The Royal Vault was crumbling behind them, its spectral guardian now nothing more than a memory of fading pixels. Caelum held the Root Admin Key, its obsidian surface pulsing with a rhythmic violet light.
"The throne room is just past this corridor," Kira said, her hand tight on her dagger. "But the air... it feels static. Like we're walking into a storm."
Caelum stopped. He didn't see a storm. He saw the world for what it truly was—a grid of golden strings. But ahead of them, the strings were tangled, knotted into a massive, glowing barrier.
"It's not a storm, Kira," Caelum muttered, his eyes narrowing. "It's a Firewall. The King has locked the sector."
Suddenly, the space in front of them distorted. Four knights in translucent, white armor emerged from the walls. They didn't have faces—only glowing blue symbols where their visors should be.
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS: ENTITY_TYPE: SYSTEM_SENTINELS]
[LEVEL: ???]
[STATUS: UNSTOPPABLE_FORCE]
"Caelum, these aren't regular soldiers," Elara warned, her staff trembling. "They aren't even alive. They are... programs."
"Exactly," Caelum smirked, stepping forward. "And I'm the virus they were designed to stop. Too bad for them, I've already updated my source code."
The Sentinels moved with a speed that defied physics, their blades leaving trails of blue data in the air. Caelum didn't fight back with a sword. He reached out and grabbed the nearest blade with his bare hand.
[COMMAND: DELETE_DATA_STREAM: SENTINEL_01]
The knight's armor flickered, turned into a mess of jumbled letters and numbers, and then simply evaporated into thin air. Caelum didn't stop. He walked through the remaining three Sentinels, his very presence causing their physical forms to glitch and stutter.
"The King is hiding behind a wall of code," Caelum shouted, his voice echoing through the palace. "But I have the key. And today... I'm resetting the world!"
With one final surge of power, Caelum slammed the Root Key into the throne room doors. The entire palace shook as the 'Firewall' shattered like glass.