"The expensive kind," I had said.We didn’t just get pizza. Ayaka bought the entire pizzeria, the delivery franchise, and the private island we currently occupied just to ensure the crust didn't get soggy during transport.I lay back on a recliner that felt like it was stuffed with the feathers of a thousand extinct birds. The sand beneath my toes was white, the water of the private cove was a crystal-clear turquoise, and the sun was—for the first time in months—just a ball of gas in the sky rather than a target for my reality-warping fist.(I am actually relaxing. My heart rate is normal. My lungs don't taste like ozone. Is this... allowed?)The [Infinite Mana Core] hummed deep within the villa’s basement, providing enough juice to power the planet for an eternity. The invoice was paid. The Architects were gone. I was, for all intents and purposes, retired."Master! Your back is exposed to the solar radiation! It is a critical tactical vulnerability!"I opened one eye.Runa Yozakura

I sprinted toward the villa, Sae’s frozen form held tight against my chest.She weighed almost nothing. It was like carrying a hollow shell made of glass and static. Every time a stray red particle from the atmosphere touched her, her edges flickered, threatening to dissolve into raw binary."Clear the way!" I roared as I kicked open the lab doors in the basement.(I saved a city. I slapped a god. But if I lose her to a computer virus, none of it matters.)Elara Musk was already there, her fingers flying across a holographic keyboard that was sputtering with red error messages. She didn't look up as I slammed Sae’s body onto the central diagnostic bed."The Core is pumping out corrupted data at three terabytes per second," Elara shouted over the whine of the cooling fans. "The island’s physics are 70% compromised. If we don’t pull the plug, the villa is going to clip through the tectonic plate.""Do it, then!" I yelled. "Pull the plug!""I can't!" Elara slammed her fist onto the desk.

"We're going to Rome."I had declared that intention with absolute fury. But before I could even take a step toward the exit, the lab doors exploded inward.Not from an enemy. From a friend.Runa Yozakura stumbled in. She wasn't holding her dagger. She was clutching her head, screaming."Get out!" she roared, her voice distorting into a digital screech. "Get out of my head!"Her skin wasn't turning to gold or pixels. It was turning into steel.Jagged metal spikes erupted from her shoulders. Her skin hardened into grey armor plates. Her eyes—usually burning violet—were flickering between human and a terrifying, glowing red slit."The Warrior Virus," Elara gasped, hiding behind a desk. "It's rewriting her aggression! It's turning her into a living weapon!"Runa fell to her knees. She looked at me."Master..." she wheezed. "Kill me. Before I... before I harvest you.""I don't kill my friends," I said.I grabbed the Dive Helmet from Sae’s bedside."Elara! Hook me up!""Are you crazy?" Ela

"Beta. I'm coming for you."I shouted the words at the sky, but shouting wasn't enough. A scream fades. A threat needs a platform.I looked at the Admin Tablet in my hand. It was cracked, smoking from the strain of the [Sovereign's Judgment], but the screen was still active.[User: Renji Amagiri.] [Authority: Local Admin (Earth).] [Connection: Multiverse Relay (Available).]"Elara," I said, handing her the tablet. "Patch me through.""To where?" Elara asked, wiping soot from her glasses. "The UN? The Galactic Federation?""Higher," I said. "To the Board of Directors."I pointed at the stars."I want to talk to the Investors."[The Cosmic Broadcast]A hologram appeared in the center of the multiverse. Not just on Earth, but in every server, every dimension, every lobby of the Grand Tournament.Billions of eyes—human, alien, eldritch—looked up.They saw me.I stood on the ruins of the Saionji Villa. My coat was shredded. My eyes were burning violet. Behind me, the eight goddesses of Ear

Darkness.Not the darkness of a room with the lights off. Not the darkness of a closed eye.This was the darkness before the first star was born. Thick. Heavy. Absolute.I was floating in it. Or maybe I was drowning. It was hard to tell because I didn't have a body anymore.I was just... a thought. A flicker of consciousness trapped in amber."Welcome to the Womb," a voice whispered.It wasn't the System. It wasn't the Void Mother. It was the Void itself. The sentient nothingness that I had been carrying in my chest for months."You are broken, Renji Amagiri," the voice hummed. "Your vessel shattered under the weight of the Infinite Core. You cannot hold the ocean in a cup.""I know," I thought (since I had no mouth). "That's why I'm upgrading.""Upgrade?" The Void laughed. It sounded like tectonic plates shifting. "There is no upgrade. There is only dissolution."Two doors appeared in the darkness.The first door was White. It radiated peace. Silence. The end of pain. The end of the