The End of the Prelude

The void where the coliseum of darkness once stood was a fragmented abyss, a scene of total destruction where reality seemed erased from ATHOMIS’s code. Shards of the crimson moon, reduced to incandescent rubble, floated like ashes in a black sky, their red lights flickering faintly before fading. The obsidian floor, once solid, was shattered, black fissures swallowing chunks vanishing into a growing void. The air, saturated with glitched energy and the cosmic stench of sulfur, vibrated with a hum that shook bones. The heroes—Kaelith, Thorne, Zeryn, Elara, Mira, and Draven—exhausted and panting, gazed at the chaos caused by Athos, their eyes wide with awe and dread. Kaelith, kneeling with the Blade of Wrath stabbed into the cracked ground, murmured hoarsely: “He… destroyed the moon. The entire dimension…” Thorne, gripping the Hammer of the Eon with trembling hands, laughed incredulously: “That’s not human… it’s godlike!” Zeryn, her Arcane Tome still glowing, thought: He broke the system… but at what cost? Elara, leaning on the Scepter of Life, whispered breathlessly: “The reality’s collapsing…” Mira, with the Trident of the Tide planted in the ground, and Draven, holding the Shadow Reaper, exchanged stunned glances, but their eyes soon turned to the demons, now weakened.The demons—Iragor, Gulthar, Avaron, Slothar, Lustara, and Envyra—without the crimson moon to sustain them, were shadows of their former power. Their demonic auras, once pulsing with black and red light, flickered erratically, like candles about to die. Iragor, his flaming muscles cracked, staggered back, his horns dim: “The moon… our strength… destroyed!” Gulthar, drooling from multiple mouths, tried to devour the air, but his hunger waned: “No… my gluttony…” Avaron, her golden skin losing luster, clutched broken chains, screaming: “My greed… stolen!” Slothar, dragging his gray slime, yawned weakly: “No moon… only sleep…” Lustara, her purple form fading, fell to her knees, purring in panic: “My desire… extinguished…” Envyra, with green eyes full of hate, hissed: “I envy… that final power!” Their bodies, once near invincible, crumbled, fragments of their demonic forms dissolving into ashes and corrupted pixels.Zeryn, her mind sharp as an Arcane Tome rune, saw the chance. “They’re weak! Without the moon, they’re vulnerable!” she shouted, her Ascending Glitch Aura blazing. “Finish them!” The heroes, fueled by Athos’s glitched energy, mustered their last strength for a final assault. Kaelith charged Iragor, his Blade of Wrath pulsing with blue glitched flames. “End your wrath!” he roared, unleashing Ascending Inferno Slash, a glitched fire wave cleaving the demon in half, his parts exploding into flaming ashes scattered in the void. Iragor screamed: “My fury… extinguished!” Thorne hammered Gulthar with Glitched Eon Impact, a golden rune and blue pixel explosion imploding the demon’s obese body into a corrupted data puddle. Gulthar gurgled: “My hunger… unsated…” Zeryn struck Envyra with Ascending Stellar Eclipse, a glitched meteor vortex engulfing the demon, shattering her green skin into a pixel shower. Envyra hissed: “I envy… to the end!” Elara, beside her, crushed Slothar with Ascending Life Bloom, glitched vines wrapping and smashing the gray slime into digital dust. Slothar yawned: “Sleep… eternal…” Mira drowned Avaron with Ascending Abyss Tsunami, a glitched water wave dissolving the golden demon, her chains crumbling into codes. Avaron whispered: “My treasure… lost…” Draven reaped Lustara with Ascending Void Harvest, a glitched spectral mist erasing her purple form in a dark vortex. Lustara purred: “My desire… gone…”With the demons destroyed, the heroes collapsed, exhausted, their glitched auras flickering weakly. Kaelith, panting, murmured: “It’s over… we won.” Zeryn, clutching her trembling tome, nodded: “Thanks to Athos… he paved the way.” Elara, with wilting vines, whispered: “But this dimension… it’s dead.” Mira, leaning on her trident, and Draven, with his reaper planted, looked to the center, where Athos hovered, his glitched armor shining like a beacon in the void.Athos, floating above the coliseum’s ruins, observed the exhausted heroes on the ground, their forms scarred by battle. His interface flashed: Dimension Collapsed: System Repair — 10%. He scratched his head, a cynical smirk forming. “Well, let’s get outta here,” he said, his voice echoing in the void. With a snap of his fingers, he channeled the Tear of Eryndor, unleashing a glitched energy wave enveloping the heroes in a blue pixel dome (010101). In a blink, they teleported out of the collapsing dimension, the coliseum crumbling into black rifts behind them.But what they saw wasn’t the Desolate Continent they knew. The landscape was a desert of destruction, the ground reduced to floating pixelated cubes in a gray void, as if reality was fragmented into corrupted code blocks. Broken towers, forests dissolved into data, and skies cracked with black rifts dominated the scene. “What is this?” Kaelith exclaimed, his armor still smoldering. “Where are we?” Thorne, gazing at the ruined horizon, murmured: “This isn’t the Desolate Continent…” Zeryn, her tome trembling, analyzed: “It’s like… the entire world was hacked.” Elara, wide-eyed, whispered: “The other realms… are they like this too?” Mira and Draven, stunned, gripped their weapons, feeling the scene’s oppression.A soft, urgent voice echoed in Athos’s mind: “Athos…” It was Lysara, the white-haired elf who’d accompanied him since his journey’s start, her ethereal presence tied to the Tear of Eryndor. Before she could continue, the sound of pixelated cubes crashing and exploding cut her off, the ground quaking with destruction. Above, on a throne of corrupted data, a towering figure emerged, cloaked in a glitched darkness aura, black and red code fragments swirling around. He wore liquid armor absorbing light, with pure white void eyes and a smile defying reality. “Well, I underestimated your strength, Athos,” the figure said, his voice an echo warping the air. “Enjoyed my clone? But it bought enough time.”The heroes, stunned, felt a chill. “Clone?” Zeryn murmured, her eyes fixed on the figure. The figure laughed, raising a hand, and the name he spoke was muffled by a glitched static, as if ATHOMIS’s system refused its revelation. “Pleasure, my name is… Error,” he said, the name cut by static. “But you know me by another name, don’t you? Corruptor.” Athos, staring at the destruction—the Desolate Continent reduced to pixel cubes, Valthar, Celestara, Eldoria, and Ironforge likely sharing the fate—clenched his fists. “What did you do?!” he shouted, his interface flashing: Unknown Threat: Cosmic Level Detected.The Corruptor, Error, laughed, snapping his fingers. “Don’t worry,” he said, his voice dripping sarcasm. “I’ll send you there quick.” With a gesture, he unleashed a light-speed attack, a black and red energy wave tearing space, aimed at the heroes. Athos tried to react, soaring skyward with Quantum Leap, but the attack struck Kaelith, Thorne, Zeryn, Elara, Mira, and Draven dead-on. Their bodies dissolved into pixelated cubes, exploding in a data burst echoing like a scream in the void. “No!” Athos roared, his interface warning: Allied Loss: 100%. The Corruptor laughed, floating on his throne. “Guess you’re not so easily erased, huh, Athos?”Athos, hovering in the ruined sky, questioned in his mind: Where are the Admins? Why didn’t they stop this? What’s happening to the world? But his thoughts were cut by another attack from the Corruptor, a black energy spear faster than light, striking Athos dead-on, cleaving him in half, glitched pixels exploding from his armor. The Corruptor laughed, his voice echoing: “Looks like the end, doesn’t it?” But a euphoric laugh cut the void. Athos, regenerating in a blue pixel cascade (010101), reappeared, his armor shining like a digital sun. “End? Who said it’s over? Who decided that?” he said, his violet eyes blazing with manic energy. His interface flashed: System Hacker Activated: Attribute Amplification — 1,000,000,000x. He raised the Primordial Chaos Blade, now a glitched light monstrosity warping space. “Please, don’t make this fight boring,” Athos said, laughing euphorically. The Corruptor, with an anticipatory smirk, prepared, and the fight, once thought over, reignited on a level beyond comprehension. The final clash was about to begin.