The fall was not a descent.
It was deconstruction.
I didn't feel the air slap my face, nor the weight of my body pulling downward. I felt something worse—I felt myself turning into data. My atoms disassembled into smaller units, into glowing pixels, then were rearranged in every millisecond as if I were a file being constantly reloaded.
Around us, there was no darkness.
Only a digital void.
Numbers fell like rain.
Cubes of light shattered behind us like electronic stardust.
Endless geometric networks stretched infinitely.
"Evelyn! Don't let go of my hand!"
Kaian's voice didn't come through the air—it vibrated directly inside my head via the Twin Pact.
His grip around my waist was suffocating. He wasn't just holding me… he was anchoring me to existence.
The golden tattoo on his neck flared a dangerous red.
My violet tattoo responded with a rapid pulse.
[Warning: Vital Synchronization 88%]
[Status: Shared spacetime collapse]
[Descent in 5… 4… 3…]
The fall stopped abruptly.
We hit a solid surface with unnatural cold.
Metal.
Smooth.
Emitting a faint blue glow from beneath, as if the floor itself were a transparent screen.
Kaian fell on top of me, his body shielding me from the impact. His rapid breaths brushed my neck.
For seconds… no one moved.
Our hearts beat in unison.
"Are you okay?" he whispered, and for the first time… his voice wasn't hard.
"You're pressing on my ribs."
He moved slightly back, but didn't let go of my hand.
He lifted his head slowly.
Then froze.
"What is this place…?"
I rose slowly.
And then… I realized.
This is not hell.
It's a laboratory.
A wide corridor of titanium and reinforced glass.
Transparent screens on the walls displayed lines of data.
Massive tubes ran through the ceiling, filled with glowing Mana like fiber optic cables.
For Evelyn… this is terror.
For Leila… this is familiar.
[Detected: Imperial Laboratory 01 — System Origin]
[Mission: Activate Core Node]
[Reward: Reveal the original Evelyn]
"Kaian…" my voice came quieter than I felt.
"This is where all the curses began."
He didn't understand the word "science."
But he understood something else.
He gripped my hand tightly.
Ten meters.
The chain that had become a comfort.
We crept slowly down the corridor. The sound of our steps on the metal echoed with deadly chill.
Everything here was alive.
But soulless.
We stopped in front of a massive door with no handle.
Just a cracked screen.
I placed my hand on it without thinking.
The screen lit up.
Violet threads emerged from my fingers, intertwining with the system.
[Verifying…]
[Genetic fingerprint recognized]
[Welcome back, Chief Researcher: Evelyn von Rosefeld]
The air froze.
Kaian slowly withdrew his hand.
"Chief… researcher?"
In his eyes, there was not only anger.
There was betrayal.
"I didn't know!" I shouted.
"These are body memories, not mine!"
A headache exploded behind my forehead.
Fragmented images.
Laboratories.
Experiments.
A heart beating inside glass.
A man's voice saying: "She's perfect."
The door opened.
And the world collapsed.
A colossal hall.
In its center—a massive glass cylinder.
Inside… a dragon.
Small.
Bound with wires and sensors.
Its heart half organic… half mechanical.
Radiating purple light.
Kaian dropped his sword.
"Dragon Heart…" he whispered, as if witnessing a bound god.
"It's not a heart." a voice came from behind us.
"It's the engine of the world."
We turned.
A man in a long white coat.
Silver hair.
A youthful face.
Eyes bearing centuries of fatigue.
[Warning: The Maker — Digital Version 0.1]
[Entity cannot be killed physically]
"Who are you?" Kaian growled.
The man smiled sadly.
"I am the one who wrote you."
He turned to me.
"Leila."
The name pierced me.
"I summoned you. I needed a variable to break the loop."
The loop?
"The original Evelyn was a tool. A traitor designed to kill the heir. But you… you went off-script."
He gestured to the dragon.
"The Dragon Heart is the system's servant. It resets the world whenever the path diverges."
Kaian approached me, his arm around my waist with primitive ownership.
"I don't care who you are. She's not yours."
The Maker laughed.
"Yours? Oh, Heir… you're a combat program. You need her energy to persist. The Pact isn't love. It's a circle of energy."
Simple words.
But they fell like an axe.
Kaian froze.
He looked at his hands.
"I… am not real?"
[Emergency Mission: Prevent Partner Collapse]
[Option: Deep Spiritual Link]
[Warning: Permanent memory merge]
I looked at Kaian.
If he collapses… the world collapses with him.
"Look at me."
I held his face.
"The pain I felt when you almost died… was that code?"
His eyes trembled.
"The jealousy devouring you now? Is it programming?"
He didn't wait for me.
He kissed me.
Not a romantic kiss.
But a declaration of war.
Purple and gold magic exploded.
The hall shook.
I saw his childhood.
Palace cold.
His loneliness.
The moment he saw Evelyn and felt something unexplainable.
And he saw me.
My tiny office.
My solitude.
My longing for something real.
We were no longer two people.
We became an intertwined entity.
The dragon and cross tattoos rose into the air.
They surged together.
Turning into a shield of pure light.
The Maker retreated.
His face began to fracture into pixels.
"Love is not a variable in the code!"
[Sovereignty Constraint Broken]
[Status: Entity independent of the system]
[Lifespan: Infinite as long as the connection persists]
But…
A scream.
Not human.
The glass cylinder cracked.
The small dragon opened its eyes.
Not purple.
But completely black.
Its body began to stretch.
The wires snapped.
The glass shattered.
It emerged.
Not a gentle dragon.
But a massive shadow that swallowed light.
"You've freed it…" murmured the Maker as he faded.
"The Erased Dragon."
Unnatural heat rose.
The floor began to disassemble into pixels.
The dragon roared.
And with the roar—a piece of the wall vanished.
No debris.
No ash.
Only nothingness.
[Red Alert:]
[Dragon in full reset mode]
[Result: Erasure of the Empire]
One final notification appeared.
Not blue.
But dark red.
[Final Mission — End of Part One]
[One of you becomes the new heart to contain the dragon]
[The other kills it to end the system]
[Choose.]
Choose?
How do you choose between life… and life?
I looked at Kaian.
He was not hesitant.
He suddenly pushed me.
The metal door closed between us.
I slammed my fist against the glass.
"Kaian! No!"
He smiled.
Not the smile of a prince.
But the smile of a man who found his decision.
"Ten meters…" he said quietly.
"Was enough to love you."
The dragon behind him stretched.
"And now… it will be enough to protect you."
[Warning: Distance 8.9 meters]
I began to choke.
I screamed.
But he no longer looked at me.
He looked at the beast.
His sword ignited a color I had never seen before.
Not gold.
Not violet.
But white.
White that erased colors.
He approached the dragon.
While the distance counter climbed.
9.5 meters.
My heart began to stop.
Tears blurred my vision.
"Kaian…"
And before my sight faded—
A new option appeared.
[Unexpected Variable]
[Suggestion: Complete Merge with Dragon Heart]
[Result: Rewrite the system from within]
I smiled despite the pain.
So… there was a third option.
I reached for the control interface.