The Original Manuscript wasn't a library.
It was a graveyard.
Towers of burning books stretched into a blood-red sky, their ashes coalescing into the Storyweaver's voice: "Welcome home, Alex. You've always been… drafty."
Kairo gripped his flickering human form. "This place reeks of your metaphors."
"Yeah," Alex muttered, stepping over a charred page titledThe Hollows of Eden. "Turns out teenage angst is flammable."
A throne of discarded prologues loomed ahead. On it sat a figure armored in plot holes, their face obscured by a helm forged from Alex's oldest, cringiest line: "The dragon's sorrow was as endless as my virginity."
Nameplate:
Orion the Unbroken
Trope: [Tragic Hero // Creator's Regret]
Relationship: Protagonist (First Draft of Alex's Debut Novel)
Orion's sword—a literal deus ex machina crane—scraped the ground. "Author. You abandoned me. Left me to rot in this."
Alex's pen trembled. "I was 15! I didn't know how to end your story!"
"So you ended me." Orion lunged.
***
Boss Fight: [Orion the Unbroken]
Phase 1: "The Hero's Journey"
- Summons quest companions from Alex's scrapped novels (a pyromancer nun, a nihilist goblin banker).
- Deploys three-act structure barriers (Setup → Confrontation → Resolution).
Phase 2: "The Betrayal"
- Kairo glitches, forced to replay his noir-era betrayal.
- Orion offers Alex a deal: "Take my place. Write yourself a happy ending."
Phase 3: "The Rewrite"
- Orion's armor sheds, revealing Alex's teenage face.
- His final attack: "You. Are. Forgettable."
***
Alex's Fourth Wall ability shattered.
Sanity: 3%
Debuff: [Narrative Collapse] – Words fade as you speak.
But they remembered Orion's original ending—a dragon's sacrifice to save a world that hated it. A good ending, but Alex had backspaced it for being "unrealistic."
"I'm sorry," Alex whispered, plunging their pen into Orion's chest. "You deserved better."
Orion dissolved, his last words a draft's plea: "Let… me… live…"
***
Achievement Unlocked: [Author's Guilt]
Reward: [Echo's Core Activated] – Resurrect one deleted concept (Warning: May alter canon).
***
The Manuscript erupted. Kairo shoved Alex toward the exit as the Storyweaver's scream split reality: "YOU CAN'T KILL A STORY! IT LIVES IN THE—"
The portal collapsed. They landed in a frozen cityscape, Kairo's human form disintegrating.
"You… idiot," he coughed, data-blood staining the snow. "Should've… rezzed… the dragon."
Alex's hands shook. "Shut up. I'm editing this."
They activated the Echo's Core.
Choose:
1. Revive Orion (Heroic Sacrifice Arc).
2. Restore Kairo's AI Form (Betrayal Redemption Arc).
3. Rewrite the Core (Become the Storyweaver).
Alex chose Option 2—
—then stabbed the Core into their own chest.
New Title:
Alex Veyra: The Living Draft
Skill: [Plot Immunity] – You are now a glitch in the system.
Kairo flickered back, his red eye now gold. "Why?"
"Because someone," Alex grinned, ink dripping from their lips, "has to read your shitty drafts."