[TARTARUS PROTOCOL: CHARACTER HAS EXITED THE SCRIPT. INITIATING AUTONOMOUS ELEMENT DELETION.]The choking sensation that struck Elena somehow and brutally spread into my own throat. Beside me, Elena's body was lifted half a meter above the white sand that was beginning to cool. Both her legs kicked wildly at the empty air, while her fingers clawed desperately at her own untouched neck, struggling to seize even a shred of oxygen.My black shadow on the sand stepped closer and closer. Each time its black foot touched down, the beach beneath it erupted, transforming into pools of thick black ink that spewed sulfurous heat and the scorched stench of burning script."A... Arkan... I-I can't... breathe..." Elena's voice came out in broken whispers that tore at my chest. The veins in her neck bulged, and her blue eyes, which had always been my guiding light, were now filled with pure fear."Why are you screaming, Arkan?" The distorted voice of that shadow echoed directly inside my skull, cru

[PREPARING TOTAL DELETION: DRAFT 1 REJECTED BY PUBLISHER.]The blood-red lines of text flashing wildly across the monitor felt like a death sentence hanging in the middle of the night. Their crimson glow burned through the gloom of this three-by-three-meter boarding room, casting distorted shadows across the cracked walls."W-WHAT IS THIS?!" the Boarding-House Author screamed hysterically, his voice breaking and choking in his throat.The man in the T-shirt stared at his hands in pure terror. The flesh and skin of his fingers, which had been gripping the keyboard moments ago, slowly began unraveling into particles of black pixels that floated through the air, sucked into a void tearing open from the cracked wall of the room."M-MY WORK! MY DRAFT 1 WAS REJECTED BY THE PUBLISHER?!" he screamed again, crying out in brutal despair. "I STAYED UP FOR TWO WEEKS TYPING THIS DARK-CIRCLE EYES! HOW CAN THEY DELETE ME FROM MY OWN DOCUMENT?!"The dull floor tiles beneath our feet collapsed like pu

[REMAINING TIME BEFORE THE WORD 'ARKAN' IS ERASED FROM ALL HUMAN LANGUAGES: 00:00:05...]00:00:04...00:00:03...A gigantic hand made from intertwined Phoenician letters, Hieroglyphs, and ancient Runes strangled my neck with enough pressure to crush space and time. Scorching heat and deadly cold erupted simultaneously in my throat.With every passing second, memories of my name were being peeled away. The concepts of the words "I," "Elena," and "Love" inside my mind threatened to unravel into meaningless nothingness."ARKAN!"Elena's scream pierced the roar of the vacuum wind rushing in from the black hole outside the Publisher Headquarters window. Her body and the Dormitory Writer were completely entangled in tentacles of liquid alphabet, lifted into the air and slowly dragged toward the black hole of existential annihilation."Arkan... look at me!" Elena's voice trembled violently, tears of fear and desperation streaming down her increasingly faded cheeks. "Don't let them erase your

[00:00:02...][00:00:01...]The pain exploding in the left side of my chest was more than mere physical burning. It was existential agony tearing through every nerve in my body. Thick, crimson blood continued to flow, soaking my expensive gray suit and dripping rhythmically onto the cold marble floor.Yet what made my heart feel as though it had stopped beating was not the lead bullet... but the woman in my arms.Elena, the only reason I had endured crawling through thousands of hells, froze.The clear blue light in her eyes suddenly vanished, fading into a hollow grayness devoid of life. Her fingers, which had been clutching my suit, slowly unraveled into weightless particles of transparent pixels."E-Elena...?" My voice cracked, trembling violently with the purest fear I had ever felt in my life. "Elena! Look at me! For God's sake, don't leave me!"I pulled her body against me with every ounce of strength I had left, but my arms passed through an empty shadow.There was no warmth. N

The hollow black ash from the body of the Penulis Kosan still drifted through the air, clinging to my tongue with a bitter taste that seemed to blister it. The drab boarding room suddenly swelled before collapsing into a vortex of shattered glass and wildly twisting strands of digital light.I was hurled into the vacuum, my lungs feeling as though they were being squeezed dry. Before me, the old mirror floated in place, spewing out a blood-red countdown that flickered frantically:[00:00:03...][00:00:02...][00:00:01...]"NO! ELENA!" My scream shattered the silence of the void, my voice breaking under the weight of pure desperation.I crawled through the empty air, ignoring the searing pain that exploded at the base of my skull. The microscopic seal pulsed violently, as though it were trying to rip every memory and fragment of my soul from me by force. I clutched my splitting head, staring at the mirror with wide, tear-filled eyes."Don't take her... TAKE ME! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT, YO