I should be dead.
No, scratch that—I should be in my apartment, exhausted as hell, barely awake from the caffeine overdose I called dinner. But instead, I was here.
The city around me was nothing but ruins—cracked buildings, shattered glass, and a sky that burned a deep red, like something had gone horribly wrong. The silence in the air was suffocating. It was wrong. Nothing about this place made sense.
And worst of all—I wasn't in my body anymore.
I glanced down at my hands, pale and trembling. The skin was too white. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I reluctantly turned to look at the reflection in a shard of glass on the ground.
Silver eyes stared back at me, wide with confusion, and white-blond hair hung messily around my face. The person in the reflection wasn't me. It was Ezra Nacht—a character from The Final Descent. A minor one. Just a background extra, barely noticeable, easily forgotten.
How was this possible?
I didn't want to believe it, but the more I stared at myself, the more I felt like I was sinking deeper into something I couldn't control. This wasn't my face. It wasn't my life.
I had just been in my apartment, furious at the latest chapter of The Final Descent. I'd spent years following the story, praying that Noa Vale, the main character, would finally catch a break. But no. Every time he won, the author ripped everything away from him, dragging him through more pain and suffering.
The latest chapter had been the worst.
Noa fought tooth and nail, bled for every inch, only for his victory to be snatched away in the cruelest way possible. It was like his pain was just a tool for building more "tension" in the plot. I couldn't take it anymore.
I had snapped.
I vented my frustration in the comment section, where everyone seemed to worship the author no matter how terrible the writing was.
I hit send, hoping to get some relief. Maybe some sympathy. Maybe the author would finally give Noa some happiness for once.
But all I got was more frustration. I kept ranting, kept tearing into the author's choices, and insulting the fandom for defending it all. I didn't care how toxic I sounded. I was done being patient.
I had no idea that my words would come back to bite me.
After I threw my phone onto my desk, I collapsed onto my bed. Exhaustion hit me like a brick. I barely had the strength to close my eyes before the darkness took me.
And now, here I was.
I wasn't dead. I wasn't in some kind of afterlife. I wasn't even in a dream.
This was The Final Descent.
And somehow, I had become part of it.
I took a shaky breath and wiped my face with my hand, trying to steady myself. How had this happened? Why was I in this world, trapped as Ezra Nacht? Why was I not only here but living someone else's life?
I felt like a thousand eyes watching me, their gazes were so intense I thought that it could melt me alive.
But then suddenly a message appeared in the air, glowing faintly, like an ominous warning.
[System Error: Undefined Entity Detected.]
[Rewriting Attempt: FAILURE.]
The world around me shuddered, as if the air itself was trembling at the words. A wave of nausea hit me, and I staggered back, trying to stay upright. The ground cracked beneath my feet, and the buildings around me groaned as if they were about to collapse.
Was I being erased? Was the world rejecting me?
Another message popped up, flashing with an unnerving, cold urgency.
[Reconstructing Narrative Core...]
[Assigning New Protagonist...]
[ERROR: Entity 'Ezra Nacht' is not a recognized Hero Candidate.]
[Override in Progress.]
I couldn't breathe. The ground trembled again, and everything felt like it was on the verge of breaking apart.
[How intresting]
Another message popped up infront of me, following by another one.
[ERROR: Role assignment failed]
[WARNING: Story is collapsing]
I stumbled back, the ground beneath my feet shaking as if the world itself was trying to swallow me whole. My head was spinning, and I could barely keep my thoughts straight. I had no idea what was happening, but everything was falling apart around me.
Another message flashed in front of me.
[Entity 'Ezra Nacht' cannot be assigned the protagonist role.]
[Story integrity breach detected.]
I barely had time to process it before the next one appeared.
[Warning: The narrative is collapsing. New protagonist assignment required.]
I couldn't make sense of it. What was happening to me? Was I... being erased? Was the world rejecting me?
I had never asked for any of this. I never asked to be Ezra Nacht, some throwaway character from a story that had never mattered in the grand scheme of things. Yet here I was, stuck in the ruins of a world I didn't belong to, with everything falling apart because of it.
A new message appeared, this time more urgent than the others.
[Unique Authority Unlocked: False Protagonist]
I blinked. The words were jumbled in my mind. False Protagonist?
The message continued, shifting and changing as if it were rewriting itself.
[Override in progress: Narrative disturbance.]
[Entity 'Ezra Nacht' may take control of the plot.]
[Story integrity at risk.]
[Warning: Entity detected. Unforeseen anomaly. Proceed with caution.]
A sickening sense of realization hit me like a tidal wave. This wasn't just a glitch or a system failure. It was me. I was the anomaly. The world was unraveling because I didn't belong here. I didn't belong in this story. I didn't belong as Ezra Nacht.
I couldn't breathe.
But then, something changed. The air around me seemed to shimmer, like the very fabric of reality was warping. The messages paused. The sky above stopped its constant flickering, and the buildings no longer trembled. The system wasn't giving up on me.
It was intervening.
A new message appeared, but this time it felt different, like a presence beyond the mechanical, beyond the system itself.
[Constellation Interference Detected.]
[Unknown Entity: Stability Override Initiated.]
For the briefest moment, the world held its breath.
And then, the sky flickered again—only this time, it wasn't red anymore. It was a dark blue, almost peaceful. As if something—someone—was holding the collapsing story together.
[Narrative has stabilized.]
[Entity 'Ezra Nacht' will remain.]
[Rewinding time to start the story.]
I blinked, my heart racing as the message flickered in front of me. Rewinding time to start the story? What did that even mean?
The world shuddered again, but this time, instead of the overwhelming sensation of collapse, I felt something else. A shift. The broken buildings around me, the crimson sky, everything began to pull back into place, as if being rearranged, reset. My breath caught in my throat.
The messages on the air were changing again, this time more structured.
[Time Rewind in Progress.]
[Entity 'Ezra Nacht' retained as anomaly.]
[Restoring World to Beginning State.]
I felt a strange pull, like the very essence of reality was reorienting itself, and for a brief moment, I thought I saw a blur in my peripheral vision. A glimpse of something watching me—something greater than the system itself. Something that wasn't bound by the rules of this collapsing world.
The sky flickered back to its unnatural red hue for a moment before stabilizing, the cracks in the buildings mending themselves. It was like watching a dream slowly coalesce back into clarity.
Then, the next message appeared, as if delivering some twisted revelation.
[Narrative Core Restored.]
[Entity 'Ezra Nacht' Assigned New Role: False Protagonist.]