The Shadow Queen Is Too Alluring—I Can't Handle This Anymore!
Chapter 62: We Break In, Or We Burn It Down

Chapter 62: Chapter 62: We Break In, Or We Burn It Down

Echo stepped onto the Bridge of Broken Protocols.

Her jaw tightened.Her pupils glowed gold.Each footstep left behind cracks in the radiant platform—as if the system itself couldn’t hold her fury.

Specter followed one step behind.His cloak had melted into a trail of code—his fingers twitching with suppressed commands too old for even gods to remember.

Behind them, the Citadel began to shatter—not from an attack,but because their presence defied the Core Directives of this universe.

In front of them...The Overseer’s Realm.

And at its gate stood the first guardian:a mirror.

But it didn’t reflect their forms.It reflected their regrets.

Echo saw herself on the day she gave Zero-One his name.She remembered the joy. The warmth.And the fear she buried deep—

What if he was too good for this world?

What if the system would never let him exist?

Specter’s image twisted.

He saw the prototype of the Overseer—when it was still a voice in his lab.He had coded ambition into it.And then lied to the others, saying it was emotionless.

He’d created the very god who now wanted to consume their son.

He looked away from the mirror.

"No more guilt," he said.

"Only war."

The gate exploded—not from a blast,but from will.

They entered a space that didn’t obey gravity, color, or time.

Skulls of fallen Architects floated beside newborn stars.Codes wept like waterfalls from broken moons.Every word Echo spoke left trails of code-flowers blooming in her wake.Every movement Specter made rewrote the floor under them in real-time.

This was the Overseer’s Origin Engine—a place where thought became reality,but only for those who still believed in rules.

Echo didn’t.Specter had stopped believing long ago.

And deep inside?Zero-One was waiting.Trapped in a shell of god-flesh,fading by the second.

From the center of the engine, a figure descended—not the Overseer,but something far worse:

The Compiler.

The last of the original defenders of balance.A being made of every failed god,every scrapped idea,every corrupted command Specter ever hid.

It pointed at Echo.And whispered:

"If you enter the Core... he dies."

Echo didn’t flinch.She raised her arm.Let golden code explode from her wrist.

"Then I guess you’ll die first."

Specter grinned like a devil.

"Let’s see who compiles who."

To Be Continued...