They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World

Chapter 226: You’re Good As Dead!

Gently, carefully, I pulled Mira’s own arrow out of her shoulder, peeling her off the stone wall and laying her flat on the ground.

I hurried over, picking up her severed forearms from the blood-soaked ice.

And knelt beside her, aligning the severed limbs perfectly with the stumps. I pushed my Administrator privileges to their absolute limit.

The cyan code aggressively stitched the severed veins, muscle, and bone together, temporarily binding the amputation.

I quickly ripped off the bottom half of my coat, tearing the fabric into tight strips, and bound her arms tightly to hold the physical edit in place.

She would need a high-tier healer immediately, but I had just bought her a window to keep her arms.

I slowly stood up, my legs feeling like lead and walked over to the other side, where Garf lay.

I didn’t even need the system to tell me. His chest cavity was entirely caved in.

His massive, protective heart had stopped completely. I could edit physics, but I couldn’t write a soul back into a dead body.

My jaw clenched so hard that my teeth ground together, staring down at the veteran who had shielded us from the very beginning.

A heavy, bloodstained hand rested on my shoulder.

I turned my head. Edric was standing beside me, looking down at Garf with an unreadable, deeply exhausted expression.

"It’s not your fault," Edric rasped quietly.

I looked back down at the dirt, offering a single, stiff nod.

I wasn’t strong enough, my inner thoughts roared, a bitter, suffocating weight pressing down on my chest.

Even with the system, I was too slow.

"Jin!"

The fragile, trembling voice echoed through the silent cavern.

I turned my head. Tessa was slowly walking toward me, her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes wide with overwhelming relief.

My rigid shoulders finally relaxed.

I took a step toward her, reaching my hand out.

"Tess—"

[Beep!]

[00:00]

The cyan panels violently shattered into static.

The agonizing, excruciating reality of my shattered ribs, burnt nerve endings, and zero mana slammed back into my body all at once.

The world instantly tilted violently sideways.

"Argh!"

My knees buckled.

I didn’t even feel myself hit the ground before the darkness swallowed me whole.

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[Third Person POV]

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The cavern was completely dead.

The suffocating cold of the frost slowly began to thaw, leaving behind nothing but the metallic stench of pooled blood, pulverized limestone, and the eerie, glassed crater in the center of the room.

The chaotic roar of the battle had been replaced by a heavy, absolute silence.

The party and the boy were gone, having dragged their wounded back toward the surface.

Then, a voice cut through the dark.

"They’re gone. You can come out now, Syxhara."

It was a melodic, almost musical voice, echoing softly off the jagged, broken walls.

In the dead center of the glassed crater, the lingering, silent sparks of black electricity suddenly froze.

The empty space violently warped. Ribbons of pitch-black miasma began to bleed out of thin air, weaving and knitting themselves together like dark threads on a loom.

The bone-white armor shards manifested from the shadows, clattering into place around the swirling void.

Within seconds, the towering, Abyssal Entity that Jin had completely erased from existence stood fully reformed, utterly untouched.

Syxhara slowly turned its faceless obsidian mask toward the raised dais at the back of the cavern.

Standing there was a single, slender figure draped in a pristine, deep-violet cloak.

It was vastly different from the crude, ragged robes of the dead fanatics scattered across the floor, the fabric seemed to absorb the dim light around it, woven with shimmering silver threads.

The towering demon did not attack. It did not unleash its suffocating pressure.

Instead, the Abyssal Entity lowered its massive frame, dropping smoothly onto one knee and bowing its head in absolute, unquestioning submission.

"My lady," Syxhara vibrated, its ancient, resonant voice stripped of all its previous arrogance.

The figure let out a soft, echoing giggle that sounded entirely out of place in a slaughterhouse.

Slender, pale hands reached up and pulled the heavy hood back, letting it fall against her shoulders.

A cascade of pure, snow-white hair spilled down her back, catching the faint light.

But it was her eyes that demanded attention.

They were a piercing, luminescent scarlet, holding a terrifying depth that seemed to swallow the cavern’s gloom.

She rested a hand on her hip, tilting her head as she looked down at the kneeling demon, then at the massive crater it had reformed in.

"Well?" she asked, her scarlet eyes gleaming with dark amusement. "How was he?"

Syxhara slowly straightened its towering posture, turning its blank mask back toward the exact spot where Jin had vanished.

The demon reeled through its own memories.

"He’s good," Syxhara finally rumbled, tracing a scythe-like finger over its own bone-plated chest.

"His fundamental laws are... disjointed. But his output and adaptability are a lot better than the previous ones."

"Is that so?" The white-haired girl smiled, a genuine, delighted expression.

She took a step forward, simply walking off the edge of the high dais.

But she didn’t fall. She gently ascended into the air, floating effortlessly above the blood-soaked stone until she hovered in the center of the cavern.

She looked around at the devastated room, the collapsed ceiling, the shattered walls, the ruined ritual circle.

Then raised her right hand and casually snapped her fingers.

The sound was sharp, echoing like a gunshot. Instantly, the cavern violently shuddered.

It wasn’t an illusion; it was absolute, overwhelming temporal reversal. The shattered limestone flew backward, seamlessly reattaching to the walls and ceiling.

The deep gouges in the floor zipped shut. The crushed ritual circle re-carved itself into the bedrock.

In the blink of an eye, the eighth floor was perfectly, flawlessly restored, erasing every single trace of the cataclysmic battle.

She lowered her hand, her smile fading into a slight, bored pout.

"They’re being entirely too impatient," she sighed, her melodic voice tinged with genuine annoyance.

Syxhara nodded slowly. "Those lowly, fragi—"

The temperature in the cavern didn’t drop. It vanished entirely.

The girl didn’t move, but her scarlet eyes locked onto the towering demon.

The sheer, crushing pressure that radiated from her small frame was so unfathomably heavy that the ambient mana in the air began to physically crackle and break.

Syxhara completely froze, the violet flames crowning its head sputtering in sheer terror.

"Careful, Syxhara," she whispered, her voice dangerously soft, devoid of any previous warmth.

"Do not forget... I also am one of them."

The demon didn’t hesitate. It dropped forcefully to both knees, pressing its mask directly against the newly restored stone floor, its massive frame trembling slightly.

"Forgive me, my lady," Syxhara vibrated, the ancient entity sounding entirely thoroughly cowed.

"I misspoke."

The white-haired girl stared down at the groveling demon for a long, suffocating moment.

Then, the terrifying pressure evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.

She let out a dismissive, elegant scoff, waving her hand.

"Just do your work," she commanded.

And then a perfectly circular tear in the fabric of space simply unzipped itself behind her, revealing a swirling vortex of starry darkness.

She leaned back, letting the portal swallow her whole, and vanished from the dungeon entirely.

Syxhara remained kneeling on the floor for several seconds after the spatial tear closed.

Slowly, the demon stood up, letting out a deep, vibrating exhale that rattled the restored stalactites above.

It turned its faceless head away from the ritual circle, looking toward the far end of the cavern.

Set into the newly restored limestone wall were the massive, heavily reinforced iron double doors that Edric had bypassed earlier.

Syxhara glided across the cavern, entirely ignoring the corpses of the cultists.

It raised one scythe-like hand and effortlessly pushed the massive iron doors open.

The heavy metal groaned in protest, revealing a massive, dark grotto.

Waiting inside the shadows was a colossal, heavily armored beast, the true Floor Boss of the dungeon.

It let out a deafening, territorial roar at the intrusion, its multiple red eyes locking onto the demon.

Syxhara raised its hands, cracking its multi-jointed neck with a sickening series of sharp pops.

The flames atop its head roared back to life, burning with pent-up frustration.

"Nothing personal, buddy," Syxhara rumbled, stepping over the threshold into the boss room.

"But... you’re as good as dead."