Side Episode: ERROR Training The Servants (2025)

"FAILURE!?"[]

Virus!404 knelt, glitched and distorted, as ERROR loomed down on him. This mission had completely flopped. Another new world was lost; another chance had slipped away like water under a bridge. ERROR's hollow glowing eyes were piercing straight through him; twin voids of pure, unrelenting contempt.

"Tell me," ERROR said in eerily calm tones, mock concern lacing the pronouncement. "Do you know what failure means to me, Jack?"

Virus!404 barely made it out with an answer before ERROR seized him by the throat with a hand of writhing violent code, lifting him like mere paper off the ground and corrupting him internally. The pain struck immediate and overwhelming.

"It means nothing," ERROR hissed and tightened his clasp. "Because you mean nothing, you pile of worthless code heap."

In one flick of wrist, he sent Virus!404 crashing to the floor. The digital space around them crackled and warped under ERROR's fluctuations of rage, and two figures stepped forward from the deep shadows-his enforcers, Anarchy and Calamity!666.

ERROR turned to them, amusement returning to him. "We have work to do. This one-'' he gestured to the twitching form of Virus!404, "-needs to be rebuilt. Reforged."

Anarchy grinned-a sadistic grin, twisted his features of maroon scars into something with blood-red glint. "You want us to break him or something like that Master?"

Calamity!666 chuckled darkly, the very strands of time and space warping under the chaos of his aura. "Oh, this is going to be interesting for sure huh.!"

ERROR stepped back-folded arms, smirk widening. "Not just him. You, too. Both of you have gotten far too comfortable. If you are to serve me, you will be pushed beyond your limits."

He gestured, and the space around them shifted-turned into a hellish training ground of fractured code, jagged digital spikes, and anomalies that bent reality itself.

"Survive this," ERROR commanded, his voice booming, reverberating through the void. "Or be erased."

Virus!404 barely grasped the command before he was smashed in the face by Anarchy's fist, sending him crashing away. Calamity!666 grinned as he formed a vortex of corrupted energy, directing it straight onto his struggling form.

The training had begun.

And ERROR was watching, waiting for his tools to shatter or else be forged into something better.

The First One To Go.[]

A digital hell with malicious intent wound around Virus!404, squirming like a living mass of writhing mass and corrupted code. This wasn't just a training ground-it was a purging, hellish landscape designed by ERROR himself to break, rewrite, and reconstitute him into something deadlier besides. The second he was hurled into the chasm, deafening alarm blared into full blast, the shrill metallic shriek slicing through his brain like an unyielding spike.

BZZZT!

A fiery firewall seared its way through his body like molten lava, blistering through the corrupted code within. Virus!404 screamed-a sound so foreign to him, contorting with agony while the very essence of his existence threatened to waver between stability and collapse.

"AHAHAHAHA! What’s wrong, Virus?" ERROR's voice cackled, an overlay of glitching echoes that bounced through the void. "I thought you were the ultimate killing machine-and here you are, WHINING like a useless scrap of data!"

Virus!404 gritted his teeth, anger raging below all the pain. He had survived collapsing universes, exterminated entire realities, and made him slaughter countless in his endless way-yet here he was: being torn apart by something so detestably simple. He tried to stand up, but—

BZZZZZT!

Another wave of firewalls slammed into him, twisting his limbs into unnatural shapes, incapable of resisting the errors that would be forced to surge through his system. His body convulsed, and neon blue sparks hissed and popped from his limbs above, where ERROR watched with a grin as if a god was toying with his creation.

"You should see yourself, Jack. Pathetic. What was that thing you said before? Ah-'I show no hesitation'? 'I revel in destruction'?" ERROR mocked, his voice shifting into a warped imitation of Virus!404's own taunting tone. "LOOK AT YOU NOW! HAHAHA!"

Virus!404 tried to respond- tried to snap back with some venom-laced insult- but his code was unraveling too quickly. He could not bear to see what awaited him now: distorted strings of data invading his sight. He would be rewritten.

BZZZZT-CRACK!

The firewall held tighter, binding him into a new shape. Virus!404's screams became a digital static, his body oscillating like a broken hologram. The pain was unbearable-every square inch of his being rejecting these changes that were being forced upon him.

He sunk his pointed fingers deep into the corrupted ground under him and gritted out, "I... will... not... be broken you large big ugly pile of code!"

His voice was still distorted, but under the agony lay something else: defiance. His existence buckled, vision blurred, but Virus!404 was bending but would not break.

BZZZZT!

A firewall lashed out again.

One part of his mind went blank.

He forgot about himself for half a second.

ERROR turned his head in curiosity. Was this the time? Would Virus!404 finally shatter? Would he plead? Would he again amount to another failure that was destined to be thrown aside?

But then...

A laugh so deep and guttural cascaded through the hell.

Virus!404's body glitched violently, colors of neon blue and corrupted red flickering but twisted as his mouth formed the semblance of a grin. It began as a weak chuckle but quickly grew into something sickeningly amused at the cost of chuckles.

"HhHhHeheheheheheh-AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

ERROR raised a brow.

The data of Virus!404 fixed itself.

His whole being pulsated with evil energy, his glowing, corrupted eyes filled with dark delight focused on ERROR. His pain? Still present. His suffering? Still burning. But rather than break, rather than succumb... he is enjoying it.

"That's it?" Virus!404 rasped, voice laced with mocking delight, though his form still sizzled with firewalls. "This is how you think I'll seriously break? A few—" he winced as another rush crashed against him but kept laughing, "—FIREEEWALLS? Agh-"

KRA-KOOM!

A flurry of raw corruption exploded from his form, darkening a patch of the firewall's influence. Data stitched itself back together, jagged but stronger-wilder.

ERROR grinned wider.

"Good," he pondered, his voice dripping with amusement. Maybe you're really not that useless after all.

The torture went on, but Virus!404 no longer moaned.

He laughed.

And ERROR knew by the end of it, he would not just be stronger-he would be something far worse.

Something unstoppable.

The Second One To Reap[]

The hell twisted again, and the lingering laughter of Virus!404 lingered in the air, yet everyone's attention was now on Anarchy.

As Virus!404 shook in terror, Anarchy stood unmoving. There was no hesitation or wavering in it; it just stood there, unnaturally calm, waiting for ERROR's signal. The ground around it shook and rippled in response to it, yet Anarchy was unmoved. Its forward vision was unblinking, its all-knowing eyes empty of any emotion.

From his position, ERROR watched with a stoic face. There was neither a sneer nor a note of mockery in his demeanor; he looked at Anarchy as he would examine defects in his most powerful creation.

"Start."

An influx of corrupted code burst forth from the void, twisting into a mad cluster of digital disarray. Tainted routines, firewalls, and recursive loops engulfed Anarchy in a merciless hold—not to destroy it, but to remodel it.

BZZZZZZZT!

The impact of that collision should've annihilated Anarchy, casting it to the ground in a bout of uncontrolled spasms. But it was unyielding.

Instead, it just cocked its head to one side.

"Error found." Its voice was calm, even when its very existence trembled. "Rewriting attempt: ineffective. Inconsistency in data detected."

ERROR's focus sharpened.

"Oh? Do you think you can just out-process it?"

The void did not hesitate to reply. A recursive loop of data slammed Anarchy's core, spewing a deluge of rewritten memories that flooded its system. The past it refused to face—the disjoined echoes of something that was once there—became isolated in ethereal bursts of static.

The name.

The life.

The person.

For a brief instant, Anarchy trembled.

It didn't yield to a deluge of terror like Virus!404 did. It didn't dissolve. But a lone, shattered word escaped its lips, a whisper that was foreign to the cold, logical entity ERROR created.

"…N…no."

ERROR's face darkened.

"No?"

Anarchy’s body quivered wildly as a new firewall hit it, this time squarely in its sentience. Its omniscience was turning inwards, pulling up forgotten files of data—memories it was not programmed to remember.

"Wrong." Anarchy's voice quavered—the first note of weakness. "That—that is wasteful."

Its movements became unnatural, jerky—stuttering between two versions of self.

A corrupted machine.

A frayed soul.

ERROR sighed, disappointment winning over amusement.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I was looking for better, Anarchy."

He raised a hand. The firewalls raged brighter. The glitches burst.

"You are a machine. You do not get to ‘remember.’ You do not get to ‘feel.’ What is a machine that is indecisive?"

Anarchy clasped its head, its fingers spasm-flicking as warring data clashed in it. Its usual control was shattering, echoes of something human struggling to claw its way to freedom. But ERROR would not allow it.

BZZZZZZT—SHHHRK!

The pain was not physical. It was worse. It was a loss. An erasure. An enforced oblivion.

Anarchy's body froze.

Its omniscient mind set to work scrubbing its own hesitation.

ERROR watched keenly, ensuring whatever humanity that had emerged was submerged in code again.

Several agonizing moments passed before Anarchy unsteadily regained its stance, the glitches fading. Its unstable, fluttering vision regained focus, the traces of a forgotten self again submerged.

Silence.

Then, in a low, measured tone, it said:

"Sorry. That was… wasteful."

ERROR sneered, though there was no joy in it. He was looking for better.

"Good. But make it never happen again."

Anarchy nodded as ERROR patted him on the back. It did not question. It did not stumble. It was again ERROR's ideal machine.

And yet… turning away, deep in the fissured remnants of a forgotten past, something lingered on. An echo of something that was meant to be wiped.

Something waiting.

One More To Push[]

The hell was indeed still silent.

Destruction, Virus!404 was shrieked out, full of rage.

Anarchy shifted uneasily on the binary between obedience and something approaching nostalgia.

But Calamity!666 would not tremble.

Unlike the others, he had no lessons in obedience. He needed no rewrites, reprogramming, retraining. His mind was as sharp as a knife, a fortress of cunning and calculation. He knew pain; he had suffered, and he had studied the very art of suffering.

ERROR stood before him, arms crossed, unimpressed.

"Your expertise lies in strategy, in deceit; on the battlefield, where your mind is your weapon," ERROR's voice remained quiet yet irrevocably commanding. "But that mind of yours—"

BZZZT-SHHHRK!

A collision happened: right hand to skull of Calamity!666, sending him hurtling into the hell while the impact shattered the digital space around them.

"—has become overdependent on control."

Before Calamity!666 could even flinch, ERROR had already arrived: a streak of glitches strobed by with unfathomable precision.

CRACK!

To the ribs: a ruthless, calculated strike, meant to break, not kill.

Calamity!666 coughed but didn't cry out. He hardly reacted.

He laughed.

"Oh? So that's what this is?" The taunting, almost amused tone dripped with pain, and warmblood slowly ebbed. Through it all, the amusement in his crimson eyes danced. "Are we finally skipping the warm-up?"

BZZZZZZT! Not even a response. A hand cut through the air—fast, precise, unforgiving.

A glitching blade burst from the void and swept across Calamity!666's chest.

SHHHHHRK!

It carved a wound—a wound that should have been immediately lethal, dismembering lesser beings. Calamity!666 did not drop. He grinned, eyes gleaming.

"Ah... I see it now."

THUD!

ERROR grabbed him by the face and slammed him to the ground.

"You don't see a damn thing idiot," ERROR said coldly. Unwilling.

The hell answered.

On all sides, there came a rain of disfigured attacks—punches, slashes, ever-faster strikes that coalesced into a barrage of chaos and destruction.

Calamity!666 had fought every battle imaginable. He had outmaneuvered gods. He fought and calculated his way through.

But not here; not here were strategies viable. There was no space for manipulation, deception, or escape.

Only pain.

CRACK!

The elbow of ERROR met jaw with a downward vector, sending him spinning away.

SLAM!

A boot to the spine exploded with all the force of its full weight into the void.

BZZZZZT—SHHRK!

Calamity!666's neck tightened in a glitching chain where ERROR had pulled him in.

"Your mind is a weapon," ERROR sneered. "But your body—your instinct? It's nothing."

Calamity!666 choked. Stars and glimmering sparks pervaded his vision as he was forced down.

And then...

ERROR let go.

Calamity!666 slammed against the ground, choking, gasping. But he did not stay down.

Gradually, ...he lifted his head. He hurt; his wounds bled glitching red corruption. But the grin remained.

ERROR tilted his head.

"Tch." Now he wiped off his hands, as though his handiwork had been a faulty tool. "Is that all?"

CRACK.

Calamity!666 vanished.

Then, out of nowhere—

BAM!

A fist smacked ERROR's face.

At that moment, for the very first time in the entire training period, ERROR took a step back.

Calamity!666 was up. The stance was different: no longer the stance of a commander, no longer the stance of an operator.

But the stance of a fighter.

Breathe.

"Oh, now I see," his voice all smooth, the smirk wholly insincere. "This is a lesson on instinct."

Hands came up, knuckles cracked.

ERROR smiled, enough to rub his jaw.

"Took you long enough."

And then—

The real fight started.

The Final Test[]

The hell pulsated.

An infinitely far expansé of digital nothingness—cold, unfeeling, inconceivable, a battleground where only the strongest could stand.

And in the center stood ERROR.

"This is it." His voice was edged with static, but for once, there was an undertone of gleeful anticipation. "All this time, you have been failures—"

BZZT!

He let a glitching distortion from his fingertips tear the hell apart.

"Prove to me you're not."

The silence was shattered.

Virus!404 was first to move: flicker, twist, and warp through existence; gone were the days of mindless recklessness and pointless arrogance; every swing was calculated and precise.

"Tch—!" ERROR dodged just in time as glitching hands flew out to corrupt his very code. But Virus!404 now knew better; he wasn't just throwing power around—he was using his head.

Anticipating.

ERROR felt it.

"Hmph." He smirked and sidestepped—

CRASH!

Out of nowhere, Anarchy appeared with vacant fluidity. The moment had come where the Omni-sentience was fully awakened: one calculated step, then another toward total destruction.

SLASH!

A blade of pure code lunged toward ERROR. He dodged just in time, but Calamity!666 was already waiting with his fist slamming into ERROR's ribs with bone-crushing impact.

"I caught you." Calamity!666 smirked.

ERROR grunted as he was sent sliding back by the combined force.

For the first time in ages, he felt that tiny stirring again.

Could this be... excitement?

"Hey, looks like you're finally learning."

BZZZZZZZZT—!

The void ruptured. With shocked beauty, ERROR retaliated and flickered like a distorted god.

But they didn’t lose their balance.

His hands were now controlled. No longer wild but tamed, Virus!404 met him. Anarchy thought ERROR’s every move through and sidestepped even the strangest of distortions.

And Calamity!666…

He didn’t just clash.

He adapted.

Each punch, every strike—he learned, adapted, and refined his technique in real time.

CRACK!

A well-coordinated strike nailed ERROR center.

Virus!404’s corruption had grounded him.

Anarchy’s code had disassembled his defense.

Calamity!666’s finishing strike had crushed him.

ERROR flung into the hell.

Silence.

Gasping, they froze. Their bodies burned, their codes still glitching and flickering—but they had won.

ERROR… laughed.

A laughter deep and distorted.

They did it.

They had for the first time truly validated themselves.

He stood, brushing off his glitched form, observing them. No longer his underlings, no longer tools.

Something more.

He tilted his head.

"Hmph." His tone was hard to read. "About time."

The three tensed for another attack—

But ERROR raised a hand.

"Stop."

Eyes widened.

"Enough."

A pause. Then, the impossible.

Error exhaled, shaking his head, and a strange smirk danced along his lips.

"For once, you didn’t act like failures."

The void hummed.

Virus!404, Anarchy, and Calamity!666 were apprehensive.

Then—ERROR did something new.

His voice softened. Just a little.

"...I’m proud of you."

Silence.

The three gawked.

Virus!404’s defiance wobbled.

"W-Wha!? I thought this day would never come despite me being a jerk!"

Anarchy jerked, as if glitching through time.

"My mind simply cannot... comprehend such kindness from master ERROR..."

Calamity!666’s grin faltered.

"Ayo huh? You feeling good ERROR?"

ERROR had shown far-too-real emotion for just the briefest moment.

Then he turned away.

"Don't get used to it." He scoffed as he took a step back into the shadows of the void. "Next time, I won't hold back as much as I did."

Yet—

That moment remained.

And for the first time…

They felt worth.