"Then use your magic!" another general shot back, pointing a trembling finger at Magnus. "You have monsters! You have spells that can freeze oceans! Use that!"
"Inefficient," Alvian said, shaking his head. "My magic, and the magic of the Guardians, relies on the System. We manipulate mana through a defined set of rules. The Outer Gods exist outside the System. My highest-tier deletion codes simply bounced off their flesh. To them, our magic is just poorly formatted data."
The room fell into a suffocating silence. The human leaders looked at each other, the horrifying realization dawning on them. If physics didn't work, and magic didn't work, they were already dead.
"So," the Prime Minister whispered, slumping into his chair. "It's over. We're just waiting to be deleted."
"I hate defeatism," Alvian muttered, running a hand through his dark hair. "It's a terrible waste of processing power."
