I Killed The Main Characters

Ironwood Hall was almost haunting in its emptiness, the vast corridors and once bustling rooms now eerily silent.

Everyone was at the after-party, celebrating, laughing, and enjoying themselves.

The echoes of their joy were far off, distant from the desolate halls that now lay quiet under the dim lights.

But one girl was still walking through them.

Livia.

Her orange hair fell loosely down her back, the strands catching what little light shone from the windows and lamps.

Her red eyes, usually fierce with confidence, were instead narrowed in contemplation.

She walked with purpose, her heels clicking softly against the stone floor, her mind far removed from the excitement of the festivities.

As she made her way down the hall, her lips curved into a bitter smile.

She thought back to that moment—the moment when everything changed.

After giving that scathing review of the game Beyond Horizons, she had never expected her life to be flipped upside down.

But it had.

The memory of it still festered like an open wound, raw and painful.

"Stupid game," she muttered to herself, her voice echoing slightly off the walls.

"What a load of trash. What kind of idiots would leave that character untouched?"

Her words dripped with venom as she recalled the terrible ending.

She had written a review that could only be described as a tirade of anger and frustration.

She had poured every ounce of her hatred into it, especially when it came to the game's failure to eliminate Seraphina Vale.

Livia clenched her fists just thinking about it.

"That ending," she spat, "was a joke.

How could anyone think that was a good conclusion?"

Her review had been brutal.

She remembered typing furiously, her fingers pounding the keyboard, every sentence seething with disgust.

She didn't hold back.

She had written paragraphs about how the game had ruined the story, how they had allowed Seraphina to manipulate the plot into a disaster, how it was all her fault.

["The worst part of this garbage fire of a game is Seraphina Vale."]

She had written.

["Who the hell thought it was a good idea to keep her alive? She's the reason the story turns into a nightmare. Without her, the game could have been decent. But no, they let her ruin everything, dragging everyone down into that pitiful, terrible ending. I don't care about her tragic backstory or her emotional scars. She's poison.

She's the reason the whole game collapses. What a waste."]

Livia shook her head, her blood still boiling as she remembered her rage.

She had thought it was cathartic to write it all out, to pour her frustrations into the review.

But then, the screen of her tablet had gone white, blinding her completely.

She hadn't been able to see or comprehend what had happened, and before she knew it, she had been sucked into the game itself.

Inside the game. The game she had spent hours criticizing.

Her goal had been clear the moment she arrived.

There was only one person who needed to be removed to prevent that terrible ending: Seraphina Vale.

Livia had played Beyond Horizons countless times, exploring every route, every possibility.

No matter what path she took, Seraphina always managed to ruin everything.

Seraphina Vale.

The name left a sour taste in Livia's mouth.

She couldn't help but remember the horrible backstory the developers had created for her.

Seraphina had been born into a noble family, her mother obsessed with perfection and prestige.

Seraphina had been her mother's project, a tool for social standing, nothing more.

Her mother had sent her to the academy, expecting her daughter to become something great, something that would elevate their family name.

But Seraphina had struggled.

She wasn't the prodigy her mother had hoped for, and her failures were met with wrath.

Livia could still recall the scenes in the game that showed Seraphina's mother visiting the academy to check on her progress, her voice cold and cutting as she demanded to see exam results.

When they were alone, away from prying eyes, Seraphina's mother would unleash her fury.

The slaps rang through the small room, her words filled with venom.

["You're a disgrace to our name!"]

Her mother would hiss, the sharp sound of her hand striking Seraphina's face following soon after.

["How could you let yourself be defeated by commoners? By that white-haired boy? You're pathetic. A failure. You'll never be worthy of our family's name."]

The abuse wasn't just physical; it was psychological.

Seraphina was constantly berated, insulted, and humiliated.

Every visit from her mother left her more broken, more filled with self-loathing and rage.

It was no wonder she had turned into a villain.

Seraphina had influenced the other main characters in the game, slowly leading them down darker paths.

Her bitterness, her manipulation, her hatred—they spread like a disease, infecting everyone around her.

And no matter what Livia had done in the game, no matter what route she took, Seraphina always managed to become the catalyst for the terrible ending.

It was inevitable.

But the worst part, the thing that made Livia despise her more than anything, was the fact that Seraphina had become the final boss in Act One of the game.

In every route, every single one, Seraphina stood at the center of the conflict, dragging the other characters down with her.

Except this time, something had been different.

This time, Seraphina hadn't taken the role of the final boss.

Instead, Noah Ashbourne had.

"That boy—Noah—he hadn't existed in the original game."

Livia had known the game inside and out, and Noah Ashbourne was not part of it.

He was a complete anomaly, a variable she hadn't expected.

But somehow, he had taken Seraphina's place, becoming the antagonist at the end of Act One.

And Seraphina? She had died.

Livia had watched it happen, watched as Noah took on the role of the final boss and somehow survived the encounter, while Seraphina had fallen.

She had died, just like Livia had wanted.

It should have been a relief.

It should have been a sign that the game was finally deviating from that terrible ending.

But it wasn't.

Something still felt wrong.

The game might have been veering off course, but it wasn't necessarily heading in a better direction.

And Noah—Noah was still an unknown.

He wasn't supposed to be here.

What made it worse was how one of the main characters, Ariana, seemed to be falling for him.

It was strange, unsettling.

Ariana had never been involved with anyone like Noah in the original game.

"Why is she so drawn to him?"

"Why is he even here at all?"

As Livia turned a sharp corner, lost in her thoughts, she stopped in her tracks.

There, standing in the distance, was a figure.

The hall was dim, but she could see the outline of a person, motionless and waiting.

The figure's hand stretched out, and Livia noticed the object in their hand.

It was small, metallic, and glinting slightly under the faint light.

Before she could fully process what it was, a deafening sound tore through the quiet of the hall.

A loud bang, sudden and shocking.

Livia's ears rang painfully, and her balance faltered as her legs gave out beneath her.

She collapsed to the floor, her body hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

Warm, thick liquid streamed down her face, and her vision blurred as her strength ebbed away.

The ringing in her ears drowned out everything else, the world around her fading into nothingness.

She couldn't hear, couldn't think, couldn't move.

As the darkness swallowed her whole, the last thing she saw was the figure approaching her, their silhouette sharp against the dim, flickering light.

Then, everything went black.

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