The Scrap-Venture didn't just fly toward the Spire; it tore through the fabric of the Aether-Reach. At 98% completion of the Final Format, the reality surrounding the Source-Throne was becoming terrifyingly "Thin." The floating blueprints were solidifying into a world of sterile, white geometry, a world where there was no rust, no dust, and no room for error.
"Brace for impact!" Mateo roared, his fingers locked onto the manual override.
The ship slammed into the obsidian base of the tower. Instead of a collision of metal and stone, it was a collision of logic. The ship's Recursive Iron hull, infused with Kenji's "Density," acted like a physical virus, shattering the perfect white walls of the entryway.
[LOCATION: THE SOURCE-THRENE - BASE LEVEL]
[FORMAT PROGRESS: 98.4%]
[ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT: ABSOLUTE ORDER (SKILL COOLDOWNS INCREASED BY 200%)]
"The cooldowns!" Elara cried, trying to manifest a frost-shield. "The System is slowing down our mana-recharge! It's trying to freeze us in time!"
"It's not slowing down the mana," Kenji said, stepping out of the wreckage of the ship's prow. His Unverifiable trait caused the air around him to flicker like a corrupted video. "It's enforcing 'Standard Processing Speeds.' It thinks we're too fast for its new world."
From the shadows of the crystalline pillars, three figures emerged. They didn't have faces, bodies, or gear. They were silhouettes made of pure, shifting code.
[TARGET: THE ABSTRACTS - UNIT: RATIO, UNIT: SYMMETRY, UNIT: PERSISTENCE]
[RANK: 82 (SYSTEM CONSTRUCTS)]
"The Scrapsmith brings his clutter to the seat of Creation," the Abstract named Ratio spoke. Its voice was a perfect, mathematical harmonic. "You are the 1.6% of error we failed to account for. We shall simplify you."
Ratio raised a hand, and the gravity in the room didn't just increase it became precise. It attempted to pull Kenji's molecules into a perfect grid, stripping away his "messy" human biology.
[WARNING: MOLECULAR RE-ALIGNMENT IN PROGRESS]
Kenji felt his skin beginning to turn into smooth, white porcelain. He looked at his hand, the scars from the Gutter were fading, being replaced by a "perfected" surface.
"I liked my scars," Kenji growled.
He didn't fight the alignment. He used [Recursive Hunger]. He reached into the "Absolute Order" the Abstracts were projecting and treated it as a raw material. If they wanted a grid, he would give them a grid one built from the chaotic history of a thousand broken parts.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: ANARCHY FORGE (RANK 1)]
Kenji's body snapped back into its scarred, rugged form, but now his skin was laced with violet-and-indigo "Logic-Veins." He lunged at Ratio.
"Symmetry!" the second Abstract commanded.
Kenji's movements were suddenly mirrored. For every punch he threw, an invisible force threw the exact same punch back at him with equal force. He was fighting himself.
"Bjorn! Now!" Kenji yelled.
Bjorn didn't strike the Abstracts. He struck the floor. Using his World-Root Splitter, he injected the "Noise" of the Steam-Wastes' 15x gravity into the throne room's foundation.
CRACK.
The perfect symmetry was broken by a physical imperfection. The mirror-effect sputtered. Kenji seized the moment, his Binary Blade glowing with the light of the Star of Remembrance.
"You want to simplify me?" Kenji asked, burying his blade into Ratio's chest. "Try calculating the value of a ghost."
The Ghost-Code from the Seventh Star flooded into the Abstract. Ratio couldn't process the "Deleted Data." It began to scream in binary as its Rank 82 form was "Recycled" into a heap of unformatted static.
[LEVEL UP: 76 -> 78]
Symmetry and Persistence attempted to merge, forming a Rank 85 "Super-Abstract," but Elara was already there. She didn't use ice; she used the "Absolute Order" of the room against them. She "Perfected" their merger so much that they became a static, immovable object, a statue of their own logic.
"The way is clear," Kenji said, coughing as the indigo light in his veins pulsed painfully. "Mateo, stay with the ship. If the Format hits 100%, I need you to trigger the Void-Smith Star. It might be the only thing that can act as a 'Save Point' for the old world."
"Kenji, wait!" Priya grabbed his hand. She looked at the indigo scars crawling up his neck. "The Seventh Star... it's eating your life-force to maintain your 'Undefined' status. If you go up there, you might not be able to come back to a physical form."
Kenji looked at the locket in his hand. Rank 0.
"If I don't go up there, there won't be a physical form to come back to," Kenji said softly. He turned and stepped into the light-lift that led to the summit.
[ASCENDING TO THE SOURCE-THRONE]
[FORMAT PROGRESS: 99.1%]
The lift opened onto a circular platform floating above a sea of stars. In the center sat a chair made of pure, white light. And sitting in that chair was a man who looked exactly like Kenji but older, his eyes filled with the cold, distant logic of a god.
[BOSS DETECTED: THE ARCHITECT (RANK 99 - LIMITER ACTIVE)]
"Hello, Kenji," the Architect said, his voice echoing from every direction at once. "I've been waiting for you to finish your collection. The Seven Stars... they look beautiful on you. Are you ready to give them back to their owner?"
Kenji raised his blade. "I'm the owner now. And I've come to audit your world."
"Audit me?" The Architect smiled, a terrifyingly thin expression. "Kenji, look at the progress bar. You aren't here to stop me. You're here to be the final piece of scrap that completes the new engine."
[FORMAT PROGRESS: 99.9%]
The world began to go white.