The Sanctuary of Errors

Noah hit the ground hard. The air around him pulsed with unstable energy, sending glitching waves through his vision. The Sanctuary of Errors wasn’t just crumbling—it was alive, shifting unpredictably like a broken simulation trying to hold itself together.

He pushed himself up, panting. Behind him, the System Guardians hovered outside the entrance, their golden forms flickering with unreadable calculations.

WARNING: SANCTUARY IS OUTSIDE SYSTEM JURISDICTION. ENTRY PROHIBITED.

They hesitated.

Noah’s heart pounded. They couldn’t enter.

This place—whatever it was—was beyond their control.

He forced himself to his feet, stepping deeper into the ruins. The interior was vast, stretching into impossible directions, with staircases that looped in on themselves and hallways that flickered between existence and nothingness.

NEW LOCATION DISCOVERED: SANCTUARY OF ERRORS

STATUS: UNSTABLE – UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED

Noah frowned. “Unknown entity?”

A sudden voice answered.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

His blood ran cold.

A figure emerged from the shifting shadows—a man with piercing red-glowing eyes, his body half-formed, flickering in and out of existence. His form glitched violently, as if reality itself refused to stabilize him.

And yet… he was smiling.

“Looks like the System really screwed up this time,” the man chuckled, his voice layered with distortion. “So, tell me, kid. What kind of mistake are you?”

The Glitched Man

Noah took a step back, every instinct on high alert. The man’s presence felt wrong, like staring into a broken reflection of reality.

“Who are you?” Noah asked cautiously.

The man tilted his head. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Noah hesitated.

He didn’t know how to answer.

He had woken up in this corrupted world, constantly chased and hunted by entities calling him an anomaly. He barely understood what he was himself.

But the man in front of him?

He looked like Noah’s future.

“Let’s start with something simple,” the man continued, stepping closer. “I’m Elias, and this—” he gestured to the collapsing structure around them— “is my prison.”

Noah frowned. “Prison?”

Elias smirked. “A place for things that don’t belong—things the System wants to erase.” He spread his arms dramatically. “Welcome to the last sanctuary of mistakes.”

Noah swallowed hard.

This place wasn’t just outside the System’s control.

It was a graveyard for anomalies like him.

The System’s Lies

Elias turned, motioning for Noah to follow. “Come on, unless you wanna let the corruption eat you.”

Noah hesitated but had little choice. He followed, weaving through glitching corridors where reality bent unnaturally—walls shifted positions, floors dissolved, and whispers echoed from nowhere.

Elias finally stopped in a chamber filled with floating fragments of broken code.

“This place…” Elias said, running his fingers through a glowing script, “is a scar on the System itself. A remnant of something erased.”

Noah frowned. “The System keeps calling me a glitch. An error. Why?”

Elias gave him a knowing look. “Because you are one.”

Noah’s stomach tightened.

Elias smirked. “You don’t belong here, kid. You’re an outsider—something that exists outside the System’s rules.” He held up a hand, letting raw red energy flicker around his fingers. “Just like me.”

Noah’s heart pounded.

“Then what is the System really?” he asked.

Elias sighed. “A lie.”

He turned, looking at the shifting codes around them.

“It calls itself ‘reality,’ but it’s just a program. A construct controlling everything—who lives, who dies, who gets erased. And anyone who doesn’t fit its design?” He gestured at the ruined Sanctuary. “They disappear.”

Noah’s chest tightened.

He had felt it. The way the System tried to erase him, to overwrite his very existence.

“But if that’s true,” Noah said, “then why am I still here?”

Elias grinned.

“That’s the real question, isn’t it?”

A Power Beyond Limits

Elias circled Noah, his glitching gaze scanning him.

“You fought back against the System’s enforcers,” Elias said. “That shouldn’t be possible.” He tapped his chin. “And yet, here you are, breaking the rules without being erased.”

Noah clenched his fists.

He remembered the fight—the way his body phased through space, the way his attacks ignored logic.

It wasn’t magic.

It wasn’t skill.

It was something deeper.

Elias smirked. “Kid… I think you’re something even worse than an anomaly.”

Noah frowned. “What does that mean?”

Elias leaned in.

“It means…” His voice dropped to a whisper.

“You might be a hacker.”

Noah’s eyes widened.

A hacker.

Someone who didn’t just break rules—but could rewrite them.

A shiver ran down his spine.

If that was true…

Then he wasn’t just running from the System.

He was a threat to its entire existence.

A New War Begins

A sudden shockwave tore through the Sanctuary, making the entire structure quake.

Noah stumbled, catching himself on a fractured pillar.

Elias narrowed his eyes. “They’re here.”

Noah turned toward the entrance.

Outside, the System Guardians hovered in formation, their golden light burning brighter than before.

OVERRIDE DETECTED. SECURITY MEASURES ENHANCED.

INITIATING FULL ERASURE PROTOCOL.

The air trembled with overwhelming pressure.

They weren’t hesitating anymore.

This time, they weren’t just hunting Noah.

They were erasing everything.

Elias cursed. “Looks like your little stunt got their attention.” He turned to Noah, eyes burning with amusement. “Guess you’re not just some random mistake after all.”

Noah clenched his fists. His body still felt unstable, but deep inside—he could feel something stirring.

Something awakening.

Elias grinned.

“Well, kid? You wanna keep running?”

Noah exhaled slowly.

Then he looked up, meeting the golden eyes of the Guardians.

“No.”

His voice was steady.

“If the System wants me erased…”

His fingers twitched, and for the first time—he willed the world to bend.

OVERRIDE ACCEPTED.

Noah’s entire form flickered, and in an instant—he was gone.