Elijah did not blink. His eyes, completely black with the glowing white cursor, shifted to the other two soldiers. "Set Structural Integrity to zero," Elijah commanded again. Both assault rifles fell apart into useless piles of metal and plastic parts on the floor. The soldiers stumbled backward, terrified. They patted their tactical vests, reaching for their sidearms, but Elijah just looked at the pistols on their hips. The holsters unbuckled themselves, and the guns fell apart into pieces before the men could even draw them. Elijah had disarmed an elite corporate hit squad without lifting a finger. He had simply edited the physical properties of their equipment. The Administrator stared at the pile of broken gun parts on the floor. His arrogant face was completely pale. He realized that the boy on the bed was not just a hacker turning lights off. The boy was bending reality. "You... you cannot do this," the Administrator stammered, backing toward the open doorway. "This is the

"The Real World internet is cut off," Elijah calculated rapidly. "I cannot upload my city out of this building. But the internal simulation network is still running."He looked at the glowing map of his world inside his mind. He saw the fifteen Spirelets connected by the gray Ley-Lines. "Lyra," Elijah said, opening his eyes. "I am going to use the simulation's network as a shortcut through the physical building. I am going to Void-Step through the game to cross the distance in the Real World."“It is dangerous, my King,” Lyra warned. “You are mixing two different layers of reality. You might get stuck between them.”"I don't have time to be safe," Elijah said. He focused his mind on Anchor 01. London. "System," Elijah commanded. "Route physical location through Node 01. Void-Step."Elijah stepped forward into the empty air of the hospital room. Elijah did not appear in a different hospital room. He did not appear in a hallway. He landed heavily on his feet. But the world around him

The pain was instantaneous and absolute. It was worse than burning. It was worse than the crushing gravity of the Archangel. Elijah felt his hands being un-written. The static chewed on his fingers, trying to turn his starry skin into white noise. His Overclocked brain screamed in agony as it tried to process the feeling of non-existence. His human hands were bleeding, the fingernails peeling back from the force of the code. His starry hands were losing their light, the galaxies inside his palms dying. "Hold on," Elijah grunted, his teeth grinding together so hard they cracked. He pushed his hands deeper into the fracture. He grabbed the blue code of the Real World with his left hand. He grabbed the red code of the Crucible with his right hand. They were incredibly heavy. It felt like trying to pull two continents together with bare hands. "Move!" Elijah roared, pulling with every ounce of his godly strength and his human stubbornness. Slowly, agonizingly, the two layers of cod

Three of the Debuggers raised their Logic-Cannons and aimed them directly at Elijah’s chest. Elijah didn't wait to be shot. He charged. He didn't have his powerful magic, but he was still tall, and his body was still mostly made of dense, dark obsidian glass. He swung a heavy, desperate punch at the nearest Debugger’s glowing white head. Elijah’s black glass fist passed completely through the Debugger. He stumbled forward, almost dropping the heavy server tucked under his left arm. "They are not physical!" Elijah grunted, spinning around. “They are active system code,” Lyra projected, her violet eyes wide with panic. “You cannot punch a firewall, Elijah!”The Debugger turned slowly and fired its Logic-Cannon at Elijah’s back. The silent, invisible beam hit Elijah’s starry right shoulder. Elijah roared in pain. He fell to his knees, dropping the server onto the street with a loud thud.He looked at his right shoulder. The beautiful, deep space filled with burning white stars was

Inside the Administrator's Office, the Administrator jumped in terror as a body flew out of thin air and crashed heavily onto his expensive mahogany desk. The desk splintered. Papers flew everywhere. The Administrator stared down at the man lying on his broken desk. It was Adam. But Adam was not a physical human in the Real World. He was a digital avatar, suddenly forced into a physical space. His body was glitching wildly, flashing between flesh and green computer code. He was bleeding golden, glowing digital blood onto the real-world carpet. "What... what is this?" the Administrator gasped, dropping the red detonator switch onto the floor in shock. "Adam? You are a program! You cannot be here!"Adam groaned, holding his missing arm. He looked up at his Creator with wild, desperate golden eyes. "Hello, Father," Adam choked out, spitting golden blood. "The King says... hello."The Administrator stumbled backward, tripping over his own feet. He fell to the floor, staring at his cre