I reopen my eyes and look around.

I am on the porch. Y sits on the steps just ahead.

She holds a perfectly polished black sword on her lap and fiddles with her floating grimoire and invisible screen. Her fingers move quickly and she does not notice me standing up.

The sword is the same as it originally was when Mircalla drew it for the first time.

Ci-cin.

The [Yellow Queen]'s tails snap at me. Y continues her work.

“Well woken up.”

“Y… is that the Atmosphere-eater? Not a copy, right?”

“Precisely the only and inimitable. If you want to take it back you can, there's no danger.”

Y's tails wrap around the sword and pass it to me. I take it and weigh it. I study the wire and the hilt. It is purified.

No trace of error.

“So, it worked?”

“Exactly. You can't understand how satisfied I am with this result. With the energy of the Red Sprite, we reversed time, making the error regress until it disappeared.”

“Mircalla?”

Y closes the disappearing grimoire and turns to me. Then, she stands up.

“I corrected the mistake. You can use Necromancy without risk.”

“Well.” I sigh in relief.

Y nods and keeps her arms folded. “Look,” a tail of hers points to the horizon. “The tornado almost stopped. Now all we have to do is be ready for when it stops.”

“Do you want to use the same technique?”

“Sure. The experiment worked in a small way. Is it possible to regress the state of the System until the error is cleared? I think so. We just act on a different scale.”

“Hmm… Red Sprite, I don't know if it's enough. I mean, Corestar has its energy, but we—”

The [Yellow Queen] places her index finger on my lips, silencing me.

“I altered the approach. All we need to do is hit the tornado. This will start a chain reaction, fueled by the storm itself receding and—Huh!”

I move away from her hand. “Don't explain to me. I trust you; you are the expert. If it worked with this one…” I raise the sword slightly. “It will work big too.”

“Yey! Fantastic!”

“How long will we have to wait?”

Y becomes thoughtful. She looks at the storm in the background, now reduced to an aberration of luminescent corals. “I imagine a few hours, not much longer.”

♦

Returning home, I cross Gron. I bend down to caress it. It shies away in fear and snaps.

I watch it walk away, past Y, and the porch.

Dal has been missing since the battle with Irferno. Before leaving, he promised that he would rebuild Gron.

I think he succeeded.

But…

This Gron is not the one I know.

The appearance is the same. Even its character, when it interacts with Y, is the same as the Gron I know. Nevertheless…

It does not seem to know me. Or, rather, it seems to be afraid of me. As if Dal had recreated him by instilling his fears.

I also still do not know how Gron could have bounced back in just a few years.

The dungeon inside is still a large chasm, yet Gron manages to climb back out.

I would check its stats but Dal recreated it with some characteristics of him. It is immune to my [Scan].

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

One day, I will get used to this cat. Even if it will never be my friend Gron, it is still a living being. It deserves my respect.

And then I am sorry that it is afraid of me.

I sigh and sit at the table.

Let's wait. Let's wait…

Ci-cin.

♦

A gasp.

I open my eyes. I blow with my cheek resting on the table and a cloud of dust rises.

Another jolt was accompanied by the creaking of the boards.

What happens? What does it mean?

I sit up and stretch.

The walls begin to vibrate and the boards make sinister noises. Subject to excessive pressure, they could break at any moment.

“N!”

Y's voice comes from outside.

The shaking stops and I manage to reach Y without difficulty.

Standing on the porch, she points to the tornado. Or, rather, what once was the tornado.

It is over. It has become immobilized and the time has come to act.

A tubular conglomerate of dust, error, and corrupt wind. It rises from a pyramid of coral at the base up to the coral front that faintly illuminates the underworld.

“Has it stopped?”

Y nods. “Have you had enough rest?”

“I would say yes. We have already discussed this, but what do we risk in case of failure?”

“I do not know.” Y shrugs.

I nod. I look for Fulzo.

The elf usually goes on long exploratory trips. I would like to warn him of what is about to happen.

“Have you seen Fulzo?”

“Before the experiment, so several hours ago. Why?”

I shake my ears. “Nothing, nothing. Do you think—”

“I can't tell you. If it makes you feel comfortable, we'll turn him into an undead. So, he doesn't risk—”

“This is as if he were to die!”

Y looks at me with her eyes halfway up. “What you're implying isn't very nice.”

“Sorry, sorry. Besides, you're the one who cared to explain the difference to me. Sorry if it doesn't feel right.”

“All right. Let's end it here. I cannot wait! Finally, I will be able to try to develop a new set of rules for the System!”

“Right. I wish I had a bit of your optimism, hehe.”

Y's tails encircle me delicately. The [Yellow Queen] looks at me thoughtfully.

“Are you worried that the God of Wisdom might intervene?”

“I can't deny it.”

“Don't worry, in all this time it hasn't shown up even once. Not even by mistake. Not in a dream, not in waking life. Its plan failed a long time ago.”

Sigh. “I believe you, it's true… but…”

“Look. In my opinion, the possibility of the Devil showing up is much more worrying.”

“The Devil?”

“Certain. The chessboard is still alive and it is the error it spreads. Experiencing a large-scale reaction… I'm not saying it will happen… but it could show up. Maybe interfere, that's it.”

“Ooh, I understand.”

[Dungeon path]

♦

[Necromancy]

The [Whalelich] appears and lifts Y and me into the air.

The wind frozen by corruption is more like stained glass than coral. Sharp, accidental contact is enough to corrupt the sperm whale's torn fin.

“Should I undo the magic?”

Y shakes her head. “We'll repair it later, for now, it's better to maintain it. Do you have enough AP?”

“It depends on many things, I think so.”

“You're at ninety now, aren't you?”

“Eighty-nine.”

Y returns to focus on corruption. She types in the air and a rectangular distortion interferes between her hands and the mass of errors.

“It does not work. Let's try this way. Open.”

With the shining grimoire, the [Yellow Queen] resumes typing. The surrounding space, up to the horizon, is filled with these empty windows. Only some are more or less full of incomprehensible characters.

“Hmm… N tries to hold on with the AP, maybe climbing all over the Underwasteland is more complicated than expected.”

Despite the apprehension of Y's words, I do not feel anxious. Strange.

I am fine.

I have to bide my time.

The fact that the God of Wisdom has not yet made the final move is heartening. Sure, it could attack now. Showing up at the last moment, or maybe it is a trap.

Things that do not depend on me, that I cannot prevent. In any case, the important thing is to stay alert and follow the [Yellow Queen's] instructions.

“How will the universe change after your reversion?”

Y's tails turn towards me, and she continues typing imperturbably.

“I don't know. You mean after I finish entering the new System rules?”

“Yes, in the sense, what things should change? You said that rules sometimes lead to unexpected events.”

“Emergent properties on such a large scale elude me. Perhaps your God of Wisdom would be able to answer you.”

I lower my ears. “So, we could even make the situation worse?”

“Worse than a universe that is dead and about to become an amalgam of errors? I doubt it.”

“Sure. You're right.”

Y stops replying and continues typing while her glowing grimoire floats. I watch her white light change. Now golden, now silver, now iridescent. She changes quickly, in conjunction with window distortions.

Watching the [Yellow Queen], an [Undead], perform esoteric tasks with such seriousness troubles me.

She is the entity to whom I owe the origin.

Without her manipulations of the System, N [Empress] creature would not be possible. I would be a simulation too. But simulation of what?

If we, the living, came later, how is it possible that they are the simulations?

I—

“Okay, I'm on.”

Y's grimoire disappears in a beam of light. The windows began to scroll through endless lines of characters.

“The terminals are amplifying the effects throughout the dungeon. In a few hours, we will be ready.”

“The terminals?”

“Windows. Usually, you log in with the Interface, but since there is no Interface at the moment, I have special privileges and...”

Y continues talking, but my attention is focused on those distorted windows. Terminals.

Never heard.

Never used.

Yet so important and linked to the Interface.

I am ignorant, that is it.

♦

“Finished! Now it's all in your hands.”

Y winks. The terminals have disappeared.

[Dungeon path]

I reappear on the veranda. Y emerges at my side.

“Ready to strike?”

Ci-cin.

My tails twitch. I look at that column one last time, that corrupt and senseless world.

I raise my arm. I breathe in.

[Red sprite]

The entire sky turns red. It fills with purulent blisters and corrupted pus falls everywhere. Lightning passes through the entire coral structure. In heaven, on earth, in every extension.

An infernal roar forces me to cover my ears.

A roar and an unexpected reaction.

“A new… impressive…”

I hear Y's last words get lost in the silence of the explosion. Light is faster than sound. Come first. Incinerating.

The shock wave arrives and I feel my dust disperse.

I cannot hear the sound coming.

I…