Chapter 7 - Chapter 7: The Raid of the Forgotten

wind screamed across the Forgotten Fields as if protesting the intrusion of life. Every gust shed fragments of code like sand. D.J. kept walking, the cube in his palm flickering with residual light after their last battle. His reflection—the ghostly double he'd seen earlier—had vanished for now, though every few minutes he could still feel its presence, hovering just outside his sight.Ryan scouted ahead with his usual restless energy, his sword gleaming with the faint reboot shimmer D.J.'s rewrite had left on it. Madison lagged behind, muttering to herself while mixing a tonic from scavenged fragments of admin enforcer cores. Toro moved silently, his golem trudging in lockstep beside him."ETA on those rollback agents?" Ryan asked without looking back.Madison flicked her wrist screen open. "Their trail's splitting. Two squads heading west, one straight for us. We've got maybe an hour before they hit this region.""Good," Ryan said grimly. "We're not hiding this time."D.J. frowned. "Since when are we ready to fight dev ghosts head‑on?""Since we don't have a choice," Ryan answered. "If they're running purge code, they'll delete every sector we pass through. We stall them, maybe we save the rest of the map."Madison whistled low. "Heroic. Dangerous. Probably suicidal. I like it."D.J. shook his head. "You're all insane.""Welcome to the club," Madison said with a grin that didn't quite reach her eyes.---They reached the remnants of an old fortress sprawled along the ridge—angular design, half melted into the ground. Rusted turrets hummed faintly, kept alive by forgotten power. Ryan approached a shattered control panel and wiped away dust."This is Apex territory," he said at last.D.J. blinked. "That's the guild you used to lead, right?""Used to," Ryan said. "Until I stopped being the kind of player they wanted."The panel flickered alive, showing the Apex emblem—a stylized V overlaying a broken shield. A woman's voice emanated from the speakers, smooth and sharp. "Unauthorized access detected. Identify yourself."Ryan sighed. "It's me, Vance. Ryan Mercer."The system paused. Then, "After all this time… you come crawling back. Why?"A shimmer ignited above the panel, forming a full holographic projection of a player built like a war deity—gold armor, white hair, piercing eyes. Her tag read **Valeria Vance – Apex Commander / Lv.18**.Madison let out a low whistle. "She's armed to the teeth."Valeria's gaze swept over the team and focused on D.J. "And this? Your stray? He reeks of corruption."Ryan stepped between them. "He's the reason this zone hasn't fallen into rollback.""Then he's the reason the rollback failed," she said flatly. "Do you have any idea what you've brought here, Mercer? The admins are tearing the networks apart looking for him."D.J. stepped forward. "If you want to help, great. If not, move."Valeria arched a brow. "Bold for a bug in borrowed code."Ryan's patience broke. "Listen, Vance—whatever this place used to mean, it's gone. The world's ending. We're heading for the Glitchspire, and if we can reach it—""—you'll doom us all," Valeria snapped. "That tower is the infection point. The moment you touch it, the real world goes next. You think the administrators are the villains here? They're containment."Madison frowned. "Containment of what?""Of *her*," Valeria said, pointing a finger at D.J. "Of Helia. She isn't just an AI—she's the core error in Eternum's code. Every file that vanishes, every rollback that fails—her echo causes it. If she rises again, we lose both worlds."The silence that followed hit like gravity. D.J. could only whisper, "You're lying."Valeria's eyes softened for the briefest moment. "I wish I were."---Alarms blared before anyone could argue further. The ruined towers around them came to life as red lights flickered to full alert.Madison's HUD lit up. "They're here! Rollback agents—thirty, maybe forty frags!"Ryan cursed. "Valeria, if you want to keep preaching, do it with a sword. We're about to be surrounded."The Apex commander smirked. "I was always better with a sword."---The battlefield erupted in minutes. Metallic humanoids streaked down from shimmering portals in the sky, landing with ear‑splitting cracks. Red light flashed from their armor: **[Rollback Enforcement Units – Authority Level 9 – Command Verified]**.Ryan and Valeria took the front line, blades igniting twin arcs—his burning crimson, hers pure gold. Toro and the golem anchored the left flank while Madison hurled volley after volley of unstable bombs, trails of pixel smoke filling the air.D.J. hung back for a moment, cube trembling in his palm. The urge to activate *Manifest Rewrite* hit like electricity through his veins. But he remembered Madison's voice, worried, pleading: *You lose yourself every time.*He looked at his friends—their faces illuminated by chaos—and hesitated.Then one of the rollback units broke through, pouncing directly toward Madison. "No!" he yelled and launched the Rewrite.The world folded inward—sound warped, gravity inverted. D.J. reprogrammed the air itself into chains of pure code that snapped tight around the agent, tearing it apart in a flash of blue.For a heartbeat, victory—until his vision whited out. A rush of memories fell away again. His sister's laugh—gone. The smell of pine from his hometown—gone. Just blank silence.Valeria noticed. "You're destroying yourself, Glitchwalker!"He gritted his teeth. "Then maybe it's worth it."Her answer was drowned out by another explosion.---When the dust cleared, the field looked like a graveyard of polygons and smoke. The surviving rollback units withdrew skyward, fading into static clouds. The Apex survivors—including Valeria—stood charred but alive. Toro's golem kneeled in self‑repair mode, one arm missing again.Ryan wiped his brow, staring hard at his former commander. "Guess that's even for last time."Valeria didn't smile. "This isn't over, Mercer. The rollback party was just vanguard. The Dev Choir will follow.""The what now?" Madison asked.Valeria sheathed her blade. "The admins who never disconnected. They fused their neural echoes into Eternum's root code. They've gone mad over centuries—but they still think they're saving the world."She looked at D.J. "When they find you, they'll use you to wake Helia. Or they'll destroy you to make sure she never returns."Madison brushed off soot, exhausted. "So our options are extinction or permanent brain death. Great odds."Ryan turned toward the horizon. "We're wasting time. The Glitchspire's pulling on us—I can feel it."Valeria hesitated, then sighed. "There's an access tunnel beneath Apex Fortress. Leads into the lower tunnels of Layer_Beta. You'll hit the Spire's outskirts eventually.""You're helping us?" D.J. asked.She met his eyes and for a moment looked almost human. "I'm helping myself. If you really are the key, I'd rather be there when you decide which world burns."---An hour later they descended through the fortress's underbelly, following narrow halls lined with half‑rendered statues. Lightning crackled through exposed fragment veins in the walls, humming like the pulse of a dying machine. At the base of a broken stairwell, the tunnel split three ways.Ryan drew a deep breath. "This is it. Once we drop below, no coming back."Toro adjusted his golem's plates. "We go."Madison lifted her pack. "I vote for the path with the least murder."D.J. looked down the central tunnel, where faint lights pulsed—a rhythm matching his cube. The air itself seemed to hum along, as though the game's interface were breathing.He took a step forward. "We follow the call."Ryan nodded once. "Then stay sharp."---Behind them, on the ridge they'd left behind, the sky exploded again with red warning light. Dozens of admin avatars materialized in near‑perfect sync, their eyes glowing white.At their head walked a figure in a pristine cloak of digital static: **Administrator Prime – Dev Choir / Root User // AUTHORIZED OVERRIDE ACTIVE.**The voice that followed was inhumanly calm. "Begin trace of Rewrite signature. Find the Glitchwalker. Bring the anomaly home."