System Reminder: 649 days remaining until your soul is claimed.
Nightmare Gauge: 73%
SP Total: 110
Moral Alignment Drift: Deeper into Damnation
Current Objective: Explore the Rift of the Forsaken or stabilize the False Redemption Pact.
The rift pulsated with every breath like a festering wound in the world. It screeched at the edges of Kael's consciousness, a thousand whispers clawing at the walls of his mind.
Mirea stood silent at his side, her hollow presence casting a chill that even the corrupted wind didn't dare pass. Tenn had his blade drawn—not from readiness, but fear.
"This thing doesn't feel right, Kael," Tenn muttered, sweat trailing down his brow. "It's like we're walking into someone's dying memory."
Kael stepped forward anyway.
System Alert: Entry Confirmed – [Rift of the Forsaken]
Danger Level: UNRANKED
Reality Stability: 11%
Entry Cost Applied: -50 SP | -10% HP
The Riftscape
As Kael passed through the veil, a rush of pressure squeezed his soul, like being shoved through the eye of a storm. He stumbled into a world painted in faded crimson and grey, where nothing was still.
Buildings floated upside down. Blood rivers flowed skyward. Time flickered—sometimes forward, sometimes reverse. In the sky, enormous, shattered statues wept fire. And across the entire landscape, shadows screamed without sound.
System Notice: You are in a Nonlinear Reality Zone
Abilities affected:
[Sin Detection]: Severely limited
[World Slow]: Unpredictable results
[Lucid Execution]: Fully powered
Kael exhaled slowly, then glanced to Mirea.
"You've seen this place before?"
She nodded faintly. "I died here. Once. Before he rewrote me."
"Who?"
Her head tilted toward the horizon, where a massive, chained tower floated in the void.
"The Architect of Broken Systems."
The party moved carefully, stepping over glitching ground and dodging fragments of memories that erupted like landmines. One fragment showed a dying girl screaming for her system to save her—only to be consumed by it. Another displayed an entire army kneeling to a figure made of pure code.
Kael's rage simmered.
This place was where systems came to die.
System Alert: Data Phantom Detected – Classification: Abandoned System Wielder
A figure emerged: a young man with scorched wings, his face half-covered in black circuit veins. His voice echoed from behind torn lips.
"We tried… to escape the rules."
"He said… we could rewrite fate…"
The phantom lunged.
Mini-Boss Encounter – Phantom of the Rebel System
HP: 12,000
Abilities:
[Code Flare] – Fragments reality to stun enemies.
[Loop Trigger] – Forces Kael to relive the last 10 seconds.
[Desync Slash] – Ignores armor and hits soul directly.
Kael activated [Hellfire Pulse Lv.2], flames crashing against the Phantom's disjointed body. Tenn swept in to parry the slash, but time bent—sending them both spinning backward.
Mirea stepped forward.
"Let me handle this."
Her stitched eyes glowed violet. The phantom froze.
[Dreambind Servant: ACTIVATE]
Dream Realm
Kael suddenly stood in a white field, surrounded by falling feathers. The Phantom stood across from him, confused, weaker.
[Lucid Execution Unlocked]
Kael walked forward slowly. "You were trying to escape your fate. Just like me."
The phantom gritted his teeth.
"You're no different. He'll come for you too. He always does."
Kael clenched his fist—and within the dream, summoned a devil's eye in the sky.
"Then I'll rewrite him first."
He snapped his fingers.
A storm of hellfire consumed the dream.
System Update – Victory
Phantom Defeated.
+80 SP
+[Skill Fragment: Loop Trigger (Time-based Passive)]
+[Memory Glimpse: Architect's Last Command]
+Nightmare Gauge +5% → 78%
SP Total: 140
Memory Glimpse: The Architect's Warning
The memory fragment spun into Kael's hand.
"To steal a system is to become one. But beware—if your soul is not your own, you're just his next weapon."
Kael froze. A vision flashed—
Lucivar—the Devil who gave Kael the system—standing over a battlefield, smiling as other system wielders slaughtered one another… under his command.
Scene – Tower Beckons
Kael looked up.
The chained tower began to descend.
A voice thundered from above:
"Little Devil… you've stepped into my graveyard. Are you ready to challenge your fate?"
Kael grinned.
"I'm not here to challenge fate."
"I'm here to burn it."
System Summary
SP Gained: +80
SP Total: 140
Skill Fragment Acquired: [Loop Trigger]
Nightmare Gauge: 78%
System Path Divergence Detected
Target Identified: The Architect of Broken Systems
System Quests Updated
Days Remaining: 649
End of Chapter 13