His body was a vessel, and it was filled to the absolute breaking point.
He gritted his teeth, his jaw muscles bulging.
He refused to pass out. He refused to let the system win. He thought of Valerie lying frozen on the cold marble altar. He weaponized his anger, forcefully pushing the glitch through the final barrier.
"Compile!" Sebastian screamed, his voice a distorted, overlapping chorus of pure static.
THROOM!
A massive, invisible shockwave of pure conceptual energy exploded outward from his body. It swept through the bunker, instantly silencing the whining servers and blowing the heavy smoke away.
The blinding light faded. The agonizing pressure in his skull vanished, replaced by a cold, absolute, and terrifying clarity.
Sebastian slumped forward, his hands hitting the floor. He panted heavily, his breath pluming in the suddenly freezing air of the room. He wiped the blood from his face with the back of his gloved hand.
