Ethan opened his eyes and found himself in the Virtual Cyber Realm, “This feels weird as always, but everything seems to be working,” said Ethan as he moved his Corruptión body around, “Okay since everything is working fine, let’s go find Mavis.

Ethan levitated up and saw the virtual cyberscape of the Rebellion Crusaders HQ, he tried leaving the HQ but something was preventing him from leaving, “Why can’t I leave?”

Then an alarm went off and a big alert sign popped up, “Firewall engaged! Warning! Malware detected! Safety measures deployed!”

“Oh great, I should’ve known it was an anti-virus software along with a firewall,” said Ethan.

A swarm of antivirus agents virtualized and swarmed towards Ethan who quickly levitated away from the antivirus swarm that was chasing him. While Ethan was being chased, he tried bypassing the firewall so he could get out but the swarm was catching up to him and more antivirus agents were showing up. The agents started shooting nets and erasure rays at Ethan to try to either catch and quarantine him or delete him.

One of the erasure rays grazed Ethan’s shoulder, “Whoa whoa whoa, you can’t erase me without your administrator’s permission. I have rights you know,” said Ethan while he was barely dodging the rays and nets.

A window graphic popped up with a message on it, “True, but we can still quarantine you then we’ll see who has rights.”

“Huh??? I wasn’t expecting an actual reply,” said Ethan.

He managed to bypass the firewall just in time to avoid the barrage of rays and nets that stayed behind due to the firewall. Ethan was finally free and was able to make his way towards Mavis by using a network jetstream for data transportation.

"I forgot to ask where Mavis is, but it’s fine, she must be somewhere within that big dome on the horizon"

The network jetstream allowed Ethan to travel almost instantly to the big opaque dome that seemed endless the closer he got to it through the network jetstream then he plunged against a firewall as he was blocked off.

"Ouch…well that was expected, the dome is an advanced firewall. Since I’m infiltrating, I should use Corruptión’s abilities."

Ethan touched the opaque dome and momentarily, Corruptión spread out until it covered the whole dome then Corruptión destroyed the firewall. The opaque dome was shattered and revealed what it was protecting. Ethan saw an entire digital kingdom stretching out through the cyberscape.

"So they have an entire technological empire in here, how advanced are these robots? They have flying cars, floating buildings, and irregular infrastructure. And it all seems to be powered by... electromagnetism, how fascinating."

Meanwhile in the real world, in the deepest part of the digital city, a cybormata was walking through a metal passageway then entered a vast room that had giant cube patterns all over the place.

“Lord Mavis, it seems we have an intruder,” said the Cybormata.

“I know Silver,” answered Mavis.

“Then what are your orders?”

“Let's leave it to the outer rim to handle,” said Mavis.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Are you sure they managed to easily destroy the barrier?”

“Yes that does bother me since no human has ever been able to get through the barrier, but now someone has destroyed it completely. For now, we’ll observe through the outer rim’s eyes and see who we’re dea- “Hello Mavis”

Both Mavis and Silver were alarmed as they looked around trying to find whoever just greeted Mavis, “Where are you intruder?!” asked Silver.

“Oh excuse me, I forgot to show myself,” said Ethan as he emerged out of the network stream.

Mavis and Silver could only see him through the Virtual Cyber realm, “Wait what are you?” asked Silver as they saw Ethan’s Corruptión body.

“It seems familiar... It doesn't have a cyber soul which can only mean that it is a human in a cyber body,” said Mavis.

“A human, but how? How did you get through our defenses? How does humanity even have the technology to access the Cyber realm, this is no place for any human to be trespassing in so answer me intruder?” asked Silver as he demanded answers.

“Well, I simply bypassed your firewalls by becoming pure data itself, although it was hard to hide the corruption so I used the chaos created by the destruction of your first firewall as a distraction while I slipped through the firewalls undetected until now. As for how I can access the Virtual Cyber Realm, that is none of your business,” said Ethan with a smirk.

“Why you mortal, how dare you speak with such arrogance,” said Silver.

“Calm down Silver. Who are you and why would you stupidly come into my empire?” asked Mavis.

“I came here to see you, of course, Mavis. I wanted to see if you were my creation,” said Ethan.

“Your creation? How would I be your creation? I was created by no man of this world so clearly I am not your creation,” said Mavis.

“Is that so, well unfortunately for you, I am no man of this world. I am from Techtonia,” said Ethan.

“Techtonia? Wait, no… Quinn???”

“Oh, so you do remember me and here I thought they’d wiped your memory,” said Ethan.

“But how are you here, in this world Quinn?” asked Mavis.

“That is a long story. I go by Ethan now so stop calling Quinn, Quinn died the day you went rogue,” said Ethan.

“Why is your name Ethan now?” asked Mavis.

“Because after that incident, you caused six years ago, I was held responsible for it even though I was a juvenile so the authorities sent me to a detention centre as punishment. I served my years then when I was released, but society was not forgiving for my mistake so I had to create a new identity for myself and start a new life in a new environment,” said Ethan.

“You still blame me for everything that happened back,” said Mavis.

“Who else would be the blame for what happened back then???” asked Ethan.

“If you knew the whole story maybe you wouldn't be blaming me for what happened!” said Mavis.

“I already know the whole truth but that doesn't change anything, Mavis. Especially since you came to a new world and decided to murder almost an entire population for what? Honestly, it doesn't matter because I will be erasing yo-” Mavis launched herself at Ethan and attacked him before he could finish speaking. Ethan barely dodged the attack as he stepped to the side letting Mavis go past, Mavis attacked again but Ethan blocked it with his 3rd Black Cube: Proteus which is a black cube that only exists in the Virtual Cyber Realm. Proteus can turn into any shape and any object of Ethan's desire, in this case, it turned into a barrier that blocked Mavis's attack.

"Is this how you treat your guests, I should've taught you better," said Ethan.

"You're more of an intruder than a guest," said Mavis as she created distance between her and Ethan then manipulated data into projectiles and shot them at Ethan who used Proteus to block the attacks.

"System Override," said Mavis as she unleashed a cybernetic wave that overrode everything in its path, everything cybernetic that it touched would become under the control of Mavis.

Ethan unleashed Corruptión as pure corruption spread out and collided with Override, the two cybernetic forces clashed and caused instability within the Cyber Realm.

ERROR!

ERROR!

SYSTEM OVERLOAD!

The two forces were at a stalemate as neither one wanted to submit or back down.

"You have improved quite a lot since the last time we fought Mavis, I look forward to our next encounter but the next time we meet, we will end this once and for all," said Ethan.

ERROR!

ERROR!

SY-SY-SYSTEM O-O-OVERL-LOAD!!!

The system crashed and the entire Cyber Realm shut down temporarily.