The moment Nero saw them approaching, he knew immediately that they weren't human. It was immediately clear.
Each Debugger stood about six feet tall, but their forms were wrong—too smooth, too perfect, like mannequins carved from white marble. They wore what looked like armor, but it was part of them, grown from their bodies. Their faces were blank except for a single glowing blue symbol where their eyes should be. And they radiated wrongness. Reality bent around them, like looking at them through distorted glass.
"Contact," Lyra called from the second floor. "Three targets, approaching from east. They're not human."
"We see them," Kade confirmed, his shield up.
The Debuggers stopped fifty meters from the mill. The center one—α-7—tilted its head, studying Nero with that blank, glowing face.
Then it spoke. Its voice was layered, like multiple people talking in perfect unison, synthetic and cold.
"ERROR USER DETECTED. DESIGNATION: NERO CROSS. CORRUPTION LEVEL: 44%. THREAT CLASSIFICATION: MODERATE."
"Wow," Nero muttered. "Not even high threat. That's almost insulting."
"TERMINATION PROTOCOL INITIATED. SURRENDER FOR IMMEDIATE DELETION OR RESIST FOR EXTENDED TERMINATION."
"Neither option sounds great!"
"RESISTANCE DETECTED. ENGAGING."
The three Debuggers moved as one. They were fast. Inhumanly so, crossing the distance in seconds. Kade met the first one head-on, shield raised. The impact sounded like a bomb going off. Kade skidded back ten feet, his boots tearing grooves in the ground. The Debugger didn't even slow down.
"THEY HIT LIKE A GODDAMN SIEGE ENGINE!" Kade shouted.
Lyra's arrows struck β-3, perfect shots to the chest and head. They bounced off harmlessly, not even leaving marks.
"Physical damage isn't working!" she called.
Finn appeared behind γ-9, daggers flashing toward weak points that should have existed. The blades scraped off the Debugger's armor like hitting solid steel. The Debugger's arm lashed out. Finn barely dodged, the attack missing by inches.
"Okay, new plan!" Finn yelled. "NERO! DO YOUR THING!"
Nero activated Critical Exploit, his new Glitch Hunter ability flooding his vision with tactical data.
```
[ANALYZING TARGETS...]
[DEBUGGER α-7]
TYPE: System Construct
WEAKNESS: Core Process (chest cavity)
EXPLOIT: System Crash can disable movement protocols
CORRUPTION COST: 5 points
[DEBUGGER β-3]
TYPE: System Construct
WEAKNESS: Logic Loop vulnerability
EXPLOIT: Can be trapped in recursive commands
CORRUPTION COST: 8 points
[DEBUGGER γ-9]
TYPE: System Construct
WEAKNESS: Shared network connection
EXPLOIT: Disrupting one affects all three
CORRUPTION COST: 10 points
```
"They're networked!" Nero shouted. "Hit the same one together! If we disrupt their connection, it'll affect all three!"
"Which one?!" Kade asked, blocking another devastating strike.
"The middle one! α-7!"
Kade didn't hesitate. He roared and activated a skill—[Immovable Object], planting himself in front of α-7 like a wall of steel and absolute refusal to move.
The Debugger struck. Kade didn't budge.
Lyra's arrows focused on α-7, not trying to damage but to distract, to create openings.
Finn appeared at its back, not attacking but positioning, waiting. And Nero raised his hand, feeling his new System Crash ability activate.
His Corruption spiked.
```
CORRUPTION: 44 → 49/100
```
But it worked.
Lines of code erupted around α-7, visible to everyone now—blue script wrapping around the Debugger like chains. The construct froze mid-motion, its systems glitching.
"ERROR. MOVEMENT PROTOCOLS DISRUPTED. REBOOTING."
"NOW!" Nero shouted.
Kade's shield-bash struck the frozen Debugger's chest with everything he had. The impact cratered the Debugger's armor, exposing something beneath—a glowing core that looked like crystallized data.
Finn's dagger found it. Lyra's arrow pierced it. And Nero, running forward with his sword, drove the blade straight into the exposed core.
Reality screamed.
The Debugger didn't dissolve. It unraveled—its form breaking apart into streams of code that scattered into nothing.
```
[DEBUGGER α-7: TERMINATED]
[+500 XP]
[CORRUPTION REDUCED: -3 (Debugging corrupted system)]
CORRUPTION: 49 → 46/100
[NETWORK DISRUPTION: SUCCESS]
[Remaining Debuggers destabilized]
```
The other two Debuggers staggered, their movements becoming jerky, uncoordinated.
"ALPHA UNIT TERMINATED. RECALIBRATING. INCREASING THREAT ASSESSMENT."
β-3 and γ-9 moved again, but differently now. More aggressive and desperate. And somewhere in Nero's system, an alert flashed.
```
[WARNING: DEBUGGERS ADAPTING]
[THREAT LEVEL INCREASING]
[TERMINATION AUTHORITY: ESCALATED]
[They're learning]
[They won't make the same mistake twice]
```
"They're adapting!" Nero called out. "The same trick won't work again!"
"Then we get creative!" Kade was already moving, positioning between Nero and the two remaining Debuggers. "Finn! Lyra! Pattern Omega-3!"
Whatever that meant, they knew it. Finn vanished. Lyra shifted positions. And Kade slammed his shield into the ground.
"PROVOCATION DETECTED. REASSESSING—"
Kade interrupted it by throwing his entire body weight into a charge that drove β-3 backward into γ-9. The two Debuggers tangled together for just a moment.
Finn appeared above them, having somehow reached the ceiling beams. His daggers cut through the weak support Nero had identified earlier. The ceiling collapsed.
Tons of wood and stone crashed down on the two Debuggers, burying them in rubble.
"RUN!" Lyra shouted.
They didn't need to be told twice. Vanguard scattered, regrouping outside the mill as the structure groaned and partially collapsed.
Silence.
Then movement beneath the rubble.
"PHYSICAL OBSTRUCTION DETECTED. REMOVING."
The debris exploded outward. Both Debuggers emerged, damaged but functional.
"Okay," Finn panted. "That didn't work as well as I hoped."
"We hurt them though," Nero said, his Debug Mode analyzing the damage. "They're at maybe 60% functionality. One more coordinated strike—"
"INSUFFICIENT. ESCALATING TO LETHAL FORCE."
The two Debuggers raised their hands. Reality around them began to distort violently.
```
[WARNING: DELETION PROTOCOL ACTIVATING]
[AREA EFFECT: 50 METER RADIUS]
[EVERYTHING IN RANGE WILL BE ERASED]
[YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS]
[RUN OR DIE]
```
"SCATTER!" Lyra screamed.
They ran. Nero felt Kade grab him, literally carrying him as the big man sprinted. Behind them, reality itself began to *tear*—a expanding sphere of nothing that unmade everything it touched.
Trees. Ground. Air. All of it just... gone.
Kade's Soul Link flared. Nero felt the man's absolute refusal to let him die, felt the determination pouring through their bond. They cleared the fifty-meter mark with seconds to spare.
The deletion sphere stopped expanding, leaving a perfect hemisphere of nothingness behind them—a wound in reality itself. And standing at its edge, the two remaining Debuggers.
"TARGET ESCAPED. RECALCULATING."
"We can't keep doing this," Finn said, breathing hard. "They're going to adapt, and eventually we'll run out of tricks."
"Then we end it now," Nero said. An idea was forming in his head. It reckless, dangerous, but possible. "I need to get close. Really close. Close enough to use Debug Swarm on both of them at once."
"That's suicide," Lyra said flatly.
"It's the only way to find a weakness we can actually exploit. But I'll need time. Thirty seconds uninterrupted."
Kade's expression set. "You'll have it." He looked at Finn and Lyra. "Keep them busy. I'll protect Nero."
"Kade—" Nero started.
"Soul brothers, mate. I'm not letting you do this alone."
There was no arguing with that tone.
"Vanguard!" Lyra's voice rang out. "FINAL PUSH!"
And they charged back toward the Debuggers, four humans against two reality-deleting system constructs, absolutely insane and absolutely committed.