Chapter 26 · Nyx's Last Life

The core door's open. I'm halfway through when the reset alarm screams.

Nyx grabs my wrist. Her fingers are cold—colder than they've ever been. "Vera. Stop."

"We don't have time for this." I try to pull free, but she's not letting go. Behind us, the chamber's collapsing in slow motion. The walls are peeling into code, layer by layer, like someone's unwrapping the world.

"I know." Her voice is flat. No sass. No edge. Just tired. "That's why I need you to listen."

I stop. She never sounds like this.

Nyx lets go of my wrist and steps back. Her avatar flickers once—just a glitch, barely visible—but I catch it. She's not stable. The reset's eating her from the inside out.

"You're running out of saves," I say. It's not a question.

"One left." She says it like she's talking about spare change. "Loop three-seventeen. The one where we didn't fight. You remember?"

I do. That was the loop where we sat in the garden. No combat. No objectives. Just talking. She told me about the first player who made it this far—how he tried to speedrun the final door and got himself permadeath instead.