Chapter 81 The Source Code

Chapter 81 The Source Code
The tiny baby floated inside the dark green fluid. Its little eyes opened, flashing a bright, beautiful gold. Small crimson scales lined its back, moving softly as it breathed the liquid. Looking at it was like looking into a mirror from forty years ago. It was the source file. It was me before the first lab, before the first chapter, before the company stole my life to build their empire.

"If I smash this tank, the story never started, Elara," the Senior Editor shrieked. Her fingers gripped the iron bar tight, her knuckles white. "You won't even have memories of your boys!"

Internal monologue crashed through my soul like a physical blow. She wants to erase my babies. If she hits that glass, the past forty years of pain become nothing. The tears, the blood, the moments I held my boys, gone. She won't just kill my children; she will make it so they never existed. I don't care if my body falls apart into loose ink. I am going to paint this white room with her blood.

"Don't touch it!" I screamed, my voice tearing in my throat.

I charged. I didn't care about the broken bones in my right hand or the fact that my crimson scales were peeling off. The raw hunger for revenge was the only fuel left in my veins.

The Senior Editor didn't wait. She swung the heavy iron bar down with a wild, crazy laugh.

CLANG.

Xavier came out of nowhere, his human body colliding with her waist. He didn't have his wolf claws, but he used his teeth, biting deep into her grey suit sleeve. She screamed, dropping the bar, but her hand quickly reached down to her waist. She pulled out a small, silver data-knife, the kind the tech boys used to cut wires in Layer Two.

She drove the silver blade straight into Xavier’s shoulder.

Xavier let out a sharp, choked gasp, his grip loosening as he fell back onto the flat white floor. Real red blood poured out of his wound, turning the white floor boards a dark, bright crimson.

"Xavier!" I yelled.

"Get the tank, Elara!" he choked out, his hand clutching his bleeding chest. "Save the child!"

The Senior Editor turned back to the glass tank, her eyes completely bloodshot. She didn't have the iron bar, but she raised the silver data-knife, aiming the glowing point straight at the main digital screen that read: ORIGINAL SOURCE FILE.

"If I can't sell this book, nobody gets to keep the rights!" she roared.

I lunged across the flat space. I didn't try to punch her. I threw my entire weight against her back, my remaining claws digging deep into her neck. We both went down, crashing hard against the iron cage surrounding the tank.

The silver knife flew out of her hand, sliding across the floor toward Leo and Elias.

"Julian, catch it!" Leo yelled.

Julian, our first-born, didn't hesitate. He scrambled over the smooth floor, his white hair flying behind him. He grabbed the silver data-knife by the handle. The moment his fingers touched the weapon, the blue light on the blade turned a solid, glowing gold. The anchor code inside his blood was activating the tool.

"Get off me, you draft!" the Senior Editor screamed, throwing her elbow back into my fractured ribs.

The pain made my eyes go dark for a second. I fell off her, coughing up thick, black ink drops onto her polished grey suit. She scrambled up, her face twisted in total malice, and grabbed the heavy iron bar from the floor again. She raised it high above her head, aiming straight for my skull.

"Die!" she yelled.

SHUCK.

The old man's suit went totally still. The iron bar dropped from her hands, clattering loudly against the iron cage.

She slowly looked down at her own stomach. The gold-lit data-knife was sticking straight through her shirt, driven deep from behind. Julian stood there, his small hands still gripping the handle, his eyes burning with a cold, terrifying golden fire.

"You will never touch my mother again," the seven-year-old boy whispered.

The Senior Editor let out a small, wet gasp. Her body didn't turn into gray dust or black ink. She was a real person from the real world. Real, thick red blood spilled over Julian's fingers as her knees buckled, and she collapsed face-first onto the white floor, completely dead.

Julian stumbled back, his face going pale as the gold light left his eyes. He looked at his bloody hands, shivering.

I crawled over to him, pulling him into my chest with my good arm. "You're safe, Julian. I've got you. It's over."

Xavier dragged himself over, his large arm wrapping around both of us, while Leo and Elias joined the circle. We were all breathing hard, surrounded by the blood of the director and the white space of the broken server.

"Elara," Xavier whispered, pointing his chin toward the glass tank.

The green fluid inside was beginning to drain out through the bottom. The tiny baby with the crimson scales lay on the glass floor of the tank, its small chest heaving as it took its first breath of real air.

As the liquid vanished, the giant digital screen above the tank changed. The red letters disappeared, replaced by a single, flashing green sentence.

SYSTEM RESET COMPLETE. DEPLOYING REALITY LAYER CORE TO PHYSICAL ADDRESS.

Suddenly, the white walls around us didn't glitch. They started to tear open like real paper. Through the cracks, we could see a real, massive bedroom filled with thousands of physical books. Sitting at a large wooden desk in the center of the room was a man with a gray beard, typing furiously on a real, mechanical typewriter.

He stopped typing. He slowly turned his head toward the crack in the wall, his eyes wide with absolute horror as he saw the blood on our hands.

"No," the man whispered, his fingers trembling over the keys. "You're not supposed to be able to see the author."