Chapter 33: Glitch-Crowned King

Chapter 33: Glitch-Crowned King

The Ascension of Chaos

The throne fractured—but not as a sign of victory.

No.

The [CHAOS_CORE_V2] was pulsing wildly, resisting deletion as the GMs initiated the seal. Streams of red-gold binary poured out from under Rowan's feet like molten code, twisting around his broken body.

"No!" Akil shouted. "He's forcing a sync while the core's unstable—"

"I can't interrupt it! My skills aren't working!" Leanne cried, her chant unraveling. "He's bypassing the system failsafes—he's using an old Prophet override!"

"I am more than an admin," Rowan hissed as his eyes bled code. "I am the truth beneath the patches. I am what the system left behind."

The ground cracked, revealing an inverted sigil that spanned the vault—an ancient Crimson Order glyph twisted by unauthorized developer access. The core responded, recognizing a familiar voice from a forgotten protocol.

> [Sync Initiated: CHAOS_CORE_V2]

Host Identity: [Rowan.Dev.BetaRoot]

Warning: Critical breach. Manifestation exceeds safety limit.

Zaphro's hand tightened around his blade. "Stop him now, or this whole realm dies with us!"

Eira's face darkened. "He's not just syncing… he's ascending. That core wasn't just raw chaos—it was a failed experiment to create a new Administrator class. A glitched god."

The GMs each activated their final override, but Rowan was already consumed.

A scream—part human, part data distortion—ripped through the chamber.

Then silence.

Then—

BOOM.

The throne erupted in a fountain of fractal light and corrupted UI fragments. And when the mist cleared…

He was reborn.

Floating above the ground, towering in presence, encased in layered shards of black crystal and mirrored data. His body no longer held organic form. His arms were segmented with orbiting blades of forbidden system tools. A distorted crown hovered over his fractured skull, and his wings—an amalgamation of debug tags, erased files, and broken prophecy—spread wide.

> NEW ENTITY DETECTED: [GLITCH-CROWNED KING]

CLASS: Transcendent Error – Level [???]

Threat Rating: Omega+

Environment Lock: All system assistance disabled. No GM override permitted.

Kaizen's expression dropped. "He's locked us out of the system. Even we can't touch him now."

Gwydox stared in awe. "Okay, I was going to make a snide remark, but I think I just peed in a dimension I didn't know I had."

"Fall back?" Accel asked.

"No," Zaphro muttered, stepping forward. "We finish this."

---

BATTLE COMMENCED: GLITCH-CROWNED KING

Rowan raised one hand, and reality glitched.

In one instant, the battlefield became a broken hallway from Enigma's early beta. In the next, a skybox of forgotten maps. Finally, they stood inside a collapsing simulation of Enigma's main server room—only now corrupted and bleeding sparks from every surface.

> Warning: Combat Map Shifted to [Admin_Limbo_Origin]

Rules: Physics Randomized. Logic Layers Unstable. Memory Loops Enabled.

The King attacked.

A thousand beams of anti-code lashed out like whips. Aryus's shields shattered instantly. Erenir was thrown across the field by a spatial inversion pulse.

Kaizen and Akil joined the fray, moving faster than visible frames—but even they began losing health. Aero was forced to disengage to protect the unconscious Aryus.

Leanne threw up a null-barrier over Ayana, shouting, "He's tapping directly into the abandoned memory sectors! He's using deleted timelines to rewrite his future in real-time!"

Gwydox summoned a burst of anima data and fired a pinpoint overload.

Direct hit.

And yet, Rowan regenerated instantly—his crown absorbing the feedback.

"This is absurd!" he screamed, laughing with reverb. "You think I can be deleted by your petty data attacks? I am the source rewrite! I am chaos before the code!"

Eira stepped forward, her Mark of Memory glowing.

"No… you're just scared," she said quietly. "You wanted to become more than human, more than admin. But all you became was a ghost hiding in a broken mirror."

She activated the Memory Bind—targeting his origin point from the Prophet Chain. The crown above Rowan flickered, the illusion faltering for a moment.

Accel and Zaphro moved.

Dual angels—light and shadow—merged their strikes once more.

> Combo Skill: [Fallen Harmony Blade: 2nd Resonate]

Attribute: Absolute Dissonance

Their weapons struck true—cutting across his exposed core.

The glitch-crown fractured.

---

FINAL PHASE TRIGGERED: SANITY LOCKDOWN

Rowan screamed, grabbing his head. "No! I AM THE PATCH! I AM THE DESIGN!"

The core surged—unleashing the full error code meant for system collapse.

And then—

> SYSTEM OVERRIDE: MEMORY INTERVENTION

Entity Detected: [EIRA.PROPHET.EX-PHOENIX]

Keyphrase: [Project Nox_Ark – Emergency Protocol 9]

Eira raised her hand, and the dungeon froze.

"You once said the Crimson Order was about truth," she whispered. "So here's the final truth, Rowan."

Behind her, the GMs, Leanne, and Gwydox all synchronized their memory streams. The entire raid party contributed their data—past, present, pain, and triumph.

A final anti-glitch waveform burst from Eira's hand—infused with everything the players had fought for.

Rowan's crown shattered.

His body collapsed, no longer divine, no longer admin—just a broken man lost in an impossible dream.

---

> RAID COMPLETE: [Glitch-Crowned King – TERMINATED]

CHAOS_CORE_V2 – Contained, but unstable. Locked in Arc Memory State.

Rewards Distributed. Server Stability Restored.

A secret legacy has been remembered.

---

The vault dimmed. Reality re-anchored.

Zaphro lowered his weapon, shoulders heavy. "He tried to become more than human. And lost himself."

Accel stepped beside him. "So what now?"

Gwydox huffed. "Now we pray no one else is stupid enough to wake version three."

Eira stepped forward, voice calm. "There may already be a version three. But we'll be ready."

Kaizen approached them, placing a hand on Eira's shoulder.

"You've done what we couldn't. Not just fought a broken king… but reminded us why the players should inherit the world." Kaizen smiled.

"You're a good AI, I mean People of the realm Eira. Starting from now, all NPC will inherit your legacy as a Conscious AI. You will now be called as the people of the realm and will be granted the freedom to choose and think. No more NPC's.