Aria POV
The cave ceiling cracked above my head.
I dove sideways as a boulder the size of a refrigerator crashed down where I'd been standing. Dust exploded everywhere, choking my lungs.
"Everyone out!" Ryn roared, already shifting to wolf form.
But Zara's controlled warriors blocked the exit, snarling and snapping. We were trapped between a collapsing cave and an army of mind-controlled beasts.
The old woman raised her staff. "Enough."
One word. That's all it took.
Every controlled warrior collapsed like puppets with cut strings. Zara stumbled backward, her screen flickering wildly.
"What did you do?" she screamed. "My bonds—they're all broken!"
"I severed them." The old woman's eyes glowed with ancient power. "False bonds have no place in these lands."
Another chunk of ceiling fell. Kael grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the exit, but I yanked free.
"Wait! Who are you? What did you mean I broke both systems?"
"No time for answers, child. Run first. Live to ask questions later." The old woman pointed her staff at the cave wall. It exploded outward, creating a new exit. "Go. Now!"
We ran.
Kael kept pace beside me, his hand hovering near my back—protective but not touching. Through our bond, I felt his war between wanting to throw me over his shoulder and respecting my independence.
Thorne and Ryn flanked us on either side. Behind us, I heard Zara screaming threats, but the rumbling cave drowned out her words.
We burst into daylight just as the entire cave system collapsed inward with a deafening roar. Dust billowed out in a massive cloud.
I bent over, gasping for breath. My legs shook. My ribs ached. Every part of me hurt.
"Is everyone okay?" I managed to ask.
"Define okay," Ryn said, coughing. "We're alive. That's about all I can say."
Thorne's violet eyes scanned the area. "Where's the old woman?"
We all turned back. The dust was settling, revealing nothing but rubble. No sign of her anywhere.
"She was right behind us," I said. "I saw her—"
"She was never really there," Kael said quietly. "That was an illusion. Or a spirit. Or..." He shook his head. "Something beyond my understanding."
My system screen flickered to life:
SYSTEMS RECALIBRATING
PLEASE WAIT...
NEW PARAMETERS LOADING...
"What's happening?" I asked. "Is your screen doing this too, Zara?"
Silence.
I turned. Zara stood about twenty feet away, staring at her own screen with an expression of pure horror.
"No," she whispered. "No, no, no!"
Her screen blazed red:
CONQUEST SYSTEM: TERMINATED
REASON: TRUE MATE BONDS DETECTED IN TARGET
FALSE BONDS CANNOT OVERRIDE TRUE BONDS
MISSION FAILED
PENALTY: SYSTEM REMOVAL
"Wait, what's the penalty?" I started toward her, but Kael held me back.
"Don't," he warned. "When a system is forcibly removed..."
Zara's scream cut through the air.
Red light exploded from her body, violent and chaotic. She clawed at her chest as if trying to rip something out. Her screen shattered into a thousand glowing fragments.
"Help her!" I shouted, trying to break free from Kael's grip. "She's dying!"
"She brought this on herself," Thorne said coldly.
"I don't care! I'm a doctor—I have to help!"
But before I could reach her, the red light vanished. Zara collapsed to her knees, gasping. When she looked up, something had changed in her eyes. The cruel confidence was gone, replaced by confusion and fear.
"What... what happened?" She touched her head. "Where am I? How did I get here?"
"She doesn't remember," Ryn said, shocked. "The system removal wiped her memories."
My own screen finished recalibrating:
SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE
NEW CLASSIFICATION: HYBRID SYSTEM
OLD RULES: VOID
NEW RULES: GENERATING...
"What does that mean?" I demanded. "What are the new rules?"
The screen pulsed:
RULE 1: TRUE MATE BONDS CANNOT BE FORCED
RULE 2: SYSTEM QUESTS ARE NOW OPTIONAL
RULE 3: PENALTIES FOR REFUSAL: NONE
RULE 4: ALL PREVIOUS CONSEQUENCES NULLIFIED
I stared at the screen, my heart pounding. "Optional? No penalties?"
CORRECT
YOU BROKE THE SYSTEM BY CHOOSING LOVE OVER POWER
THE GODDESS SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED TO TEST HUMANS
YOU PASSED BY REFUSING TO PLAY
"Test? What test?" But even as I asked, pieces started falling into place. "The accident. Sarah. This whole world..." My voice dropped to a whisper. "This is all a simulation, isn't it?"
Kael's hand tightened on my shoulder. Through the bond, I felt his alarm. "What do you mean, simulation?"
"I mean none of this is real. You're not real. I'm probably in a hospital bed somewhere, brain-dead, while machines keep me alive—"
"Stop." Kael spun me around to face him. "Look at me. Feel this." He pressed his hand over my heart, then placed mine over his. "My heartbeat. Your heartbeat. This bond between us. Does any of that feel false to you?"
Through our connection, his emotions crashed into me. Fear, anger, and underneath it all, a desperate need for me to believe he was real.
"I don't know what to believe anymore," I admitted.
My screen pulsed again:
CLARIFICATION REQUIRED
THIS WORLD: 87% SIMULATION, 13% REAL
THE PEOPLE: 100% REAL CONSCIOUSNESS
EXPLANATION: COMATOSE HUMANS UPLOADED TO TESTING ENVIRONMENT
YOU ARE REAL. THEY ARE REAL. THE WORLD IS NOT.
"Oh God." My legs gave out. Kael caught me before I hit the ground. "You're real. You're all real people trapped here like me."
"Trapped where?" Thorne demanded. "Speak plainly, female."
"In a computer. A machine. Someone put our minds into a fake world to test us." I looked at each of them. "You died in my world. All of you. And someone uploaded your consciousness here."
The silence was deafening.
Finally, Ryn spoke. "That's insane."
"Is it? More insane than women falling from the sky? More insane than systems that give quests and powers?" I pulled up my screen. "Ask it. Ask if what I'm saying is true."
Kael stared at my glowing interface for a long moment. Then, hesitantly, he spoke to it. "Is Aria telling the truth? Are we trapped in a false world?"
The screen flickered.
CONFIRMED
KAEL: DIED 3 YEARS AGO (YOUR TIME) IN VEHICLE ACCIDENT
RYN: DIED 2 YEARS AGO IN MILITARY COMBAT
THORNE: DIED 5 YEARS AGO OF POISONING
ALL CONSCIOUSNESS PRESERVED AND UPLOADED
Kael's face went white. "My cubs. My mate. The raid..." His voice cracked. "They're not here because they really died. But I'm here because I died too?"
Through the bond, his grief hit me like a physical blow. He'd been mourning his family while dead himself.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't apologize for the truth." Thorne's voice was hard. "So we're dead. We're trapped. What do we do about it?"
My screen pulsed:
NEW QUEST AVAILABLE
OPTIONAL: ESCAPE THE SIMULATION
REQUIREMENTS: UNKNOWN
REWARDS: RETURN TO REAL WORLD
ACCEPT? Y/N
"There's a way out," I said slowly. "The system is offering a quest to escape."
"What are the requirements?" Ryn asked.
"It says unknown." I selected the quest, and new text appeared:
QUEST ACCEPTED
SEARCHING FOR EXIT PARAMETERS...
ERROR: EXIT PROTOCOL CORRUPTED
SEARCHING ALTERNATIVE ROUTES...
FOUND: 1 ALTERNATIVE
WARNING: THIS WILL BREAK THE SIMULATION
"What's the alternative?" I asked.
The screen went black. For a moment, I thought it had shut down completely.
Then new text appeared, written in code I shouldn't be able to understand but somehow did:
TO EXIT, YOU MUST REACH THE CORE
THE CORE IS LOCATED IN THE GODDESS TEMPLE
WARNING: THE SIMULATION WILL DEFEND ITSELF
EXPECT: SYSTEM ANTIBODIES, CORRUPTED NPCS, REALITY GLITCHES
ESTIMATED SURVIVAL RATE: 3%
"Three percent," I breathed. "That's basically zero."
"What's the alternative?" Kael asked. "Stay here forever?"
"Or die when they pull the plug on our bodies in the real world," Thorne added grimly.
The screen pulsed one more time:
UPDATE: SIMULATION AWARE OF YOUR INTENTIONS
DEFENSE PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED
RECOMMENDATION: RUN
The ground beneath our feet began to crack. Not like an earthquake—like a computer glitch. Chunks of terrain pixelated and disappeared, revealing nothing but empty void underneath.
"What's happening?" Ryn shouted.
"The simulation is trying to delete us!" I grabbed Kael's arm. "We need to move!"
But the glitches were spreading too fast. The ground vanished in a widening circle around us, leaving us on a shrinking island of solid terrain.
Zara, still confused and disoriented, stumbled toward the edge. She would have fallen into the void if Ryn hadn't lunged forward and caught her.
"Got you—" The ground beneath Ryn crumbled.
He fell.
"RYN!" I screamed.
Without thinking, I dove after him into the void.
The last thing I heard was Kael roaring my name.
Then I was falling through digital darkness, Ryn's hand clasped in mine, both of us plummeting toward something that looked like a wall of code.
My screen blazed one final message:
ENTERING SYSTEM CORE
WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS
INITIATING MEMORY PURGE IN 3... 2... 1...
We hit the wall of code.
Everything went white.