Everett dropped to his knees again. He hid his face in his hands. "I built the cage, Silas," Everett sobbed loudly. "The nobles used my machine to starve you. The Pilgrim is using my machine to delete you. Every drop of blood spilled in this world is my fault. I am the reason Alice died. I am the reason Sarah died."Silas stared at the giant, crying man. For ten years, Silas had hated the System. He had hated the machine that gave power to greedy kings and left good people to die in the mud. And now, he was standing in front of the man who built it. Silas felt a hot flash of pure anger in his chest. His hand squeezed the barrel of his rifle. But then, Silas looked at Everett’s body. He saw the deep, ugly, jagged scars covering Everett’s face. He saw the pale, gray, artificial right arm that clicked and glitched with a terrible delay. He saw the bloody bandages wrapped around crushed ribs. Silas let go of his rifle. He let it hang on his back. He walked forward. He grabbed Evere

The Overlord took a step forward. "But to merge the timelines, there can only be one Creator file," the Overlord whispered. "I have to delete the duplicate. You have to die, brother."Survivor Everett raised his heavy, jagged black iron sword. He stood in front of Lyra and Silas. He stood in front of the massive crowd of terrified players. "I have fought tyrants before," Survivor Everett said quietly. "Your shiny armor does not scare me."The Overlord laughed again. It was a dark, evil sound. "You think we are going to fight a duel?" the Overlord mocked him. "You think I am going to cross swords with a dirty, one-armed beggar who has exactly 1 Health Point? I do not fight peasants. I make the peasants fight for me."The Overlord turned his back on Survivor Everett. He looked out at the massive crowd of hundreds of thousands of players. The players who had been hiding in fear. The players who had lost their magic and their resurrection. "Listen to me, players of the Continuum!" the

Ahead of him, Everett saw a large hole in the ground. It was an old subway entrance. The stone stairs led deep into the dark earth. A broken, flickering neon sign hung over the stairs. It said: METRO STATION 4. Everett did not hesitate. He dove down the concrete stairs. He stumbled in the dark. He hit his shoulder against the dirty tile wall. He ran down into the deep, black belly of the city. The subway station was a nightmare. It was dark, wet, and smelled like rotting garbage and old metal. Emergency red lights flickered on the ceiling. Water dripped loudly into large, dirty puddles on the floor. Old, rusted train cars sat on broken metal tracks. The ceiling was cracked, and thick tree roots poked through the concrete. Everett ran past the rusted ticket booths. He vaulted over a broken metal gate. He was breathing so hard he felt like his heart was going to explode. Above him, he heard the loud, thundering footsteps of the mob. They were coming down the stairs. "He went down

Creatures poured out of the holes. They fell into the dirty water with heavy, wet splashes. Everett stared in absolute shock. The creatures were hideous. They were the size of large dogs. Their bodies were a disgusting, twisted mixture of insect shells and reptilian scales. They were dark, sickly green and pitch black. They had six sharp legs, long, whipping tails, and jaws filled with hundreds of tiny, razor-sharp needle teeth. Their eyes glowed with a sick, angry red light. They were covered in glitching, corrupted computer code. Static popped around their bodies. Everett knew these monsters. He remembered them from his very first days in the dark torture rooms of the System. He remembered running from them in terror when he was just a weak, low-level boy. They were Demo Pox. They were the very first, basic, ugly monsters the Original Creators had ever programmed. They were the "Demonstration" monsters. They were raw, corrupted, unfinished trash files left over from the beginn

The Overlord charged. He moved with impossible speed. He crossed the fifty feet in a microsecond. He swung the glowing blue sword directly at Everett’s neck. Everett did not try to block it with his sword. He knew he was too slow. Instead, Everett stared directly at the ground beneath the Overlord’s feet. "Friction zero," Everett commanded in his mind. The white marble floor instantly turned as slippery as wet ice. The Overlord’s heavy golden boots lost their grip. The Overlord slipped wildly, his legs flying out from under him. The blue energy sword swung wildly over Everett’s head, missing him completely. The Overlord crashed onto his back, sliding across the slippery floor. "Gaaah!" the Overlord yelled in frustration. He pointed his left hand at the floor. "Gravity reverse!"Suddenly, the gravity in the street flipped entirely upside down. Everett was violently pulled off the ground. He fell upward toward the glitching, neon sky. The ugly Demo Pox monsters shrieked as they