.
Kael stood in the crater left by the impact — dust swirling, cracks spidering across the chamber. His right hand glowed with unstable light. The energy he absorbed still surged through his veins, but it wasn't just power… it was language. The Judge's essence was trying to rewrite him from the inside.
[⚠️ CODE INJECTION ATTEMPTED]
[Countermeasure Activated: Glitchform Core Firewall 🧬🛡️]
[Result: Partial Assimilation Successful ✅]
Kael blinked.
Lines of foreign script danced across his retina. Words he'd never learned — ancient, command-level instructions — began making sense.
"What... is this?"
The Sovereign roared, glitching in and out of reality. Its perfect symmetry was now fractured, like a corrupted program forced to keep running past its end.
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE FAILURE]
[ERROR: JUDGE CONTAINMENT INTEGRITY DOWN 72%]
Kael clenched his fist. The energy twisted again — his hand shimmered like a broken hologram. He could feel the system's rules vibrating in his bones… and breaking.
"This isn't just power. It's permission," he muttered. "I'm rewriting my own code."
[New Skill: ⛓️ Rulebreaker Acquired (Lv. 1)]
Temporarily nullifies one fundamental system law per activation.
The Sovereign lunged again, more desperate this time. Its arm morphed into a blade of condensed law — not sharp, but true, a weapon that had erased entire error-classes in a single sweep.
Kael didn't flinch.
Instead, he stepped forward, directly into the swing.
[Skill Activated: Rulebreaker]
[Target Law: Absolute Termination = Nullified ❌]
The blade phased through him — harmless. The world blinked in confusion. Even the system's core hesitated.
[⚠️ PARADOX DETECTED]
[STABILITY INDEX CRITICAL]
Kael exhaled, steam rolling from his mouth like smoke off molten data.
"You shouldn't have let me in."
He raised both arms, siphoning raw energy from the pulsing black crystal behind the Judge. The chamber trembled. The crystal began to dim — not from external force, but because Kael was draining it.
The Sovereign stumbled, hands outstretched, attempting to sever the link. But Kael's connection to the system was no longer external.
It was embedded.
[🌌 Core Sync Rate: 28%… 34%… 41%...]
Suddenly, Kael felt something else.
A presence.
Not system. Not Judge.
Observer.
He turned slightly. In the shadows above the chamber, a flicker — a humanoid silhouette, watching silently.
Not interfering.
Just... recording.
[Unidentified Protocol Observing…]
[Designation: ??]
[No data available.]
Kael locked eyes with the void — and smiled.
"Watch all you want."
With a final surge of will, he crushed the Judge's essence in his hand. It shattered like corrupted glass.
[SOVEREIGN JUDGE: DELETED ❌]
[System Core: Severely Weakened]
The chamber fell silent.
Then came the voice:
[🎖️ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: First Rebellion]
[Title Acquired: Codebreaker]
[New Directive Unlocked: Reach the Root Layer]
Kael turned toward the exit.
One Judge down.
How many more laws were left to break?