"...Plot? I see."
Adrian slowly rose from the floor. His gaze never left the ground, his hair casting a shadow over a part of his face.
The False Adrian paused. For a moment, his composure cracked—there was something deeply wrong with Adrian.
⌞"What are you implying?"⌝
"I mean it. You can see me… right? Letters on a screen, a character in a novel... isn't that what this is?"
His gaze still hadn't left the floor; the words flowed from his lips as if he were reading a script.
The False Adrian froze. He did not expect him to become omniscient this quickly.
⌞'There must be issues within the coding.'⌝
"Hah, what are you thinking about?" Adrian's gaze finally snapped up, staring directly at the False Adrian. His calm facade had finally shattered.
Adrian took a step forward—and the entity took one backward, entirely involuntarily.
Adrian continued to press forward, closing the distance between them inch by inch.
⌞"Stop this! You were supposed to be helpless! You were supposed to be weak and stupid! THAT IS HOW I MADE YOU!"⌝
"No, you didn't make me," Adrian countered, his voice steady and razor-sharp. "The reason I wasn't the coward you wrote me to be, is because I never was the coward you wanted me to be."
⌞This… is impossible…⌝
The False Adrian dropped to the ground, his knees hitting the polished floor. His expression was completely fractured now, miles away from the mask of clinical coldness he had worn just moments before. He looked small. Defeated.
Adrian stepped closer, casting a long shadow over the trembling entity. He leaned down, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet whisper.
"Between you and me... you are more cowardly than I am."
…Adrian?