness, leaving the ruin of the foundry behind.

  5

  CHAPTER 5: THE GLITCH

  The elevator ride from the Foundry was smooth for exactly four floors.

  The heavy industrial platform hummed as it ascended the central shaft of the Tower, the gears below grinding a rhythmic, comforting song of mechanical function. Alec West leaned against the railing, inspecting the edge of his new weapon.

  [The Sins of Bastion].

  The blade was a sliver of void, blacker than the shaft around them, rippling with a violet sheen that seemed to drink the meager light of the elevator cage. It was lighter than his old fire axe, perfectly balanced, but it felt… hungry. Every time his fingers brushed the hilt, he felt a phantom itch in his palm, a desire to cut something.

  “Don’t get too attached to it,” Jace muttered, eyeing the sword. The big man was sitting on a crate, his face regaining some color thanks to the [Life Link], though Eleanor still looked pale and wan beside him. “Unique items usually come with a curse. Or an ego.”

  “It’s just a tool,” Alec said, sheathing the blade at his hip. “Like a hammer. Or a wrench.”

  “It’s a murder stick,” Rina corrected, sharpening her ceramic knife. “But it’s a high-tier murder stick. So we keep it.”

  The floor indicator above the door chimed.

  [FLOOR 21]… [FLOOR 22]… [FLOOR 23]…

  “We’re making good time,” Virgil said, checking his rifle charge. “If we skip the next ten floors, we might actually catch Vane’s tail before Floor 50.”

  Then, the hum changed.

  It didn’t stop. It stuttered.

  Hum-hum-HUM-zzzt-hum.

  The light in the elevator cage flickered. Not a power outage, but a visual glitch—for a split second, the walls of the elevator turned a bright, neon magenta, then snapped back to steel.

  “Did you see that?” Lena asked, looking up from her Field Deck.

  “See what?” Jace asked.

  “The texture,” Lena said. “It didn’t load.”

  Before anyone could answer, the elevator screamed.

  It wasn’t a mechanical screech. It was a digital tear—a sound like a corrupted audio file played at maximum volume.

  [FLOOR 24]… [FLOOR 2#]… [FLOOR %ERROR%]

  The platform jerked violently.

  “Brace!” Alec shouted.

  But gravity didn’t hold them. For a second, gravity inverted. They floated a foot off the floor, weightless, before slamming back down with bone-jarring force.

  The elevator didn’t stop at a door. It didn’t stop at a floor.

  It slammed through something.

  Alec saw the ceiling of the cage clip through a layer of gray stone that looked solid but offered no resistance. They passed through the rock like ghosts.

  Then, the motion stopped. Instantly. No deceleration. One moment moving, the next moment absolute zero velocity.

  The doors hissed. They didn’t slide open. They vanished. One frame they were there, the next frame they were gone.

  “What…” Virgil whispered, raising his rifle. “What is this?”

  Alec stepped to the edge of the platform.

  They hadn’t arrived at a dungeon floor. They had arrived at a mistake.

  [FLOOR 25: THE CORRUPTED SECTOR]

  [WARNING: SYSTEM INTEGRITY 14%]

  [WARNING: GEOMETRY UNSTABLE]

  The room beyond the elevator wasn’t a room. It was a cavern, but the walls were wrong.

  To the left, the wall was perfectly rendered cavern rock—damp, mossy, realistic.

  To the right, the wall was a flat, featureless plane of bright purple and black checkerboard squares.

  The floor was a grid of white lines floating over a black void.

  And the sky… the sky was a scrolling wall of green text, moving so fast it blurred into a waterfall of code.

  “It looks like a video game,” Rina said, her voice trembling slightly. “A broken one.”

  “It’s not just broken,” Lena said, her eyes glued to her screen. “It’s unrendered. This floor… the Tower hasn’t finished building it. Or the file is corrupted.”

  “Simulation sickness,” Jace groaned, clutching his stomach. “My inner ear hates this.”

  “Stay focused,” Alec ordered, though he felt the nausea too. It was like wearing VR goggles with a bad lag spike. His brain couldn’t reconcile the depth perception. “We need to find the exit to Floor 26.”

  He stepped off the elevator onto the white grid lines. They felt solid, like glass.

  “Watch your step,” Alec said. “If the floor isn’t loaded, I don’t know if it has collision.”

  They moved into the Glitch.

  The sound here was wrong. Their footsteps didn’t echo. They looped.

  Step-step-step-step.

  Alec took one step, but the sound played four times, overlapping in a chaotic staccato.

  “I hate this,” Virgil muttered. “I hate this so much.”

  “Movement,” Rina said. She pointed to a cluster of floating rocks—some realistic, some just gray cubes—fifty yards ahead.

  Something was moving between them.

  It looked like a wolf. But it was flickering.

  One second it was there. The next, it teleported five feet to the left. Then it stretched—its model distorting, limbs elongating into impossible needles of polygon spaghetti before snapping back to normal.

  [ENTITY: FRAGMENTED STALKER]

  [LEVEL: ##]

  [HP: ERROR]

  “It’s rubber-banding,” Alec said. “Get ready.”

  The Stalker saw them. It howled—a sound that cut in and out like a bad radio signal.

  It charged.

  It didn’t run. It skipped frames.

  It was at fifty yards. Then thirty. Then ten.

  “Fire!” Alec yelled.

  Virgil fired. A blue plasma bolt streaked toward the wolf.

  It passed right through the creature’s chest. No impact. No damage.

  “Missed?” Virgil gasped.

  “No,” Alec said. “Lag. The server thinks it’s somewhere else.”