Debugging.

  A term for fixing errors in a code. Find the bug and remove it. Yet, in Jin’s case, who was the bug?

  Him?

  Or that bloody abomination circling the sky, searching for something?

  He’d known the risks when he signed up as a Cleaner. Death was part of the job. But he’d never expected to be the one left behind, watching the portal seal shut while the world unravelled around him.

  The System’s warnings had been clear: Get out.

  No one survived the RIFT’s collapse. Not the reckless. Not the strong. Not even the lucky. And definitely never the stupid.

  “Fuck.” Jin smirked, sitting cross-legged on the cracked earth, metal flask in hand. “Should’ve kicked her arse instead.”

  He took a swig, liquor burning down his throat as he surveyed the destruction. The RIFT was tearing itself apart, grid lines ripping through the sky like a glitch in reality. His will was ready. His insurance covered. His daughter, Eleana, would be taken care of well after her college graduation.

  Even if the world had forgotten about him, his money would last. Unless his daughter suddenly developed a yearning for luxury make-up sets that he refused to buy, much to Eleana’s dismay.

  The two didn’t even say goodbye to each other when he sent her back to school in the morning.

  The carbuncle on his lap nestled closer, its fur bristling with a gentle light green sheen. Jin scratched behind its ears, its warmth giving him a fleeting comfort.

  “Guess this is it, huh, partner?” Jin sighed. “I’ve fucked up my life. Royally. First with my late wife. And now, my daughter.”

  A shadow swooped over the two on the ground, disappearing into the horizon. The dragon wasn’t just flying randomly anymore. It was hunting.

  “Kri?”

  Jin couldn’t hear what the carbuncle was saying; both his eardrums were ruptured. Even if he did, he wouldn’t understand it. Yet somehow, he knew what the creature was trying to tell him.

  “I don’t know about you, but we still aren’t safe yet,” he said.

  “Kri? Kri, kri.”

  “That dragon? Must be looking for something. Definitely not us. Right?”

  Across the horizon, a pillar of bluish light erupted. The shockwave even reached where Jin was.

  He knew he couldn’t outrun the dragon. Couldn’t outfight it. Outsmart it? Hah. Absolute power didn’t care about cleverness. It’d prolong only the inevitable.

  Even if he escaped the beast, the was still this little issue of the RIFT collapsing. No one had ever survived to describe what happened during the "debugging." This was the dead-end. Game over.

  No survivors. No witnesses. Just grid lines tearing through reality, replacing the sky with something dark and hollow. An abyss of nothingness.

  Instead of the futile, Jin sat. Took another swig. Let the burn of the liquor ground him. There was no hint of fear. No denial. Merely the quiet acceptance of a man who’d already said his goodbyes – only not to the people who mattered.

  The carbuncle chirped urgently, its tiny voice muffled by Jin’s ruined eardrums. Then, a sharp pain followed.

  “Ow! What’s that for, little fella?”

  The creature had sunk its teeth into his arm. Jin rubbed the spot, but the carbuncle was already darting away, skidding to a stop a few feet ahead. It spun in a frantic circle, then charged back, latching onto his sleeve and tugging with all its might.

  “Where the hell do you think we’re supposed to go?”

  Jin shook his head, but his hands moved on their own, bracing to stand. There was nowhere to run to. However, his instinct told him otherwise; the carbuncle knew something he didn’t.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  By the time Jin was on his legs, the air turned to lead.

  The dragon’s random rampage halted. The wind had died, yet the ground trembled. Worse, the back of Jin’s hair stood – the dragon’s gaze had bore to his very soul as if he was the next target.

  Or was he the target all along?

  Dread coiled in his gut, cold and wrenching.

  “Oh, fuck.” Jin paced forward, his heart drumming as if a crazed member of Kodo had just taken over. “Run, little one! RUN!”

  And the chase began.

  ***

  The dragon’s breath seared the air behind them.

  Jin’s instincts screamed.

  LEFT!

  The carbuncle veered sharply in the same direction, dodging the blast. Jin’s cat-like reflexes, honed from years of outrunning thugs and rival gangs, kicked in. No one had ever helped him survive before. But here, in the collapsing RIFT, this furry little bastard was his only companion.

  Fine. Let’s make the apex predator work for its kill.

  He wasn’t delusional. He wouldn’t survive. But if he could force the dragon to earn its kill? Stare it down as the world ended and flip it off with his last breath?

  That’d be something.

  He was always the odd one out. Always the irreverent one, as his late wife’s put it. After his marriage and his daughter’s birth, he toned it down somewhat. But right now? The fuck if he cared about a monster playing prey. Even if it’s a dragon.

  “One… two… now!”

  The carbuncle understood. They lunged right just as another breath attack split the earth where they’d been standing. His left side – or what remained of it – screamed in protest. Blood soaked through the makeshift tourniquet, but Jin gave it no notice. Pain was the proof he was still alive.

  “Oh shit. Get down!”

  The third breath came faster. By his count – fifty seconds, not a hundred. The dragon was adapting. Learning. Worse, the fourth was about to come soon.

  The carbuncle frantically chirped at him, nuzzling at his feet, urging him to move. But Jin barely had the time to think. All he could do was wrap his remaining good arm around the creature, bracing for the end.

  This time, the dragon’s breath didn’t miss. Blue-dark fire engulfed them. Yet, that was all to it.

  Jin blinked once. No pain. Blinked twice. Even the loss of its arm felt – no. He didn’t feel anything at all. Then he knew why.

  The gem on the carbuncle’s forehead glowed bright, and its radiant light unleashed a translucent barrier around them. But it didn’t last long as the gemstone’s flickered, a hairline crack marring its glow.

  “You can even nullify a dragon’s breath?” He let out a breathless laugh. “Guess we’re not dead yet, ey partner?”

  After a short moment of respite, the carbuncle darted forward. Jin struggled to follow, his breath ragged and his body on the verge of collapse. He wasn’t built for the RIFT. A goblin could kill him outright. So, what chance did he have against a dragon? Surviving this long was already a miracle.

  They soon reached a familiar cave – a place Jin knew well. He and his Cleaner crew had combed through it three times before, always leaving empty-handed. No monsters. No ores. No hidden passages. Only an empty hollow in the rock, as if the RIFT itself had forgotten it existed.

  Yet now, as the world outside unravelled into black voids and jagged gridlines, the cave stood untouched. A relic of stability in a collapsing dimension. As if it had been waiting for them.

  The carbuncle turned, its tiny paws urging him inside.

  Jin hesitated. What’s the point?

  No matter where they hid, the abyss would swallow them sooner or later. The forests, the hills – all of it was already gone, replaced by that creeping darkness. But the cave?

  “That’s the final destination, eh?” Jin muttered as he gathered his breath. “We will die anyway, but I guess if we can reach the cave, we win? No prize for the winner, though.”

  Jin laughed, ignoring the pain that seared through his body. One final push.

  Yet, it was the hardest stretch of his life. The dragon crashed between them and the cave entrance, its flapping wings slamming them back hundreds of feet with a single beat. The beast roared with blue fire coiling in its maw – another breath attack incoming.

  "Ah, fuck!" Jin staggered to his feet, clutching the carbuncle. "Give it a rest already, you bastard!"

  Out of all the breath attacks they had managed to escape with their lives, this was the worst one to be in. Impossible to escape. Though he knew it would come in a straight line, unlike the previous times, he no longer had space or time to dodge it. They were too close. The breath would swallow them whole before they could take three steps.

  "Kri? Kri krikri!"

  The carbuncle wriggled free from Jin’s tightening embrace and planted itself in front of him, its tiny body trembling but unyielding.

  “No, little one! You can’t use that. Your gemstone-“

  It was all too late. The dragon unleashed its attack.

  The carbuncle’s gem flared in anticipation of the hit, and when it did, once again, the translucent barrier nullified the dragon’s breath fire. But this time, the carbuncle did not escape unscathed. Its gemstone shattered, like a hammer to glass. Eventually, the creature collapsed as its remaining life force seeped away from its little furry body.

  Jin scooped it up; tears and curses abounded. For a human, it’d be like having your heart ripped out. For the carbuncle? It had done the impossible. Twice.

  The dragon, however, was relentless. Another breath drew close.

  "So, this is it, huh?"

  Jin cradled the dying carbuncle, his gaze locked on the dragon. A stare down toward his executioner. His Grim Reaper. A relentless towering abomination that had no sympathy whatsoever. Yet, if this tiny, broken creature could stare death in the face, so could he. With a bloodied grin, he raised his middle finger.

  "Fuck you, bastard!"

  The dragon’s maw split open, blue fire coiling in its throat. This time, there’d be no dodging. No nullifying. Only total oblivion. Jin clenched his lips, ready to meet it head-on.

  And then, the dragon’s head flew off. A clean, bloodless arc.

  The body crashed to the ground, lifeless.

  From the cave’s shadows emerged a four-legged silhouette, sleek and silent, its eyes gleaming through the darkness like light at the end of the tunnel.

  Fate, it seemed, wasn’t done with Jin just yet.