The maw of the Arch-Segfault opened like a cave lined with broken glass.
From twenty paces above the end-post dais, the freezing stench of deallocated matter poured over Lin Ke’s back.
He could feel the negative pressure pulling at his hair, trying to strip the scorched skin from his shoulders. If he pulled his hands from the swirling data star-fire for a single split second, the origin bus would sever, and both realities would instantly crash to null.
He couldn’t dodge. He couldn’t defend. He could only keep committing code.
A hundred massive tentacles of flickering grey static erupted from the monster’s underbelly. It dropped like a cage of iron spears to wipe out the platform.
“Protect the maintainer!” a voice roared through the gale.
Five figures threw themselves into the breach.
*
