[Entity: The Glitch] [Status: System Anomaly] [Level: ERROR]

"Holy shit," one of the assassins breathed, his hands visibly shaking.

Vane’s professional composure completely shattered. He was a Level 80 killer. He had butchered entire guilds. But looking at the towering, horrific entity before him, his system UI flooded with red, critical warning prompts. The server itself was terrified of the thing in the room.

"Attack!" Vane screamed, launching himself forward.

Sebastian just raised a massive, static-filled hand.

He bypassed their physical combat entirely and accessed the room’s localized routing network.

[Action Registered: Broadcast Override.] [Target: Flagship ’Righteous Dawn’ - Juncture Coordinates] [Forcing Connection...]

"Let’s get the audience on the line," the overlapping, horrific voice of The Glitch stated.

BZZZT!

A massive, glowing holographic screen forcefully rendered itself in the center of the cramped bedroom, bathing the terrified assassins in a harsh blue light.

The screen displayed the pristine, golden bridge of a massive Ethereal dreadnought.

Standing in the center of the bridge, surrounded by hundreds of kneeling cultists and glowing control panels, were Saint Grigori and Saint Jin.

The two Gods looked up in absolute shock as their primary viewing screens were hijacked by the feed from the bunker.

"What is this?!" Grigori roared, his holy aura flaring. "Vane! What is happening?!"

Sebastian stepped into the light of the hologram. His towering, static-filled form dominated the feed. His weeping porcelain mask stared directly into the camera.

"Hello, boys," Sebastian said, his distorted voice echoing perfectly onto the bridge of the dreadnought millions of miles away. "I got your little Holy Crusade message. Very dramatic. 8/10 on the presentation."

Jin stepped forward on the screen, his cybernetic halo spinning rapidly. "The Anomaly. You hijacked our encrypted feed."

"I am the administrator now," Sebastian replied, spreading his jagged, shadowy arms.

"And I have a message for the Church."

Vane realized exactly what was happening.

They weren’t a hit squad anymore. They were props. They were about to be an example.

"Kill the feed! Kill him!" Vane shrieked, lunging at Sebastian with his Void blades.

Sebastian didn’t even look at the charging assassin.

He tapped into his [Concept of Mass] and his [Gravity Domain]. He didn’t drop a black hole.

He just forcefully spiked the gravity in the room by a factor of fifty.

WHAM!

The five Level 80 assassins were violently slammed into the concrete floor. Their advanced, shadow-mesh armor couldn’t protect them from the sheer, unadulterated weight of physics. Bones cracked. Lungs compressed. They lay pinned to the ground like crushed insects, gasping for air.

On the holographic screen, Grigori and Jin watched in absolute, horrified silence.

"You sent trash to my house," Sebastian told the Gods, his dark, empty eye sockets glaring through the screen. "You sent Level 80 fodder to kill a glitch. That is incredibly insulting."

He took a slow, heavy step forward, his boot coming to rest lightly on the back of Vane’s neck.

"You want my server?" Sebastian asked, the weeping oil dripping from his mask. "You want Earth? Come and get it yourself. Bring your dreadnoughts. Bring your Titans. Bring every single fanatic in your pathetic cult."

Sebastian leaned down, his face filling the entire broadcast screen.

"Because I am not hiding anymore," Sebastian promised, the sheer, unhinged threat of his voice vibrating the physical walls of the bunker. "I am going to tear this Juncture apart, and I am going to delete your religion."

The connection violently severed.

The hologram shattered into static, plunging the room back into terrifying darkness.

Sebastian looked down at the five paralyzed, terrified assassins pinned to the floor. The broadcast was over. The message was sent.

"Now," Sebastian whispered, reaching for the rusty iron hilt at his side. "Let’s do some pest control."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Sebastian looked down at the five Level 80 assassins pinned to the concrete floor of the bunker. The fifty-times gravity modifier he had dropped on them was absolute. It didn’t matter how high their agility stats were or what kind of fancy shadow-mesh armor they wore. Gravity didn’t care about your build.

But these guys were supposed to be the elite of the outer servers.

Vane, the leader of the Silver Hands, gritted his teeth. Blood leaked from his cybernetic eyes. He reached into his belt with agonizing slowness. His digital muscles tore under the sheer weight, but he managed to pull out a small, glowing silver token.

"Break... the... hold!" Vane screamed, crushing the token in his hand. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

[System Alert: Divine Relic ’Feather of the Saint’ Consumed.]

[Status: Gravity Nullification Field Deployed.]

A bubble of white light expanded from Vane’s crushed hand. It washed over the five assassins, forcefully resetting their localized gravity back to normal.

Vane gasped, pushing himself up off the floor.

His four squadmates scrambled to their feet, their Void-glass stilettos raised. They looked terrified, but they were still professionals.

They didn’t run for the door. They lunged straight for Sebastian.

Sebastian didn’t move. He didn’t drop his terrifying ’Glitch’ form. He just stood there, a towering eight-foot tall silhouette of black static and green error codes. The cracked porcelain mask stared down at the charging assassins, thick streams of black digital blood weeping from the empty eye sockets.

"You really want to do this?" Sebastian’s distorted, overlapping voice buzzed through the room. "Okay. But we need to make sure your bosses are watching."

Sebastian raised his static-filled left hand. He didn’t cast a combat spell. He reached back into the localized network and forcefully grabbed the broadcast feed he had just severed.

[Action Registered: Broadcast Override Re-Initiated.]

[Target: Flagship ’Righteous Dawn’] [Forcing Connection...]

BZZZT!

The massive holographic screen violently sparked back to life in the center of the cramped bedroom. Saint Grigori and Saint Jin flickered back into view on the bridge of their dreadnought. They looked absolutely shocked that the feed had been forcefully reopened from the other side.

"Keep your eyes on the screen, boys," Sebastian told the hologram. "I want you to see exactly what happens to your little delivery boys."

Vane didn’t care about the camera. He closed the distance in a blur of shadow.

"Die, glitch!" Vane shrieked.