Apocalypse System: I Evolve by Devouring Everything

Alpha Trojan Sacrifice

"Damn it... my head is spinning. Where am I? Why is hell all white?"

Jonathan clutched his head, which felt like it had just been smashed by a one-ton sledgehammer. His vision was blurry, shadowed, and full of wildly dancing light spots. He tried to get up, but the floor beneath him felt unreal—like stepping on a pile of clouds that was incredibly hard yet fragile.[System... Rebooting... 12%... 18%...]

[Fatal error detected in reality layer...][Host Status: Unidentified Anomaly.]

"Hey, System! Wake up, you bastard! Don't just keep loading! I need an explanation of what this place is!" Jonathan shouted with a hoarse voice.

"No need to shout, Jon. Your system is busy patching up your shattered soul fragments because of your crazy stunt earlier."

Jonathan flinched. He spun around quickly and saw Sienna standing just a few meters away. But something was wrong with her. Her body flickered occasionally, as if her existence was unstable, with energy cracks trailing across her face like a nearly shattered mirror.

"Sienna? Why do you... look like a fading hologram? And what is this place? Just white as far as the eye can see, I feel like I'm inside a giant photo studio!"

"This isn't the real world, Jon. This is the residual void after you broke their order. You really overwhelmed them. Their dimensional extermination procedure is completely jammed because of your Legion anomaly."

"Hahaha! Serves them right! Take that, you fake Architects! Did they think I could be wiped out as easily as squashing a bug? I'm an anomaly with pride, you know!" Jonathan laughed wildly, though his chest felt tight when he did.

"You're proud? Jon, look around! Where's Emma? Where are the thousands of people whose energy you absorbed? They're all gone, Jon! They're stuck in a dimensional rift because you forced that overload!" Sienna stepped closer, her digitally flickering eyes glaring at Jonathan.

Jonathan's smile vanished instantly. "Emma... she's gone? You mean she's deleted?!"

"I don't know. She might still be in a dimension fragment currently being destroyed by the Architects, or she's already cosmic ash tossed into the void. You are really selfish, Jon! You wanted to win so badly you sacrificed everything!"

"I didn't sacrifice her! I wanted to save her from becoming an Architect's slave! Didn't you see they were about to burn our planet to the ground like we're just failed products?!"

"But not like this, Jonathan! Now we're all trapped here! No way out, no stable system, and soon... 'The Cleaners' will come to sweep up leftover glitches like us!" Sienna shouted in frustration, her transparent hands shaking violently.

"Let them come! I'll destroy them one by one just like before!"

"With what?! Look at your own body! You don't even have a complete right arm right now!"

Jonathan looked down and his eyes widened. His right arm from the elbow down wasn't physically there; it was just a swirling mass of purple particles with no solid shape. "Crazy... why is it like this? System! What's my physical status?!"

[Physical Status: Fragmented 40%.]

[Alpha Energy: Critical (0.02%).][Suggestion: Do not make sudden movements or your existence will be completely deleted.]

"Damn it... only zero point zero two percent? I can't even use this to turn on a flashlight!" Jonathan cursed quietly, his face pale.

"That's why you need to stay put! Stop acting tough! We have to find a way back into the main reality layer before the access door is permanently closed by the Architects," Sienna tried to sit on the strange white floor, looking incredibly exhausted.

"So how do we do that? You said you're the real Sienna, an architect or whatever. Don't tell me you don't know the way out?"

"I do know, but I need an access key. And that key is in the hands of the person you hate most in this world."

Jonathan narrowed his eyes. A bad feeling started creeping up his neck. "Don't tell me..."

"Yes, Reymond. But not the trash cyborg Reymond you killed earlier. The Reymond who is an Admin unit for the Architects. He has the bypass code to get out of this Void."

"Are you crazy?! Reymond was turned into machine mush in that building! I saw him get chewed up by a monster myself!"

"That was just an avatar, Jon! You think a guy on his level would put his real life on the battlefield? He's in this layer, in a place called the Core Chamber. He's waiting for us, or more accurately, he's waiting to take your Alpha system back."

Suddenly, echoing applause rang out from every corner of the white room. The light around them dimmed, and a luxurious office desk complete with a leather chair appeared out of nowhere. Sitting there was a man in a neat suit, sipping coffee from an expensive porcelain cup.

"Well, well. A very accurate explanation, Sienna. I'm impressed you still remember our old lab lessons," the man said with an incredibly calm and arrogant tone.

Jonathan growled, his remaining aura starting to flicker wildly. "Reymond... you really aren't dead, huh?!"

"Dead? For us dimensional rulers, your deaths are just part of the experiment's recycling process, Jonathan. But you... you really caused quite a riot. The Architects are very angry. Truly very angry." Reymond put down his coffee cup and stood up, walking toward Jonathan with a condescending smile.

"Come here, face me! Don't just hide behind a desk!" Jonathan tried to jump forward, but his legs suddenly paralyzed, as if nailed to the floor.

"Whoa, don't rush. Here, I am the master of physics. You are just a parasite I haven't had the chance to exterminate yet. So, sit tight and listen to my offer," Reymond snapped his fingers, and an iron chair appeared beneath Jonathan, forcing him to sit.

"I don't need an offer from trash like you!"

"Even if that offer involves Emma's life?" Reymond raised an eyebrow, revealing a small screen floating next to his head.

Inside the screen, Emma was seen trapped in a glass tube filled with bright blue liquid. The girl looked fast asleep, but tiny cables were attached all over her head.

"Emma! What did you do to her, you bastard?!" Jonathan screamed with all his might, trying to break free from the iron chair.

"Relax, Jon. She's safe. For now. She is the 'Anchor' holding your consciousness so you don't fade away in this Void. If I pull her cables, you'll instantly evaporate into void ash in seconds. And she... she'll become a sacrificial vessel for our new order," Reymond explained casually as if talking about the weather.

"Rey, what do you really want? Take this Alpha system and let us go?" Sienna cut in, her voice trembling.

"Smart. But not just that. I need Jonathan to voluntarily hand over the 'Legion' authority to me. If I take it by force, the system will self-destruct again like before. I want Jonathan to surrender. Total surrender."

"Surrender? To you?! Pfft! I'd rather we all die here together!" Jonathan spat at Reymond's shiny shoes.

Reymond didn't get mad. He simply wiped his shoe with a silk handkerchief. "Oh, you won't die alone, Jon. If you refuse, I'll erase Emma's memory of you first. Then I'll turn her into a cleaning slave in the lowest dimension. Forever. Without end."

"You... you really are a devil..." Jonathan whispered, his eyes tearing up from anger and despair.

"Devils have style, Jon. I'm just a reality businessman. So what do you say? Alpha authority for Emma's life. Fair, right?"

Jonathan looked down. His intact left hand clenched so hard his nails dug into his palm. He looked at Sienna, who could only shake her head slowly, as if signaling there was no other way.

"Jon, don't do it... if he gets the Legion authority, he can control every human mind on Earth!" Sienna whispered softly.

"But Emma, Sienna... I can't let her suffer because of me again..." Jonathan muttered quietly.

"Come on, Jonathan. We don't have much time. 'The Cleaners' are already at the Void's door. Choose now, or I wipe her from existence forever," Reymond leaned in, his victorious smile looking absolutely sickening.

Jonathan took a deep breath. He looked at the screen showing Emma one last time.

"You used to say you wanted to be a doctor, right..." Jon muttered softly. Then, he looked at Reymond with a gaze that suddenly turned deadly cold—even colder than when he was the King of Destruction earlier.

"Okay. I'll give you the authority."

"Jon! Don't!" Sienna shouted.

"Excellent! Now that's the Jonathan I know! The loser who always folds for other people!" Reymond laughed in satisfaction and extended his hand, glowing with golden light. "Here, transfer the code to me!"

Jonathan reached for Reymond's hand with his left hand. But right before their palms touched, Jonathan whispered something that made Reymond's smile freeze.

"You forgot one thing, Rey. A virus never surrenders. It just... mutates."

The next second, incredibly dense purple light exploded from Jonathan's body. Not just from his hand, but from every pore of his skin. But the light didn't attack Reymond. The light shot straight toward the screen displaying Emma.

"What are you doing?! Stop!" Reymond tried to pull his hand back, but Jonathan's grip was now impossibly strong.

"System! Execute Protocol: 'Trojan Sacrifice'!"

[Trojan Sacrifice Protocol Initiated...][Transferring Host's entire remaining existence into Subject: Emma.]

[Warning: Host body will be permanently destroyed!]

"You're committing suicide to put the system into that kid?! Are you crazy, Jonathan?!" Reymond screamed in panic, trying to hit Jonathan with his golden energy.

"I'm not committing suicide, Rey. I'm just... moving houses." Jonathan grinned widely even as his body began to crack into digital fragments. "Emma isn't just my anchor. She is now... the new Alpha."

The purple light entered Emma's tube through the hologram screen. The tube exploded, and massively powerful energy blasted from inside, shaking the entire Void Buffer.

"NOOOO!!!" Reymond was thrown far back when the energy shockwave hit him.

Jonathan's body slowly disappeared, turning into dust-like light particles floating in the white room. He turned to Sienna one last time. "Watch over her, Sienna. Tell her... that her big brother really was a hero, not just in her dreams."

Sienna cried, trying to reach Jonathan's fading light fragments. "Jonathan! You can't just leave! Jon!"

In a flash, Jonathan was completely gone. All that remained was silence in the white room that was now starting to collapse piece by piece.

But amidst the ruins, Emma's figure slowly stood up. Her once black hair had turned to shimmering silver, and her eyes... her eyes had brightly glowing Alpha triangle pupils.

Emma stared at her hands, now coursing with thick purple and black energy. She turned toward Reymond, who was trying to get up in the distance.

Emma clutched her head. Two voices spoke simultaneously in her mind.

Her own soft voice... and another heavy, cold, very familiar voice.

Memory fragments that weren't hers flashed by—battles, blood, and Jonathan's cynical laugh.

"Reymond..." Emma's voice sounded incredibly heavy, a mix of her soft voice and Jonathan's authoritative tone. "You made my brother disappear."

Emma stepped forward, and with every step, the entire white room turned into pitch-black darkness. The gravity in the place suddenly became thousands of times stronger.

"Emma? You... you're not human anymore?!" Reymond trembled, trying to summon his Admin weapons, but nothing appeared.

"I am Legion. And I am very... very... angry."

Emma raised her hand, and thousands of black energy swords appeared around Reymond, locking down every inch of his movement. Reymond's eyes bulged in terror as he saw the sword tips slowly advancing toward his eyes.

Suddenly, a loud alarm blared throughout the dimension.

[WARNING! REALITY INTEGRITY AT ZERO PERCENT!][INITIATING TOTAL DELETION OF ALL DATA...]

The floor beneath Emma and Sienna vanished, and they fell into a bottomless abyss of darkness. Up above, Reymond's terrified face was the last thing they saw before a massive golden light smashed into everything.

Sienna tried to grab Emma's hand in the falling darkness, but Emma pulled away and stared at the dimension's sky, as if piercing the gaze of the Overseers watching them.

"Search for Host Jonathan: Failed," Emma said flatly, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Initiating... Revenge Quest."

The world exploded into silence once more, leaving a massive question mark about what remained of Jonathan's soul inside the girl's body.

The atmosphere turned pitch black. Silent. Cold.

Then, the sound of keyboard typing echoed in the distance.

"Subject 00 has evolved into an unexpected form. Should we reboot this Experiment Sector, Professor?"

"No. Let her play a little longer. I want to see how far a little girl can destroy our galactic order."

"But Jonathan... is he truly dead?"

A brief silence.

"In this universe, no one is truly dead as long as their soul trace is still saved somewhere..."

"Damn it... my head is spinning. Where am I? Why is hell all white?"

Jonathan clutched his head, which felt like it had just been smashed by a one-ton sledgehammer. His vision was blurry, shadowed, and full of wildly dancing light spots. He tried to get up, but the floor beneath him felt unreal—like stepping on a pile of clouds that was incredibly hard yet fragile.[System... Rebooting... 12%... 18%...]

[Fatal error detected in reality layer...][Host Status: Unidentified Anomaly.]

"Hey, System! Wake up, you bastard! Don't just keep loading! I need an explanation of what this place is!" Jonathan shouted with a hoarse voice.

"No need to shout, Jon. Your system is busy patching up your shattered soul fragments because of your crazy stunt earlier."

Jonathan flinched. He spun around quickly and saw Sienna standing just a few meters away. But something was wrong with her. Her body flickered occasionally, as if her existence was unstable, with energy cracks trailing across her face like a nearly shattered mirror.

"Sienna? Why do you... look like a fading hologram? And what is this place? Just white as far as the eye can see, I feel like I'm inside a giant photo studio!"

"This isn't the real world, Jon. This is the residual void after you broke their order. You really overwhelmed them. Their dimensional extermination procedure is completely jammed because of your Legion anomaly."

"Hahaha! Serves them right! Take that, you fake Architects! Did they think I could be wiped out as easily as squashing a bug? I'm an anomaly with pride, you know!" Jonathan laughed wildly, though his chest felt tight when he did.

"You're proud? Jon, look around! Where's Emma? Where are the thousands of people whose energy you absorbed? They're all gone, Jon! They're stuck in a dimensional rift because you forced that overload!" Sienna stepped closer, her digitally flickering eyes glaring at Jonathan.

Jonathan's smile vanished instantly. "Emma... she's gone? You mean she's deleted?!"

"I don't know. She might still be in a dimension fragment currently being destroyed by the Architects, or she's already cosmic ash tossed into the void. You are really selfish, Jon! You wanted to win so badly you sacrificed everything!"

"I didn't sacrifice her! I wanted to save her from becoming an Architect's slave! Didn't you see they were about to burn our planet to the ground like we're just failed products?!"

"But not like this, Jonathan! Now we're all trapped here! No way out, no stable system, and soon... 'The Cleaners' will come to sweep up leftover glitches like us!" Sienna shouted in frustration, her transparent hands shaking violently.

"Let them come! I'll destroy them one by one just like before!"

"With what?! Look at your own body! You don't even have a complete right arm right now!"

Jonathan looked down and his eyes widened. His right arm from the elbow down wasn't physically there; it was just a swirling mass of purple particles with no solid shape. "Crazy... why is it like this? System! What's my physical status?!"

[Physical Status: Fragmented 40%.]

[Alpha Energy: Critical (0.02%).][Suggestion: Do not make sudden movements or your existence will be completely deleted.]

"Damn it... only zero point zero two percent? I can't even use this to turn on a flashlight!" Jonathan cursed quietly, his face pale.

"That's why you need to stay put! Stop acting tough! We have to find a way back into the main reality layer before the access door is permanently closed by the Architects," Sienna tried to sit on the strange white floor, looking incredibly exhausted.

"So how do we do that? You said you're the real Sienna, an architect or whatever. Don't tell me you don't know the way out?"

"I do know, but I need an access key. And that key is in the hands of the person you hate most in this world."

Jonathan narrowed his eyes. A bad feeling started creeping up his neck. "Don't tell me..."

"Yes, Reymond. But not the trash cyborg Reymond you killed earlier. The Reymond who is an Admin unit for the Architects. He has the bypass code to get out of this Void."

"Are you crazy?! Reymond was turned into machine mush in that building! I saw him get chewed up by a monster myself!"

"That was just an avatar, Jon! You think a guy on his level would put his real life on the battlefield? He's in this layer, in a place called the Core Chamber. He's waiting for us, or more accurately, he's waiting to take your Alpha system back."

Suddenly, echoing applause rang out from every corner of the white room. The light around them dimmed, and a luxurious office desk complete with a leather chair appeared out of nowhere. Sitting there was a man in a neat suit, sipping coffee from an expensive porcelain cup.

"Well, well. A very accurate explanation, Sienna. I'm impressed you still remember our old lab lessons," the man said with an incredibly calm and arrogant tone.

Jonathan growled, his remaining aura starting to flicker wildly. "Reymond... you really aren't dead, huh?!"

"Dead? For us dimensional rulers, your deaths are just part of the experiment's recycling process, Jonathan. But you... you really caused quite a riot. The Architects are very angry. Truly very angry." Reymond put down his coffee cup and stood up, walking toward Jonathan with a condescending smile.

"Come here, face me! Don't just hide behind a desk!" Jonathan tried to jump forward, but his legs suddenly paralyzed, as if nailed to the floor.

"Whoa, don't rush. Here, I am the master of physics. You are just a parasite I haven't had the chance to exterminate yet. So, sit tight and listen to my offer," Reymond snapped his fingers, and an iron chair appeared beneath Jonathan, forcing him to sit.

"I don't need an offer from trash like you!"

"Even if that offer involves Emma's life?" Reymond raised an eyebrow, revealing a small screen floating next to his head.

Inside the screen, Emma was seen trapped in a glass tube filled with bright blue liquid. The girl looked fast asleep, but tiny cables were attached all over her head.

"Emma! What did you do to her, you bastard?!" Jonathan screamed with all his might, trying to break free from the iron chair.

"Relax, Jon. She's safe. For now. She is the 'Anchor' holding your consciousness so you don't fade away in this Void. If I pull her cables, you'll instantly evaporate into void ash in seconds. And she... she'll become a sacrificial vessel for our new order," Reymond explained casually as if talking about the weather.

"Rey, what do you really want? Take this Alpha system and let us go?" Sienna cut in, her voice trembling.

"Smart. But not just that. I need Jonathan to voluntarily hand over the 'Legion' authority to me. If I take it by force, the system will self-destruct again like before. I want Jonathan to surrender. Total surrender."

"Surrender? To you?! Pfft! I'd rather we all die here together!" Jonathan spat at Reymond's shiny shoes.

Reymond didn't get mad. He simply wiped his shoe with a silk handkerchief. "Oh, you won't die alone, Jon. If you refuse, I'll erase Emma's memory of you first. Then I'll turn her into a cleaning slave in the lowest dimension. Forever. Without end."

"You... you really are a devil..." Jonathan whispered, his eyes tearing up from anger and despair.

"Devils have style, Jon. I'm just a reality businessman. So what do you say? Alpha authority for Emma's life. Fair, right?"

Jonathan looked down. His intact left hand clenched so hard his nails dug into his palm. He looked at Sienna, who could only shake her head slowly, as if signaling there was no other way.

"Jon, don't do it... if he gets the Legion authority, he can control every human mind on Earth!" Sienna whispered softly.

"But Emma, Sienna... I can't let her suffer because of me again..." Jonathan muttered quietly.

"Come on, Jonathan. We don't have much time. 'The Cleaners' are already at the Void's door. Choose now, or I wipe her from existence forever," Reymond leaned in, his victorious smile looking absolutely sickening.

Jonathan took a deep breath. He looked at the screen showing Emma one last time.

"You used to say you wanted to be a doctor, right..." Jon muttered softly. Then, he looked at Reymond with a gaze that suddenly turned deadly cold—even colder than when he was the King of Destruction earlier.

"Okay. I'll give you the authority."

"Jon! Don't!" Sienna shouted.

"Excellent! Now that's the Jonathan I know! The loser who always folds for other people!" Reymond laughed in satisfaction and extended his hand, glowing with golden light. "Here, transfer the code to me!"

Jonathan reached for Reymond's hand with his left hand. But right before their palms touched, Jonathan whispered something that made Reymond's smile freeze.

"You forgot one thing, Rey. A virus never surrenders. It just... mutates."

The next second, incredibly dense purple light exploded from Jonathan's body. Not just from his hand, but from every pore of his skin. But the light didn't attack Reymond. The light shot straight toward the screen displaying Emma.

"What are you doing?! Stop!" Reymond tried to pull his hand back, but Jonathan's grip was now impossibly strong.

"System! Execute Protocol: 'Trojan Sacrifice'!"

[Trojan Sacrifice Protocol Initiated...][Transferring Host's entire remaining existence into Subject: Emma.]

[Warning: Host body will be permanently destroyed!]

"You're committing suicide to put the system into that kid?! Are you crazy, Jonathan?!" Reymond screamed in panic, trying to hit Jonathan with his golden energy.

"I'm not committing suicide, Rey. I'm just... moving houses." Jonathan grinned widely even as his body began to crack into digital fragments. "Emma isn't just my anchor. She is now... the new Alpha."

The purple light entered Emma's tube through the hologram screen. The tube exploded, and massively powerful energy blasted from inside, shaking the entire Void Buffer.

"NOOOO!!!" Reymond was thrown far back when the energy shockwave hit him.

Jonathan's body slowly disappeared, turning into dust-like light particles floating in the white room. He turned to Sienna one last time. "Watch over her, Sienna. Tell her... that her big brother really was a hero, not just in her dreams."

Sienna cried, trying to reach Jonathan's fading light fragments. "Jonathan! You can't just leave! Jon!"

In a flash, Jonathan was completely gone. All that remained was silence in the white room that was now starting to collapse piece by piece.

But amidst the ruins, Emma's figure slowly stood up. Her once black hair had turned to shimmering silver, and her eyes... her eyes had brightly glowing Alpha triangle pupils.

Emma stared at her hands, now coursing with thick purple and black energy. She turned toward Reymond, who was trying to get up in the distance.

Emma clutched her head. Two voices spoke simultaneously in her mind.

Her own soft voice... and another heavy, cold, very familiar voice.

Memory fragments that weren't hers flashed by—battles, blood, and Jonathan's cynical laugh.

"Reymond..." Emma's voice sounded incredibly heavy, a mix of her soft voice and Jonathan's authoritative tone. "You made my brother disappear."

Emma stepped forward, and with every step, the entire white room turned into pitch-black darkness. The gravity in the place suddenly became thousands of times stronger.

"Emma? You... you're not human anymore?!" Reymond trembled, trying to summon his Admin weapons, but nothing appeared.

"I am Legion. And I am very... very... angry."

Emma raised her hand, and thousands of black energy swords appeared around Reymond, locking down every inch of his movement. Reymond's eyes bulged in terror as he saw the sword tips slowly advancing toward his eyes.

Suddenly, a loud alarm blared throughout the dimension.

[WARNING! REALITY INTEGRITY AT ZERO PERCENT!][INITIATING TOTAL DELETION OF ALL DATA...]

The floor beneath Emma and Sienna vanished, and they fell into a bottomless abyss of darkness. Up above, Reymond's terrified face was the last thing they saw before a massive golden light smashed into everything.

Sienna tried to grab Emma's hand in the falling darkness, but Emma pulled away and stared at the dimension's sky, as if piercing the gaze of the Overseers watching them.

"Search for Host Jonathan: Failed," Emma said flatly, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Initiating... Revenge Quest."

The world exploded into silence once more, leaving a massive question mark about what remained of Jonathan's soul inside the girl's body.

The atmosphere turned pitch black. Silent. Cold.

Then, the sound of keyboard typing echoed in the distance.

"Subject 00 has evolved into an unexpected form. Should we reboot this Experiment Sector, Professor?"

"No. Let her play a little longer. I want to see how far a little girl can destroy our galactic order."

"But Jonathan... is he truly dead?"

A brief silence.

"In this universe, no one is truly dead as long as their soul trace is still saved somewhere..."