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Chapter 23 - Chapter 23 – System Reborn

The morning light spilled through the ruins, painting everything gold and blue. The campfire had burned out, leaving only curling smoke and half-drunk cups of cold tea.

Haruki sat quietly against the stone archway, his System orb still faintly glowing. It pulsed soft, rhythmic, like a heartbeat that wasn't his.

[Emotional Sync Level: 47%]

[Core Awareness: Partial Awakening…]

He could feel it not as a voice this time, but as a presence, almost human. Like something behind the code was trying to breathe.

Kana stirred beside him, rubbing her eyes. "You didn't sleep, did you?"

He smiled tiredly. "Didn't feel like sleeping. The System's… acting weird."

Ren looked up from his spot by the doorway, tightening his gloves. "Define weird."

Haruki hesitated. "It feels alive."

That made everyone stop.

Jinto blinked. "Alive as in AI gone rogue kind of alive?"

"No," Haruki said slowly. "More like… it understands how I feel. When I think about fighting, it reacts. When I'm calm, it's calm too."

Kana frowned. "Systems don't have empathy. They calculate, not connect."

[Correction: Connection Detected.]

[User Emotional Input Acknowledged.]

The voice echoed suddenly in all their heads. Not cold or metallic this time it was warm, almost gentle.

Everyone froze.

Ren reached for his sword. "What the hell was that?"

Haruki swallowed. "It spoke… to all of us."

Jinto gave a nervous laugh. "Great. First Riftborn, now psychic software. What's next? Talking swords?"

But Kana wasn't laughing. Her hands trembled as she stared at the orb. "This isn't normal. A System that links emotions… that's not supposed to exist."

Ren crossed his arms. "Then we keep it quiet. If the Guild catches even a whisper of this, they'll take him apart to study it."

Haruki nodded, eyes on the pulsing light. "Then we hide it until I understand it."

He clenched his fist, the orb's light responding in kind.

"Power doesn't destroy people," Haruki murmured. "Fear of what they'll do with it does."

The words carried through the quiet morning air like a vow.

The Guild Headquarters stood atop the metallic cliffs of Zyphon Spire, its towers wrapped in cables and light. Screens hummed with energy, casting shifting data streams across the command hall.

Inside, chaos buzzed. Hunters and technicians rushed between glowing terminals, murmuring about the sudden surge in the eastern zones.

"Report," barked a voice.

Commander Arden Vale strode in tall, dark coat dragging across the steel floor, his right arm entirely mechanical, the metal engraved with rank symbols. His one human eye glowed faint blue, scanning the data screens.

"Sir!" a young analyst snapped to attention. "Unregistered energy pulse detected near the Mistwood ruins. Readings match… a high-tier System core signature."

Arden frowned. "Mistwood? That area's restricted to F and E Ranks. There shouldn't be any high-tier activity there."

"Exactly, sir. Which is why the sensors nearly overloaded trying to read it."

Another technician raised a hand. "We cross-referenced all registered System frequencies. None match. Whatever this was it's new. Possibly ancient."

The hall went silent.

Arden's mechanical hand flexed, gears whirring softly. "Ancient, huh? Don't throw that word around lightly."

From the side of the room, a calm voice spoke. "Commander, it might not be just ancient."

Everyone turned. Standing near the holo-map was Dr. Rika Mune, the Guild's chief Systemologist. Her glasses reflected scrolling code as she typed rapidly on her wristpad.

"The data structure of that pulse it's not a normal System link," she said. "It's layered, recursive, and emotional. Like it was syncing to a human heartbeat."

Arden arched an eyebrow. "Emotional? You're telling me a System felt something?"

"Yes," she said quietly. "And that means something or someone out there just broke a rule the world was built on."

The Commander stared at the hologram of the Mistwood region, blue energy rippling across it.

"Fear isn't what ends civilizations," he said finally. "It's comfort. The moment we stop questioning what shouldn't be possible… that's when we lose."

He turned sharply. "Prepare a scouting team. Quietly. If the old Systems are waking up again, I want to see it first."

The screens flickered, the pulse echoing once more like a distant heartbeat answering back.

By mid-afternoon, the forest gave way to stone.

Half-buried beneath roots and moss stood the remains of an old structure its walls marked with the same spiral sigil Haruki had seen on the altar. The air shimmered faintly, as if time itself refused to flow naturally here.

Ren's boots crunched over the gravel. "This place isn't on any map."

Jinto whistled low. "You can practically taste the mana in the air. It's like walking through static."

Kana crouched beside one of the pillars, tracing a glowing rune with her fingertip. "These markings are old… older than the Guild records. Maybe even older than the first Banting War."

Haruki felt a pull a magnetic sensation deep in his chest, dragging his gaze toward the largest archway ahead. His System orb glowed brighter with every step.

[Core Reaction Level: 63%]

[Warning: Boundary Cross Detected.]

He stepped forward anyway.

The others hesitated. "Haruki" Ren began.

But the air shifted before he could finish. Light burst across the archway in a spiderweb of blue lines, then folded inward, creating a rippling doorway of pure energy.

Jinto stumbled back. "Tell me that's just a fancy illusion."

"It's… a gate," Haruki said softly. "A living one."

Kana's voice trembled. "I've read about these. Pre-collapse gates. They were used to connect worlds until they started eating the ones who entered."

Ren gritted his teeth. "Then we don't step inside. We report it, regroup, and"

But Haruki wasn't listening. His orb pulsed faster, and in the glow, faint shapes appeared fragments of visions. A woman of light. A battlefield of gods. A symbol of a broken crown.

He whispered, "It's calling me."

Kana's hand caught his sleeve. "Then don't answer it alone."

He turned, eyes steady. "If every path is dangerous, then the only wrong one is standing still."

For a heartbeat, no one spoke. The quote hung in the air, quiet but powerful.

Ren finally nodded. "Then we move together. No heroes, no martyrs."

They stepped toward the light as one.

The gate flared and swallowed them whole.

Light shattered then reformed.

When Haruki opened his eyes, the forest was gone.

He stood on a reflective surface stretching endlessly in all directions, like a sky turned upside down. Each step sent ripples of light across the ground, and above them, shards of broken constellations floated, glowing faintly.

Kana staggered beside him. "What is this place…?"

Jinto tapped the ground cautiously. "Feels solid. Looks like a fever dream."

Ren scanned the horizon, blade drawn. "No terrain. No exit. Stay close."

Then, the air shimmered. Their reflections in the mirrored floor began to move but not in sync.

Haruki's reflection stared back at him… then smiled.

"Uh, Haruki," Jinto muttered, "I think the floor's broken reality."

The reflection's eyes turned crimson, the same eerie glow Haruki's orb gave off when it reacted.

[Warning: Core Reflection Event Detected.]

[Emotional Sync Threshold Exceeded.]

The reflections stepped upward, forming solid figures of light and shadow perfect replicas, but twisted.

Ren's copy bore cracks in his armor and eyes filled with guilt. Kana's reflection wept silently, her hands stained red. Jinto's wore a cruel grin too wide for his face.

Haruki's reflection, however, simply said, "You can't climb higher while dragging your fear behind you."

The real Haruki froze. "What…?"

Ren slashed first, blade sparking against his doppelgänger's shield. "They're mimicking us move!"

The mirrored world erupted into chaos. Every clash of steel echoed like thunder, every reflection striking with impossible precision.

Kana's reflection screamed, "You couldn't save them then what makes now different?"

Kana gasped, faltering for a second. Haruki jumped between them, parrying a strike of light.

"Don't listen!" he shouted. "They're not real they're what we used to be!"

The words struck something in Ren and Kana. Their movements steadied. Jinto laughed wildly, spinning his blade like fire. "Then it's time to kill our past!"

Haruki's reflection blocked his path again. "You talk about courage, but you still hide behind fate."

Haruki tightened his grip, eyes blazing. "Maybe. But courage isn't about being fearless it's about fighting even when you're terrified of who you were."

He lunged forward, blade cutting through his reflection. The figure cracked like glass and shattered into light.

One by one, the others followed.

As the last reflection dissolved, the mirror beneath them pulsed once and transformed into a spiral of blue energy.

[Core Reflection Complete. Emotional Sync 68%.]

The world shifted again, the spiral pulling them downward.

"Hold on!" Ren shouted.

And then the light swallowed them whole.

When the light finally faded, Haruki landed hard on cracked stone.

He groaned, blinking until the world settled into focus. The air was different here heavy, humming with a low vibration that seemed to come from the ground itself.

They stood on the edge of a massive city ruins suspended in the void. Towers of obsidian and glass floated in midair, chained together by beams of blue energy. The sky was neither night nor day; it pulsed like a heartbeat of light.

Jinto whistled. "Okay… not the weirdest place we've been. But definitely top three."

Kana stared around, awe filling her voice. "This architecture it's not human. The symbols are… inverted versions of the System code."

Ren scanned the horizon. "Meaning?"

She swallowed. "Meaning whoever built this didn't just use the System. They created it."

The group fell silent.

Haruki's orb pulsed again, brighter than before. Words shimmered across the ground beneath his feet, forming a single phrase in an ancient script.

Z-Core Sanctuary Detected.

Haruki's breath caught. "Sanctuary…"

[Core Synchronization Sequence Initiated.]

The runes flared. Energy surged upward, forming a translucent figure above the platform a tall, hooded silhouette with a voice that echoed through their minds.

"Welcome, Heir of the Broken System."

Everyone froze.

Ren's hand went instinctively to his sword, but Haruki raised his own hand slowly. "We mean no harm."

The figure tilted its head. "Harm and healing are both functions of evolution. You were chosen not because you are strong… but because you are unfinished."

The voice faded, leaving silence heavy as stone.

Kana's eyes trembled. "Chosen…?"

Haruki clenched his fists. "Then I'll finish what they couldn't."

The orb dimmed again, humming quietly like a sleeping heart.

Ren looked at the glowing ruins around them and exhaled. "I don't like this. We're standing in the graveyard of gods."

Jinto grinned weakly. "At least the view's nice."

Ren sheathed his blade and turned to them, his tone calm but firm.

"Power without direction is a storm," he said. "But power with purpose? That's how you rebuild worlds."

The others looked at him, quiet but steadied.

Ahead, a long bridge of light stretched deeper into the city, waiting for them.

Haruki stepped forward first. "Then let's see what kind of world this one remembers."

And together, they crossed into the unknown.

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