The Last Contestant – Chapter 16: “LORD NYROTH”
Seven Days Remain. One Truth Must Die. Let’s find out together?
[INT. SHARDSPACE – TRIAL ONE: “THE VERSION THAT LEFT”]
The Trial begins in silence.
The group stands in a glass corridor twisting through a swirling void of half-loaded memories. With broken clocks, reversed laughter, and the echoes of old dialogue that drift like static. Each door in the corridor pulses with an image—and each member walking away from the group at a key moment in the past.
STIX
(leans toward a door showing him stealing “candy” from a hospital donation jar)
“…Wow, that’s not even the worst thing I’ve done... and I don’t wanna talk about it… ever”
ZORA
“This place is designed to fracture people’s identity. Look!”
She points at the walls—each member’s name scribbled in shifting fonts, melting into new titles: The Leader Who Quit, The Coward Who Stayed, The Sister Who Lied, The Joke That Survived, The Wet-Guy, and The Female.
[INT. MEMORY SCAPE ROOM – INDIVIDUAL SEGMENTS]
Each member is drawn into their respective room.
RUDY faces an alternate version of herself—one who let the team die in the arcade fire and accepted a cushy “main character” deal in a corporate reboot. They fight, but it ends in a quiet moment: Rudy admitting she fears being irrelevant more than dying.
QUIBBLE is trapped in a room where everyone laughs at his jokes… even when they’re not funny. He realizes how much he depends on validation—and escapes by finally refusing to perform, even when begged.
CARRIE finds a distorted courtroom, judged by every person she’s tried to “fix.” She confesses she doesn’t know who she is without someone broken nearby.
ZORA is approached by her past selves and all of them are more decisive, more brutal. She rejects their nihilism, choosing ambiguity over cruelty.
WADE relives every moment he backed out of a fight. His reflection hugs him. Wade doesn’t cry. But he doesn’t stop it, either.
STIX stands face-to-face with his own funeral. No one shows up. He survives his trial by cracking a joke that no one hears, and laughing at it anyway.
[INT. SHARDSPACE EXIT CHAMBER]
As the group reassembles, they find the final room has been restructured. A familiar figure waits inside…
Nyroth, smiling. Arms out. Dressed now in something stranger—part jester, part archivist, part dead god. The throne behind him bleeds light backwards.
NYROTH
“Well done. You almost passed. But we can’t start the game proper until you die at least once...”
He snaps his fingers. The door seals.
?? BATTLE BEGINS: TEAM RUDY VS NYROTH
STIX
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“Finally. A dude I can punch without a therapy session first! wait—haven’t we said this line already—?”
NYROTH
“Oh, you’ll still need therapy. Just not in this lifetime.”
Zora and Cassie combine their powers, and start creating a temporal-spatial cage. Rudy rushes in, slashing with a weapon made of self-doubt crystallized into form.
Nyroth dodges effortlessly with no expression. Every attack against him just rewinds to before it happened—like he’s buffering the fight itself.
NYROTH
“You’re still playing like players. I’m the game engine, darlings. I’m not even using my top speed. Now’s not the time to develop a heart for others.”
He tries messing with the timeline to make them forget, only for the cast to resist. Wade channels his emotions into a distortion field, slowing down Nyroth’s predictions.
Quibble somehow finds a weakness—all in Nyroth’s dialogue patterns and even analyzes his every movement. He begins responding before Nyroth even speaks, throwing him off.
Then…
She falls from the sky.
Princess crashes through the ceiling like corrupted divinity. Her eyes are still glitchy, but she doesn’t attack. Her voice is layered—hers and something else.
PRINCESS
“I know you. I remember the taste of your names.”
Woah. She floats between both teams. Her armor flickers between corrupted and pure. It’s clear—something inside is trying to fight.
NYROTH
“You’re early, my dear. But that’s what makes this fun.”
Nyroth reaches to control her.
Princess screams and repels him, launching a burst of null-code that collapses half the chamber. She turns to Rudy and the others—panting, shaking.
PRINCESS
“…He’s not the final boss bros. He’s just the narrator trying to make you skip the pages—duh.”
I’m the narrator you twit.
[INT. THE COSMIC OBSERVATORY – PENTUIS WATCHES]
Meanwhile, far above in a throne made of endless dying universes…
Pentuis watches everything like someone scanning fanfiction of their own death.
PENTUIS
“Hm. They’re adapting very fast. He’s losing control of his power again. I sense their soul energy enhances their stats by an unquantifiable margin, like as if they’re leveling up in a game, gaining new moves. Yo, Void—if my memory is correct—which it is—didn’t Nyroth destroy the root?.”
VOID
“Y E S”
A multi-dimensional servant approaches, unsure.
SERVANT
“Shall we intervene, Lord Pentuis?”
PENTUIS
“No. Let him continue. The worse his story gets… the better mine ends.”
He sips something from a mug that just reads “#1 Former Final Boss”.
[INT. SHARDSPACE – AFTERMATH]
Nyroth retreats—partially destabilized by Princess’s resistance and the group’s combination tactics. Their friendship were unbreakable—nothing could’ve separated them. Before he vanishes, he throws a warning:
NYROTH
“Grr, lucky, you’re an actual Fate Magnet, Rudy. You’ve all passed your first trial. I’ll see you in Trial Two: The Smile That Breaks Entire Worlds. JUST YOU ALL WAIT AND SEE!! I’m gonna ruin E V E R Y T H I N G you love..”
He vanishes in static.
[EXT. TEMPORARY CAMP – NIGHT]
The team regroups outside the Trial Gate, their bodies damaged, minds twisted but intact. Little did he know, there won’t be another trial.
CARRIE
“So. Who else peed themselves just a little?”
STIX
“I almost hugged Rudy. That’s worse.”
RUDY (to Princess)
“You sure you’re still you?”
PRINCESS
“…No. But I remember why I wanted to be.”
RUDY
”Good.”
WADE
”I need a break from all this..”
The Cast head back to Happy Town, celebrating as the Sun pouts.
END OF CHAPTER 16
