EBO: Resume - Chapter 19

August 1st, 2027

“How long has it been since I slept in my own bed…?” Hunter thought to himself as he woke up. He expected frigid loneliness when his eyes fluttered open, but found the warmth of a lover beside him. Ever since this nightmare had begun, Hunter had found himself wanting to get closer to Haruko. Why? He didn’t know. At first, it was just a light crush. He found her beautiful, but he didn’t know much about her. So he shrugged it off as just another pointless crush.

But, as they spent more time together, he found himself magnetized to her. Her discipline was something he quite welcomed. She had this aura about her… something that Hunter found relaxing even in a time of crisis. The way she could think of strategies on the fly complimented his own quick-thinking and ability to adapt. Her jokes could be stale and out of place at times, but he found a strange charm in it. As they grew closer together, fought alongside each other, Hunter could feel his crush evolving into something more. During the Halloween event, he had seen her handle children quite well, something he could never do. During the raid event itself, they had fought with near-wordless coordination, firing bullets to cover each other’s weaknesses.

The sparring session he had with her during Christmas, when he had first discovered Level 0’s abilities. The thrill of that fight was unmatched, surpassed only by the love he had lost in SAO. His blood had been pumping every second of that fight, avoiding her pin-point accuracy with nearly nothing on his side. Being so close to the edge of death, and by her hand… it was an oddly exhilarating feeling he looked back on every now and then. In that moment… his feelings for her exploded, unable to be held back any more.

His confession in the snow interrupted by his friends was something he wished he could’ve changed. Thankfully, their date at the sushi bar had amended the unfortunate cut-off. Even before he had confessed, he had been treating her kindly, much more than any other woman he’d interacted with up to that point. He showed her many things, and he hadn’t expected her to reciprocate his feelings to any extent. After all, there was so much more going on. A simple crush and confession was the least of their priorities. Despite all of that, she had found room in her heart to accept him as her lover. Haruko was a woman worthy of his unrealistically high expectations, and Hunter couldn’t dare let her go. He had finally found someone he could spend the rest of his life with… Now he just needed to make sure they could all live the rest of their lives outside of this virtual reality.

Haruko stirred in her sleep, eyes fluttering open to see Hunter sitting up. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before sitting up as well. “Morning.”

“Morning.” He looked to her with a soft smile, quickly followed by a peck on the lips.

“You alright?” She leaned into his warmth, hugging his side.

“Just doing a little thinking. Listen… I need to ask a favor of you three…”

As the four of them sat around the kitchen table, Hunter discussed their plans for the day. Today was the day he would free everyone from this nightmare. Thunder cracked through the sky as rain poured down the windows. First and foremost, Hunter would be going alone. The only guarantee they had would be if Hunter appeared. In the meantime, Haruko, Hideo, and Kyoka would head to each faction’s headquarters and let them know that the game was coming to an end. First, the trio would reconvene at the Military Police HQ and explain the situation to their superiors. Following that, Haruko would head to the Hatena Civil Government’s buildings, and elaborate on the duel that would decide everyone’s fates. Meanwhile, Hideo would notify the Monster Hunter faction while Kyoka updated the Hatena Technical Development faction, with all three meeting up again to fill in the Organized Trade faction. As the trio spread word of the fight, Hunter would go alone to the battlefield, where he would pit his will and the will of every single prisoner in this game against Satoshi’s god complex.

“So… think you can handle it?” Hunter set down his coffee mug, leaning forward at his comrades.

“We’ll be fine. But uh… do you think you can handle it?” Hideo gestured to their soon-to-be savior. “It’s gonna be a rough fight…”

“I’m the only one who can stop him. We’ve got no other options.”

“There’s no time to doubt him… Everyone in this game, including us… We can only put our faith in him.” Haruko chimed in, sipping her tea.

“All this time, I fought without much purpose. I fought since I had nothing to lose. But this situation is the exact opposite of what I’m used to. Now, I’m the one with stakes… I’ve got everything to lose here.” Finishing the last drops of coffee in his mug, Hunter stood up and stretched out his arms. “Time to prep for the end. You three get ready to spread news like wildfire. I’ll prep for the fight.”

The rain was pouring. Thunder and lightning cleaved through the sky, illuminating two men standing in an empty field in flashes. Satoshi glared at his arch-nemesis, dressed in a simple black suit with a black tie and a pin on his suit jacket’s lapel. The scar over his right eye seemed to glow a blood red, accenting his heterochromia as his left eye glowed an ominous blue. Across from him, Hunter stood, taking out his Driver. His head was low, but his eyes were trained on the man who had robbed him of his purpose to live. Rain trickled down both their chins, another lightning bolt splitting the sky and illuminating their figures.

“This is it, Specter. A duel of fates.” Satoshi took out his Driver, tapping it to his waist as the belt strap ejected and secured the buckle in place. “Who will prevail? Me, Hades Incarnate? The god of this world? Or you, the Crimson Specter? A rebellious scumbag who must be put down?”

“What a skewed way of thinking.” Hunter let out a wry chuckle, brandishing his Zero Specter and Izanagi Arms cartridges. “At least give me the benefit of being Satanael. The defiant being who realized your false godhood and gave the people a way to liberate themselves.”

“I am God. Nothing else matters.” Satoshi growled as he unveiled Conquering Chronos and Threatening Thanatos, clicking both their activation buttons as pixelated waves of purple and black spread from his being. A thunderclap punctuated their activation.

“I never understood where you got that god complex of yours, Kuroto…” Hunter activated his cartridges just as lightning struck a nearby tree, igniting it and scattering burnt shards of wood. Red, gold, and white pixelation formed around him and spread out, countering black and purple.

“My brother always told me how disappointing and pointless the world could be. He showed me the inevitable evils of this world, and I couldn’t stop thinking… ‘what if I became God to correct these evils?’” Satoshi clenched both his fists after loading his two units. “If I became the supreme power, I could rule over everything. I could change this world. Of course, this could only ever apply to video games, so I had to repress this. Then… fate ran its course. We entered Sword Art Online, and we encountered each other.”

“Right…” Hunter loaded his cartridges into the belt, resting one hand on the lever while he slicked his hair back with the other. “I guess the thrill of killing without punishment brought that dormant feeling out?”

“Correct. That game was the first to truly immerse me in the feeling that I was unstoppable. Kayaba gave us all a blessing with that game, and only those in Laughing Coffin truly appreciated it.”

“No… what Kayaba did was both a blessing and a curse. He caused the deaths of thousands, but he brought together many people. From what I’ve heard on the outside, the legendary Kirito is dealing with some kind of VRMMO Survival Game. Uni-something, I don’t know. Back to what I was originally saying… the game brought people together despite the threat of death lurking around every corner. I’ve heard that he’s still with that girl he met in-game. And here we are. Two people who met in SAO, standing in the rain. About to fight to the death one last time…”

“Relationships… The only worthwhile relationship I ever had was my older brother’s company. He was the one who truly raised me. The one who shaped me into what I am now. My brother is the only person I care for. Everyone else are pawns for our schemes.”

“Relationships are a lot more important than you think… That sniper babe you had working with you, she just wanted to be appreciated. All your neglect led to her betraying you. The thief you had? He knows and recognizes the importance of relationships. That’s why he took her and betrayed you too. Not for money. For love. And that’s why I fight too… Not just for revenge. Not for proving that I’m better than you somehow. For love. I’m fighting to avenge the love you stole from me in SAO… and to protect the love I’ve found here in EBO.” Hunter’s eyes hardened as he flipped the lever on his belt, transforming. Zero Specter’s armor manifested in a brief flash of dark red pixels before a white and gold screen showing a basic design for Izanagi Arms appeared in front of him, passing over him and disappearing in a blink as Hunter stood in his Level 100 form.

“Relationships left you weak and frail, Specter. You claim they empower you, but they are nothing more than chains that hold you back.” Satoshi twisted the lever on his Driver, causing an X-shaped screen displaying the overlays for his armor appeared in front of him, passing over him and leaving him in his Level 50 form. “My armor may be half the level of yours, but it has more than enough power to end you!”

“Let's see how quick it takes for me to end you, asshole!”

The two sprinted at each other, thunder and lightning flashing across the battlefield as they ran at each other in the rain. Water splashed against armor as their boots collided against the mushy mud, each step imprinting the grooved pattern on their soles into the dirt. Satoshi stopped abruptly, sliding forwards from momentum into a punch. Hunter leapt into the air, aiming to drop-kick his opponent. The soles of his boots smashed against Satoshi’s mask, throwing him off-guard as they both fell to the ground. In a mad scramble, Hunter quickly repositioned himself and began beating on his enemy. Punch after punch slammed into Satoshi, immediately followed by a phantom fist crashing into him. Hunter was calling upon the Entity within his Cartridges to assist him in brutally pummeling Satoshi. It was just like when he had used the power of Binary Specter, though he didn’t have a second body fighting alongside him.

But Satoshi would not allow this. He briefly dropped his guard to Pause the game, focusing his power on Chronos so that when the Pause took effect, a wave of chronokinetic energy would force Hunter off of him. Indeed, a silver field of energy struck Hunter and pushed him away, degrading the quality of his armor by accelerating the time it would take for erosion to wear it down. Raindrops froze in mid-air, lightning stopped just as it was about to strike another tree. As Hunter struggled to recover, Satoshi viciously slammed his knee into his mask, knocking the Specter to the ground before the self-proclaimed God pinned him down. Now that he had the upper edge, Satoshi began his own ruthless punching barrage, infusing his fists with the power of time to accelerate the aging of Hunter’s armor. Each punch accelerated time’s passage on the armor, eroding it slowly but surely.

Calling upon the power of his Entity again, Hunter summoned the spectral fists to punch Satoshi, giving them both a moment to breathe. As the two gasped for air, both struggled to stand up, brushing the paused rain drops out of their way as Hunter passively used his negation to remove the armor components that had been aged beyond use. Satoshi began coating his hands in the chronal energy, intending to age Hunter’s armor into a useless state before tearing it apart. Hunter simply summoned his Odachi, its thick, black blade outlined in dark red with its curved, wing-like guard cutting through stopped rain. His hands gripped its dark grey and red hilt, its golden tassel hanging off the end of the pommel.

“That sword again?” Satoshi glanced briefly at the weapon before standing up and taking a fighting stance.

“What’s wrong with it? Hunter took a low stance, resting the blade on his shoulder as both hands gripped the hilt.

“Don’t you think it’s too big to use?!” Channeling the power of Thanatos into his legs, Satoshi launched forward at Hunter, who rocketed forward to intercept his hands with the sword’s blade.

Grabbing the sword, Satoshi began to age and rust the blade as their momentum blew away thousands of raindrops in the area of their clash. He swung the sword by its blade, throwing Hunter into the ground as he snapped its now-rusted blade in half. Following that, he stomped at Hunter’s mask, infusing Thanatos’ power into his leg to crush his opponent’s head under his foot. Unfortunately, Hunter was able to dodge, rolling aside before spinning around and kicking himself back onto his feet. The two briefly glared at one another before charging yet again, meeting punch for punch and kick for kick. Each strike filled with two opposing motivations. Satoshi’s strikes carried his psychopathic loneliness, infused with warped chronal power that he perceived as his godhood. Hunter’s attacks carried his love, and the will of every single player in the game who stood against Satoshi. One punched with unrelenting fury, the anger of a child lashing out because he didn’t get what he wanted. The other kicked with sheer focus, carrying the passion and desire of thousands of people who had families, friends, and lovers to return to. Satoshi couldn’t care about anyone but his brother, and he used his twist cynicism to fuel his strikes. Hunter had learned to open his heart to others, to allow the influence of others to better him and sustain his attacks.

Unfortunately, Satoshi’s chronal attacks were besting Hunter. The pure silver of his gauntlets was rusting, withering away. Time had eaten away at his boots and greaves, causing them to fall off as their kicks collided. Satoshi grabbed Hunter’s left shoulder and violently ripped the armor from his opponent before using it to break Hunter’s mask, stabbing it into his left eye in the hopes of blinding his target. While he succeeded in breaking the mask, Hunter had raised his fist to intercept the armor, ignoring the pain of metal puncturing his hand as the chipped pauldron’s sharp edge stopped just shy of his eye. Blood oozed out of his hand, soaking into his armor’s glove and dying it crimson as his hands trembled. With his other hand, Hunter summoned his silver European-style greatsword, its silver and red blade puncturing Satoshi’s ribs all the way down to its ornate guard. Slashing outwards, Hunter swung both of his arms away, stabbing the sword into the ground to use as an anchor while he jumped and drop-kicked Satoshi away from him.

Sliding across the mud, Satoshi dropped to his knees as he coughed blood into his mask. The slash had cut deep, and the gaping wound at his ribcage was soaking the bone-white undersuit with crimson as well. He quickly checked his health and Armor Durability gauges, seeing his health at 90% while his armor was only 82%. Hunter’s check showed his health at 87% and his armor at 57%. The artificially-accelerated erosion had done its work, effectively chipping away at almost half of his armor. His coat was nothing more than a glorified jacket several sizes too large for him. The armor plating had lost its polished sheen, now covered in rust and grime. The mask was falling apart, shattered to reveal his left eye glaring daggers at his opponent. His left glove was soaked in blood from intercepting the torn-off pauldron used against him, and Hunter could barely stand. In comparison, Satoshi was far better off. Aside from the massive gash on his left, he was mostly fine. His armor has gained more blood spatter from their duel, but it seemed as if it was there to begin with. The mask remained intact, pale red eyes with sparks of red lightning emanating from them. Beneath it, Satoshi returned his opponent’s glare, midnight blue and wine red staring back at crimson red.

“What was that about ending me quickly?” Satoshi taunted, holding his side as he rotated one of the filters on his mask to open it. Blood trickled down his chin, dripping onto the ground as Hunter tore his own mask off.

“I said ‘Let’s see how long it takes,’ not ‘I’ll end this quickly.’ Know the difference.” His eye twitched as he spat blood to the side, leaning on his sword for support.

“Regardless, it seems to be taking too long. For you, anyway. Given how your armor is nothing but shambles, I can only assume you’re on your final legs. You’re close to losing, to dying. At this rate, victory will be mine.”

“Bold of you to assume my Armor Durability reflect my health.” Hunter stood up, taking a deep breath as he removed his sword from the mud and swung the dirt off of its silver blade. “The armor may be compromised, but I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeve…”

“You’d better play your final ace now, or else you won’t get another chance!!” Satoshi charged once more, having locked his mask back into place after the blood had cleared. He sprinted at top speed, jumping forward to tackle Hunter.

Seeing his enemy sprint, Hunter evaded to the side the moment Satoshi jumped, quickly springing up into a crouch before swinging his sword to cleave into Satoshi’s side once more, leaving a larger gash on his opponent as the bloodstain spread to encompass both wounds. The wounded god tumbled to the ground, losing 3% from his health gauge and 4% from his armor’s durability. With no remorse, Hunter jumped up and performed an overhead slash on Satoshi, slamming his sword into the ground on the latter’s leg. Unfortunately, the sword clashed with his armored greaves, reinforced with Thanatos’ power. The blade reverberated from the clash, causing Hunter to drop the sword as Satoshi kicked him away. Seizing this opportunity, Satoshi grabbed the sword and prepared to impale Hunter with his own weapon, though the latter simply dismissed his weapon as he leaned backwards before springing to his feet. His recovery led into another drop kick, contorting Satoshi’s face as his mask was forced sideways by the attack.

While Hunter jumped off of Satoshi’s face to his feet, the latter tumbled to the ground again, his belt slamming against the ground and accidentally cancelling the pause effect with the announcement of Resume. Rain fell once more. Lightning streaked across the sky to splinter a tree into flaming fragments. By now, Hunter’s trio of allies should be at Hatena Military Police HQ, explaining the situation. Before Satoshi could get up to Pause the game again, Hunter rushed forward and kicked him on his wounded side, kicking into his slightly-exposed ribs to turn him over. He then grabbed the belt and punched its central screen, channeling Zero Specter’s nullification into the belt in an attempt to permanently disable the Pause function. While Satoshi writhed in the pain of being kicked in his side, Hunter successfully disabled the Pause function, now trying to tear the buckle from his opponent. Unfortunately, some kind of energy feedback shocked him, forcing him away from the buckle. He took this time to back further away from the downed villain, looking towards the top left corner of his field of vision to check his gauges. Health had dropped to 85%, and his armor seemed to be rapidly degrading as it had plummeted to a staggering 37%.

“Seems like that chronal erosion trick of yours did a lot more against me than I expected…” Hunter rubbed some of the degraded armor, watching it disintegrate in his hands. “Looks I’m gonna have to play this ace now…”

“NO!! You bastard! How the hell did you disable Pause?!?” Satoshi madly slammed the buttons his Driver, attempting every possible combination he could think of that would activate his trump card.

“You really don’t remember my ability to nullify?” Hunter summoned something that Satoshi found eerily familiar. Then… It clicked. That black pad with its octagonal screen in the center. Those buttons on either side labelled “A” and “B”. It was, without a doubt, the original Shinigami Dual-Visor that had gone missing earlier. What he didn’t understand was the Kanji sprayed across its surface.

“最後... Saigo… Where did you get that?” Satoshi glared at the repurposed device.

“That thief didn’t just steal your girl’s heart. He stole this too.” Hunter waved the object teasingly, removing Izanagi Arms from his Cartridge Driver and inserting into the Final Driver. “Among a few other things.”

“It doesn’t matter what you do. That thing is useless. Even without Pause, I’ll be able to beat you if you use that. It only has a maximum Level Output of 10. You can’t win against me with it.” Satoshi growled as Hunter swapped his current Driver for the Final Driver.

“Ya know… you had some really shitty circuitry and wiring in this thing. What the hell were you trying to accomplish? Weapons or Driver? I honestly couldn’t tell when I cracked it open.” Hunter removed Zero Specter from his standard Cartridge Driver and tucked it into his inner coat pocket. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ve simplified it for one purpose… Ensuring your defeat.”

“Try it if you can. Death awaits all… And it will claim you soon enough.” Satoshi tried moving, only to stumble and fall to his knees. The pain from his sides was getting unbearable…

“変身 (Henshin)...” Hunter tapped the button beside the angled Cartridge slot. A bright silver light engulfed the entirety of the field, concentrating into a beam that rose beyond the cloudy skies. It burned a hole in the storm, blinding any sunlight that dared to sneak through this hole. Everyone in the game would know soon enough that this was a beacon. A beacon of hope. A beacon of salvation. Everyone would soon know that this long nightmare was finally about to end.

As the light settled, Satoshi could now see what stood before him. The beacon had disappeared, allowing a single pillar of sunlight to shine in spite of the rain and thunder. The sunlight shone on Hunter, now dressed in a crimson red armor resembling both knight and samurai. He wore the armored Yoroi Hakama leggings of a samurai, colored crimson with dark silver Suneate shin guards, dark silver armored boots, and dark silver Haidate thigh armor. The crimson trailed further up his body, with a dark red armored loin-guard and a dark red cuirass with silver abdomen armor in between and silver hexagonal plates on the chest leading to silver straps on the back of the armor. A crimson Jinbaori coat was worn over this armor, with a beautiful silver flame pattern decorating its surface. Sleek, angular pauldrons rested on his shoulders, both in silver. Accompanying these, silver armor on the biceps highlighted the crimson arrow running down the side of his arm, leading into a silver armored gauntlets with golden flame-like edges, seemingly sharpened to act like blades of their own. His mask remained as simple as it always is: a silver helmet with a vertically-slit visor akin to that of a knight and minor red stripes running upwards from the ominous red eyes hidden behind this visor. Mounted on his left hip, a straight-edged Katana with no decoration of any kind; a simple dark silver sword with a dark red hilt and hexagonal pommel. A silver aura radiated from Hunter as the armor slimmed down, becoming more form-fitting as he cracked his neck. Of course, the Final Driver rested on his waist, held in place by a white mechanical strap.

“What form of power is this…?” Satoshi’s eyes narrowed in confusion at the person before him.

“The power of Level X. Not 10… X. The unknown variable, capable of being whatever it needs to be to solve the equation.” Hunter summoned his longsword once more, resting it on his shoulder as he stalked towards Satoshi. “And with this variable… I’m going to kick your ass!”

“You wretch!” Satoshi charged at him, only for Hunter to slash downwards as phantom limbs clawed downwards, striking him three-fold.

“C’mon!” Hunter gestured for Satoshi to get up, sword back on his shoulder.

Once more, Satoshi charged. This time, he anticipated a counter attack, summoning fragments of Chronos’ and Thanatos’ powers. By combining and manifesting these as his own phantom limbs, Satoshi was able to counter Hunter’s spectral assistants, successfully landing a punching barrage. Each fist infused with the power of death and time struck the crimson and silver armor, but the erosion effect didn’t seem to work. The armor remained in pristine condition, while Satoshi tired himself out from hitting hard and fast. Their phantom limbs disappeared as Hunter slashed upwards, launching Satoshi into the air as the armor jetted energy to propel him upwards as well. Unsheathing his Katana, Hunter began rapidly slashing at Kuroto with his dual swords, slicing at the weakened “god” with strikes too fast to see. Finally, the sword storm ended with a twin downward slash, slamming them both into the ground. Satoshi’s brief glance at his gauges revealed a remaining health bar of 27% and 8% of his armor’s durability remained.

“How?! How can I be bested so easily?! What is the source of this power?! This isn’t bound by system restraints… this is unfair!!” Satoshi screeched at Hunter.

“Same could be said for your Pause. How’s it feel to be the powerless one, Kuroto?” Hunter sheathed his Katana by his waist and his longsword on his back, crouching down to mockingly glare at the heavily wounded god.

“Damn you! Tell me where you got this power from!!!”

“Hm… Can’t really say anything about it. Even the devs didn’t know about this. Technically speaking, none of this equipment outside of Izanagi Arms should exist. I had to do some hardcore game-breaking to make this thing. So, if you have any final trump cards to pull…” Hunter stood up and walked away, turning to look at Kuroto from over his shoulder. “Now would be a good time.”

“I… have nothing left…” Satoshi attempted to stand up, only to collapse on his knees. “You’ve disabled Pause. I’m nearly armorless and too low on health to continue fighting… Finish it, Specter.”

“Really? You’d think the genius ‘god’ Satoshi Kuroto would have one last trick up his sleeve, but I guess not.” Hunter sighed, looking down at the ground in disappointment. While he gazed at the ground, Satoshi dug out the double-stacked Cartridge he had been working on ever since the beginning of this game’s takeover. While incomplete, it would have enough data in it to give Kuroto one last game-breaking advantage. If this digital world was to end simply because of Hunter’s hidden ace, then Satoshi would ensure its destruction with his own ace.

“And you thought right, Specter… Behold, the incomplete genius of Eternal Reaper eXtreme!” Satoshi clicked the Cartridge before stabbing it into his chest, right where his heart would be. The object pixelated itself before absorbing into his body, creating a purple crystal where it had been embedded. “If you’re going to tamper with the fabric of digital existence, then I will utterly ruin it beyond salvage!”

“There it is…” Hunter smirked under his mask as he unsheathed his blades, turning around to see Satoshi’s armor disappear into chunks of pixels. As the mad man turned into a purple cloud of data, the last thing that could be seen of him was his face: contorted into psychotic glee as his maniacal laughter echoed across the game’s entire map. When the cloud settled, a humanoid formation of obsidian chunks animated by purple energy stepped forward, with a purple crystal where the heart would be. Textures began to glitch out, disappearing one by one in clouds of static as the world slowly began rumbling.

“My incomplete evolution will be the final barricade!” Satoshi threw his arms into the air as the world began breaking apart, revealing a vast black void with a large spiral in the distance. “Here is the Omniversal VR Core! If you want it, then you’ll have to kill me before the game deletes us all!! THIS IS IT, SPECTER! THIS IS MY FINAL CHALLENGE TO YOU!”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way…” Hunter crouched low as a boss health bar appeared at the bottom of his HUD. Labeled “Incomplete God Kuroto,” the health value estimated itself to be one whole billion hit points. “And knowing you, you’ve got all kinds of defense programs that’ll be trying to defend you at all costs. Alright… time to do a little cheating myself.”

Slashing with his Katana, Hunter cut into the game’s source code, stabbing his longsword into the lines of data and drawing out some of this data. The silver glow returned as Satoshi spawned mindless versions of his Level 50 self, sending them after Hunter as cannon fodder.

While Hunter fiddled with the game’s source code, Hideo drove towards the Hatena Monster Hunters’ guild base at top speed, doing his best to avoid the cyber potholes that were forming from the game’s collapse. Haruko was already en route to the Hatena Civil Government’s offices, seeing the skyscrapers in the distance relatively unaffected by glitches in the game. Kyoka was already running through the Hatena Technical Development’s main office, shouting to everyone that the game was coming to an end. Mythra saw the girl running around, screaming about the end of the game, and smiled. She knew her fellow nerd was doing his best to save them all. Seeing Kyoka’s efforts going unassisted, Mythra opened her direct messaging system and began notifying those on the top floors that the game was coming to a close…

By the time Haruko arrived at HCG’s offices, the glitches had gotten worse. Chunks of the building weren’t rendering, instead showing a black void with exposed lines of code. Equipping her Driver and taking out a cartridge similar to Anomaly’s Gear Dual cartridge, Haruko twisted the gear to the side, loading in this Kindred Warriors βeta Gear before flipping the lever. A dark grey under-armor covered her figure, with black armor connecting over her arms, thighs, and chest. Silver greaves and bracers with cyan crescent moon details appeared on her shins and forearms; her boots transforming into dark silver armor with a two-tailed coat merging with her chest armor in a black and cyan color scheme, with a cyan collar around her neck. As a sleek, black helmet enclosed her face, a tinted visor with two cyan hexagonal eye slits began glowing. Her hands gained a pale purple aura as she began levitating upwards, using localized gravity manipulation to fly to the tops of the skyscrapers. Once she reached the roof, she began her descent down the Civil Government’s offices, shouting through each glitched floor that everyone shouldn’t panic: the game was ending.

Hideo’s adventures in the Monster Hunters’ main operating camp were, perhaps, the easiest to communicate with. He simply told the guards at the camp’s gate that the game was ending, and to pass that knowledge along. When they asked who was the player foolish enough to attempt to end the game, Hideo simply mentioned the Crimson Specter. That was more than enough for the guards. The camp was soon bustling with that tidbit of news. Soon enough, everyone would know that the legendary Crimson Specter is fighting for everyone’s freedom. Soon, they would all be free of this digital hell…

As Satoshi’s mindless Level 50 grunts converged on Hunter, their battlefield continued to give way to the black, empty void as textures began to delete themselves. Hunter removed his sword from the data streams, brandishing it alongside his Katana as he began effortlessly cleaving through the grunts. The dip in the data stream had allowed Hunter to gather some of the game’s source code, which he used to reprogram his swords into deleting anything related to Kuroto. The grunts would be erased as soon as they were cut by the blades, but Kuroto himself was another story…

Whether or not this effect would work on Satoshi was something Hunter would inevitably need to try. He made his way through the crowd of fodder with a dance of swords, quickly cutting through the hordes as he ran to Satoshi. Feeling his armor weighing him down, Hunter increased his speed to its greatest possible limit, temporarily forgoing defense and attack power. He wouldn’t need those at the moment. He just needed to get to Kuroto as quick as possible.

While Hunter struggled with the hordes, Satoshi began charging up beams of energy to fire. He sprouted another pair of arms, using them to code countermeasures against Hunter with the game’s source code while his original arms fired lasers at the Specter. Eventually, all that could be seen of Hunter was a streak of red and silver zig-zagging through an endless horde of sickly gold and bone white, avoiding the purple beams that Satoshi was firing at him.

The streak of red and silver finally reached Satoshi. At that moment, Hunter swapped all of his attribute assignments, focusing on attack power and armor durability. He collided with the obsidian entity, impaling his swords into him before quickly redirecting his momentum upwards to launch them both into the air. An inhumane, digitized groan echoed across the void as the health bar dropped by a few million points, a single percentage of the health points had been erased. He was now at 99%.

“Enough playing around.” Satoshi cracked his “neck” as he swiped away the consoles. “I’ll deal with you first!”

Satoshi’s obsidian fist was met with a slash from Hunter’s Katana, cutting it in half. The two halves morphed into spikes that proceeded to impale Hunter through the chest, which was quickly followed by Hunter plunging his longsword’s blade into Satoshi’s crystalline form. A digitized hiss escaped Satoshi as he felt an unending burning from being impaled. The sword was eating away at his code, slowly erasing it and reducing his hit point maximum from a billion.

“What is this?! What are you doing?!” Satoshi tried to escape, only for Hunter’s Spectral Fists to appear behind him and push him into the Specter’s swords. “NO!! LET ME GO!!!”

“I added Zero Specter’s nullification to the swords using a little bit of the source code to reinforce it. It was poorly patched, but it’s the best I can do on the fly. Now that the source-enhanced nullification is embedded in you, it’ll start reducing your HP reserves. It should be around… 750 million right now.” Hunter further impaled Satoshi, pushing the blades further into him.

“No, no, no, NO!! I will not be defeated like this!” The obsidian that was forming Satoshi’s shell suddenly fell to the ground, inert. The purple glow that was animating and binding them flew through Hunter, appearing on the other side as a phantasmal version of his Level 2 armor. His name was now “Evolved Genius Kuroto.” It held out its hand to the obsidian and called for it, causing the chunks to start flying through Hunter. It was trying to both attack Hunter while returning to the “Incomplete God” state. “You will not best me by simply impaling me!”

“I don’t plan on just stabbing you with swords.” Hunter prioritized speed, becoming a flash of red and silver as he dodged all the incoming chunks. Unfortunately, a few smaller shards managed to pierce him, reducing him to 70% despite the boost in health he received from the initial transformation. “I’ve got to beat the shit out of you with my fists too!!”

“Try it!” Satoshi taunted him, narrowly dodging the sword Hunter threw at him. It just barely cut through his phantasm state, but that was more than enough to drop his gauge all the way to 75%.

“So you’re incredible frail in that state, huh?!” Hunter recalled his thrown sword, hoping it would impale Satoshi while he was still in the ghost state.

Before it could make contact, Satoshi returned to his Incomplete God form. The blade bounced off the obsidian as Satoshi round-house kicked Hunter. Anticipating an attack, Hunter prioritized his armor’s durability. Though he had set it to maximum durability, the attack was still hard enough to knock him to the ground and knock off another 2% of his health. Before Satoshi could follow up with a stomp, Hunter rolled out of the way, jumping backwards to create some distance. With his left arm horizontally over his vertical right arm, Hunter knelt down and charged energy into his arms, firing a powerful energy beam that slowly ate away at Kuroto’s health. Satoshi’s HP gauge registered 73% of the 750 million points he had been reduced to.

“I need to get him back in that Evolved Genius state…” Hunter thought to himself as he broke formation, panting. He reached into his coat pocket and brought out Zero Specter, looking at it before looking up at Satoshi.

“What’s wrong? Too tired to carry on?” Satoshi taunted with a relaxed tone, though the audio was glitching due to the immense damage the two had done to the game’s coding with just that exchange.

“No… Not tired.” Hunter stood up, sheathing his Katana and generating a slot on it similar to the one on his Driver. “Just planning.”

“Well, I can’t allow you to begin planning, now can I?!” Satoshi rushed forward again, determined to continue attacking to distract Hunter from completing his plan.

“Too late… Phase 1’s ready!” Hunter whipped out Ifrit Slasher, clicking the button and transforming it into its signature katana. With his armor’s parameters focused on attack power and speed, he began slashing with the burning sword while discreetly loading Zero Specter into his other Katana’s sheath slot. The weapon immediately shattered upon making contact with Satoshi’s obsidian stature. He quickly brought out the Pygmy Smasher’s halberd to defend against Satoshi’s kick, only for it to shatter upon impact as well.

“Then you will not proceed any further!” Satoshi continued his onslaught, rushing Hunter with powerful kicks.

“Phase 2’s already complete as well!” Hunter rolled backwards and summoned his Nymph Impaler’s spear and the Sylph Reaper’s scythe, dual-wielding the pole-arms against the kicking barrage while his sword began copying and incorporating Zero Specter’s data into a Burst Strike finisher.

“Now, you will fail!” Satoshi’s downward axe-kick shattered the pole-arms, followed by a round-house kick launching Hunter all the way across the void. He watched the Specter zoom across the void, waiting until he collided with the VR Core’s manifestation. Once he confirmed impact, Satoshi teleported to the Core, hovering over Hunter as he struggled to stand. “This is the end, Specter. If I attack you, I’ll destroy the core and everyone linked to it. You cannot hope to win.”

“Phase 3, complete… Time to execute.” Tilting his head in confusion, Satoshi realized too late that Hunter had unsheathed the Katana and was now rapidly cutting through him. His speed was too great for anything to process. To Satoshi, it had seemed as if Hunter had unsheathed, then sheathed the sword once more. “Judgement Cut… Zero Specter Edition.”

“That… did nothing to my health.” Satoshi gazed at his HP gauge, which had only dropped a single percentage. “What did you hope to accomplish with that?”

“Nullifying your ability to access your Incomplete God state. Since you seem to be extremely vulnerable in your Evolved Genius state, I figured I’d nullify your ability to access the former and demote you to the latter.” Hunter removed the cartridge from the Katana sheath before summoning his Longsword, now with a similar slot for Zero Specter.

“And yet, you f-” Before Satoshi could say another word, he was engulfed in a vortex of hyper powerful slashes that reduced his gauge to 50%. Following that, the obsidian that comprised his current state shattered into pieces too fine for the system to process, resulting in their deletion. He fell to his knees in his Evolved Genius state, a frail specter vulnerable to any kind of attack. “No…”

“Yeah…” Hunter loaded Zero Specter into the longsword, preparing another finisher. As soon as it was finished, Hunter impaled Satoshi with the weapon, unleashing the finisher with that single stab. “Any last words?”

“Not… like this…” Satoshi groaned as the weapon impaled him, only to realize he was returned to his unarmored form. His health gauge had been reset to its default parameters as well, though only 10% remained. “What… is this?”

“We’re going to make this a completely fair duel now.” Hunter tossed the sword aside, removing his belt buckle and tossing it aside as well. The armor disappeared in a silver flash, revealing Hunter in his unarmored state with 10% in his health bar as well.

“What did you do…” Satoshi stood up, taking a deep breath as he searched his inventory. Everything was gone… Nothing remained. His Scizor Hades and its prototype were erased. His Level 50s were erased. ERX was gone as well. “I have nothing!”

“And neither do I.” Hunter took all of the Cartridges he had used up to this point. The Proto Knight Arms, his Mighty Specter, Jettison Kabuto, the Mach Corvus. He tossed them all to the side, where they laid beside his discarded Driver and sword. “Fist fight to the death. 10% each. May the best man win.”

“You shouldn’t have done this!” Satoshi ran, no longer enhanced by any armor. He ran as fast as humanly possible, jumping up and preparing to smash his fist into Hunter’s face.

“Why, because you don’t have any more powers to rely on?” Hunter rolled to the side, waiting for Satoshi to land before sweep-kicking him to knock him off balance.

“Because you won’t win!” Satoshi sprung back up and started kicking Hunter again.

“Capoeira can only take you so far…!” Hunter blocked each kick, waiting until the end of Satoshi’s combo to grab his foot and toss him to the ground.

“Shut up!” Once he was back on his feet, Satoshi was immediately met by Hunter’s fists. A mix of random strikes that were strung together seemingly from multiple different video games. A few quick jabs, some hard-hitting straights, a few uppercuts. Whenever Satoshi would throw a punch of his own, Hunter would quickly counter it and retaliate with a hard uppercut.

Their punches slowly whittled away health. Eventually, it devolved into a pure street brawl. Satoshi would tackle Hunter to the ground, pinning him down to punch him from above while Hunter guarded. When Satoshi missed a strike, Hunter grabbed his arm and reversed the situation, brutally pummeling Satoshi while he had the high ground. At long last, the two of them were reduced to their final percentage of health. Both men were beaten heavily, tired of fighting. In this blank void with only the VR core to provide any light, the two were stumbling around to find their footing.

“I… am.. GOD!!!” With one final decree of his power, Satoshi stumbled forward, aiming to hit Hunter with a right straight.

“Wryyyyyyeaaaaaaaaaaah!!” Not bothering with words, Hunter let out one last battle cry as he ducked forward and went with a right uppercut. When the two of them finally closed in, only one of them connected his punch…