Chapter 60: An option

Summer was killed.

She felt every single moment of it. She felt how her skin peeled off, how her bones disintegrated into dust as her consciousness slowly tore apart. It was a brutal, painful, and terrifying process beyond imagination.

But do you know what was far more painful and terrifying than her own death?

That was watching Three destroy itself to rescue her from the endless torture and humiliation.

Three had exploded its own core, sacrificing everything just to give her a quick death, hoping the system could teleport her core to safety.

Summer hated those humans with every fiber of her being. She wanted to rip them apart limb from limb, grind their bones into powder, and burn their souls to ash.

But more than she hated them, she hated herself.

If she hadn’t been so blinded by arrogance. If she had ordered Three to hide safely somewhere instead of keeping it in the open. If she had just killed every single fucking human she met the moment she laid eyes on them.

None of this would have happened.

"Little girl, that kind of anger will kill you someday."

A calm, familiar voice echoed softly inside her brain as Summer slowly opened her eyes to that vibrant, colorful sea of consciousness. She was wrapped securely within a pair of warm, feathery wings as the fat chicken guided her small form through the gentle waves.

"Stinky... old man..." Summer muttered, her voice choking heavily.

She was currently in her little chick form. There was no familiar mechanical hum of the system anywhere in her mind. That meant teleporting her core across dimensions had cost the system almost all of its remaining energy, forcing it into a deep slumber.

Truthfully speaking, Summer was overwhelmed. She was drowning in profound sadness and lingering terror.

Her physical body had been completely destroyed, leaving her with nothing but her core. What would happen to her now? Would she be forced to remain trapped as a floating core for the rest of her existence?

Normally, if even a small piece of her physical body remained intact, her Undead body trait could gradually regrow her whole form. But after Three’s core detonated right next to her, there was nothing left of her flesh to regenerate.

Just her bare core. And she didn’t even know where her core was resting.

"Why was your body destroyed, little girl? Who dared to hurt the heir of Ancient Chaos?" the fat chicken asked, his feathers rustling with rising indignation.

"It’s... it’s humans..." Summer complained through thick tears she couldn’t hold back anymore. Her words broke apart in miserable sobs. "Woo... wooo... they... they killed Three."

"Humans? How dare they!" The fat chicken’s indignation reached a boiling point, his wings flapping angrily over the colorful waves. "Baby, don’t cry. Tell Grandpa... why didn’t that stinky thing inside you protect you properly?"

The fat chicken grumbled in dissatisfaction, his words clearly directed at the dormant system.

Summer suddenly stopped crying, wiping her small eyes with a wing. "Stinky old man... I am not going to acknowledge whatever you are trying to do... hmph."

The fat chicken choked on his own breath. The little girl had completely misunderstood his words. He hadn’t been trying to pry into the secrets of the thing inside her or test her boundaries. He was simply venting his annoyance at that entity’s failure to keep her safe.

The fat chicken felt deeply wronged.

[If I had intervened directly, ’Him’ would have gazed down upon us. You aren’t an idiot, old bird. You know that very well, don’t you?]

Suddenly, a voice rang out across the vast ocean. It sounded mechanical at first, but this time, it carried a distinct, soft female tone.

Summer’s eyes brightened instantly in disbelief. "System?"

Beside her, the fat chicken’s eyes widened in profound shock. "Corruption?"

[Little girl, I’m fine. I just had to step away for a moment to gather some energy...]

The system completely ignored the fat chicken as its voice softened further. The cold, rigid mechanical undertone had completely vanished, leaving behind only a warm and calming female cadence.

"You are Corruption itself, aren’t you? Damn... what is up with that voice?" the fat chicken muttered, narrowing his eyes. "You are creeping me out way more than when you used to swallow whole universes, you know..."

[You should clean out your ears, puny shadow. Years of deep slumber have clearly made you deaf, haven’t they?]

"Puny? You are calling me puny?"

[Then what else should I call an entity that is nothing more than a leftover shadow of a broken bloodline? Daddy?]

"You!"

Summer sat quietly inside the feathery wings, watching the verbal war unfold between the fat chicken and her system. It seemed both of them were surprisingly... close?

[We are not close.]

"Who the hell is close with her?"

Summer quickly sealed her beak shut, staring straight ahead at the colorful waves and pretending she hadn’t heard a single thing.

Although the System and the Shadow were bickering loudly on the surface, their true intention was simply to distract the little girl. That subtle effort seemed to work surprisingly well.

The crushing weight of depression and terror that had suffocated Summer after Three’s core exploded began to lessen as her attention became completely absorbed by their continuous verbal spat.

She hovered silently between the feathery wings, her small beak slightly open, watching the Fat chicken and the system throw insults back and forth.

However, while their outward voices sounded like a lighthearted argument, the silent exchange occurring within their deeper mental link was vastly different.

The tone was devoid of any humor, sharp and heavy with ancient power.

"How dare you touch what’s ours?" the Shadow’s mental voice cut through the private space, biting and bone-chillingly cold.

[What’s yours?] the System countered instantly, her tone flat and unimpressed. [Summer isn’t owned by anyone.]

"You know exactly what I am talking about," the Shadow growled, his immense presence flaring within the deep ocean of consciousness. "She is the sole heir of Ancient Chaos. The harbinger of Creation. The light of Purity."

[Bah, bah...] the System cut him off dismissively, virtually waving a hand at his grandiose speech.

"You..." The Shadow’s feathers twitched with contained wrath.

[Say whatever you like, puny shadow,] the System transmitted coolly. [At the end of the day, she still prefers me. Ask her yourself if you don’t believe it. Do you remember the last time she had to choose?]

"That is only because you are constantly scamming her with your rigged blue screens!"

[Bah, bah...]

"You are as thoroughly annoying as you were eons ago," the Shadow spat, his dark aura trembling in irritation.

[Same to same, old bird. Same to same.]

The Shadow went completely quiet for a long moment. He knew better than anyone that trying to win a battle of words against Corruption was an utterly pointless endeavor.

After taking a slow, heavy breath within the spiritual realm, he shifted his focus.

"Why did you really appear now?" the Shadow asked, his tone dropping into serious, solemn gravity. "Your energy was depleted. You shouldn’t have awakened this quickly."

[I came back early to give you an option...] the System replied, her voice losing its mocking edge.

"Hmm?" The Shadow narrowed his glowing eyes, his massive wings tightening slightly around Summer’s form.

[Change the faction...] the System stated flatly.