The "Unfinished Assets" zone was a nightmare of geometry.

  Trees were floating ten feet off the ground. The grass was a repeating, flat texture that looked like a blurry green carpet. There were no birds, no wind, and the sun was stuck at a permanent 4:00 PM angle.

  "Don't step on the grey patches," Kaelen warned, pulling Valen back from a spot where the ground simply ended in a void of checkerboard patterns. "Those are 'Null Zones.' You fall in there, you don't hit bottom. You just... cease."

  [NEW ENCOUNTER: BUG-STALKERS (LEVEL 22)]

  The enemies that emerged from the static weren't shadows. They were twisted, flickering versions of forest wolves. Some had two heads, others were missing legs but floated anyway. Their movements were jerky, teleporting a few inches every second.

  "They're glitches," Kaelen said, drawing his blade. "They don't have health bars. They have 'Stability Gauges.' Don't try to outmuscle them. Hit them where the flickering is worst."

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  Valen didn't hesitate. He moved with a new, grim efficiency. He wasn't the "Radiant Hero" anymore; he was a survivor. He used his shield to bash a glitching wolf, holding it steady while Kaelen delivered a precision strike to its distorted heart.

  [STABILITY REDUCED TO 0%] [ASSET DELETED.]

  They fought through the grey wastes for hours. Kaelen could feel his "Soul-Burn" gauge slowly recharging, but he was also feeling a new sensation: Memory Overload. The more he used the Architect's Key, the more he remembered loops he had forgotten.

  He remembered Loop 14, where he and Valen had actually fallen in love. He remembered Loop 88, where he had killed Valen himself just to make the pain stop.

  "Kaelen? You're bleeding," Valen said, stopping by a half-rendered fountain.

  Kaelen wiped his nose. It wasn't blood. It was a thick, blue ichor.

  [USER ALERT: SOUL-INTEGRITY AT 60%] [WARNING: YOU ARE BECOMING A PART OF THE SYSTEM.]

  "I'm fine," Kaelen lied. "We're almost at the Crags. Once we're there, we find the Debug Console. We can write our own ending."