The alarms began to ring.
Not bells. Not horns.
A low, resonant hum rolled through the stone corridors, vibrating through bone and blood alike. It wasn't loud, but it was everywhere. A pressure that made the air feel heavier with every pulse.
The city's defensive array.
My stomach dropped.
That system wasn't activated for criminals.
It was activated for threats.
I sprinted through the side passage, boots slamming against uneven stone, breath ragged. The corridor twisted sharply to the left, then descended in a steep spiral that smelled of damp earth and rot. Old tunnels. Forgotten infrastructure.
The kind of place no one monitored anymore.
Perfect.
Behind me, the dungeon erupted into chaos.
Orders shouted. Spells detonated. Metal screamed against stone. Somewhere above, I felt it. An invisible pressure sweeping outward, scanning, calculating.
Searching for me.
Above my vision, the System flickered.
[CITY-LEVEL RESPONSE DETECTED]
[THREAT CLASSIFICATION UPDATE PENDING]
"No," I muttered. "Don't you dare."
My foot slipped on wet stone, sending me skidding down several steps. Pain flared through my ankle, sharp and immediate. I bit back a groan and forced myself upright.
I didn't slow down.
Pain didn't matter. Only distance.
The spiral tunnel ended abruptly in a rusted iron gate hanging crookedly from its hinges. Beyond it lay a maintenance passage. Wide, low-ceilinged, lined with thick pipes that pulsed faintly with residual mana.
I threw myself through the gate just as something howled behind me.
Not a voice. A spell tearing through space.
The tunnel behind me collapsed in a roar of stone and dust, the shockwave slamming into my back and hurling me forward. I hit the ground hard, breath punched from my lungs.
Darkness closed in.
For a terrifying second, nothing happened.
Then the System responded.
[ERROR][DEATH EVENT BLOCKED]
[ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE — REDIRECTED]
The pressure vanished.
I lay there gasping, fingers digging into the cold floor, chest burning like fire. Dust rained down around me, coating my hair, my clothes, my skin.
I was alive. Again.
My hands trembled.
This wasn't normal. This wasn't luck.
This was the world repeatedly failing to kill me and reacting badly to it.
I pushed myself up and staggered forward.
The maintenance passage stretched ahead, dimly lit by flickering mana-lamps embedded in the walls. Some were dead. Others sputtered weakly, casting long, warped shadows.
I didn't know where it led.
But I knew one thing.
If I stayed still, I was dead.
The city above ground was worse.
I emerged through a hidden hatch into a narrow alley behind a slaughterhouse. The stench hit me immediately. Blood, iron, waste. It made my stomach churn.
The sky had changed.
A translucent dome shimmered faintly overhead, barely visible unless you knew where to look. Runes crawled across its surface like living things, rearranging themselves constantly.
The city was sealed.
People were shouting.
Guards flooded the streets, weapons drawn, armor gleaming under the early morning light. Mage patrols hovered above intersections, staffs glowing, eyes scanning relentlessly.
And then the announcements began.
A booming voice echoed through the city, amplified by magic.
"ATTENTION ALL CITIZENS."
Every conversation died instantly.
"THE CITY IS UNDER TEMPORARY LOCKDOWN DUE TO A HIGH-LEVEL ANOMALY."
My blood ran cold.
"ALL MOVEMENT IS RESTRICTED. CURFEW IS IMMEDIATE. ANY INDIVIDUAL RESISTING INSPECTION WILL BE NEUTRALIZED."
Neutralized. Not arrested. Not detained.
Killed.
I pulled my hood up and melted into the flow of panicking civilians.
Above my vision, the System flickered uneasily.
[WORLD HOSTILITY: INCREASING]
[ANOMALY ATTRIBUTION: PROBABLE]
They knew. Not me specifically. But something.
Something had tripped alarms far above dungeon-level security.
My execution hadn't just failed. It had broken protocol.
The city reacted the only way it knew how.
Contain. Isolate. Erase.
I moved with the crowd, head down, posture tense but not panicked. Panic drew attention. Attention got you scanned.
Every intersection had a checkpoint now.
Guards stopped people in groups of five, running detection spells, reading status windows, checking affiliations.
A mage's eyes swept over the line.
Blue light washed across the crowd.
I felt it touch me and slide away.
My breath caught.
[SCAN REDIRECTED]
[SYSTEM INTERFERENCE: MINIMAL]
I swallowed hard and kept walking.
So it wasn't invincibility. It was avoidance.
The System wasn't shielding me. It was misdirecting the world.
That distinction mattered.
Because misdirection could fail.
A scream erupted to my left.
I flinched, turning just in time to see a man dragged out of line by guards. His eyes were wide, terrified.
"I didn't do anything!" he shouted. "I swear!"
A mage glanced at him briefly, then nodded.
"False positive," the mage said coldly.
A blade flashed. The man collapsed.
Blood pooled on the stone.
The crowd recoiled, but no one protested.
Everyone knew better.
I forced myself not to look back.
[CASUALTY REDIRECTED]
The text burned in my vision.
This was the cost.
Every time the world failed to kill me, it killed someone else.
My jaw clenched until it hurt.
"This can't continue," I whispered.
But the System didn't respond.
I needed shelter. Somewhere off-grid.
Somewhere the city systems couldn't easily track.
I headed for the Old Quarter.
It was a mistake.
The Old Quarter was already crawling with enforcers. Black-clad units moved in tight formations, insignias marked with sigils I recognized instantly.
Inquisitors.
Elite. Licensed to operate above local law.
This had escalated beyond city authority.
My heartbeat spiked.
Above my vision appeared more text.
[THREAT LEVEL: ESCALATING]
[MINIMUM NARRATIVE THRESHOLD — UNREACHED]
"What happens when I reach it?" I murmured.
No answer.
I slipped into a side street and nearly collided with someone.
A woman.
She was tall, wrapped in a dark cloak that concealed her build. Her hood was pulled low, shadowing her face, but I saw her eyes.
Sharp. Assessing.
She looked straight at me. And didn't look away.
Time seemed to slow.
Around us, people rushed past, shouting, crying, running. Guards barked orders in the distance. Magic flared overhead.
But her gaze didn't waver.
"You're the anomaly," she said quietly.
My blood froze.
I didn't move. Didn't reach for anything. Didn't run.
Running confirmed guilt.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.
She smiled faintly.
"Of course you don't," she replied. "That's what makes it interesting."
Above my vision, the System screamed.
[CRITICAL OBSERVER DETECTED]
[HOSTILITY: UNKNOWN]
She leaned closer, voice dropping.
"You should leave the city," she said. "Now."
"And if I can't?" I asked.
Her eyes flicked upward, just for a moment. At the dome.
Then back to me.
"Then the city will break itself trying to erase you."
She stepped back into the crowd. And vanished.
No footsteps. No trail. Gone.
My pulse thundered in my ears.
That wasn't a civilian. That wasn't an inquisitor.
That was something else. Something watching the system fail.
The ground shook.
A deep tremor rippled through the streets as a massive surge of mana pulsed from the city center. People screamed as cracks spread across walls and windows shattered.
Above my vision appeared urgent text.
[FORCED CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL INITIATED]
A pillar of light shot into the sky. The city's core array.
They were narrowing the net.
I ran.
This time, I didn't hide.
I pushed through alleys, vaulted crates, ducked under hanging lines. My lungs burned, legs screaming, but I didn't slow.
Behind me, spells detonated.
Ahead, the city gates loomed. Massive, reinforced, sealed shut with glowing runes.
I skidded to a halt. Trapped.
Guards turned. Weapons raised.
A mage began chanting.
Above my vision, blue text filled the air, sharper than ever.
[MINIMUM NARRATIVE THRESHOLD — IMMINENT]
[SURVIVAL PRIORITY: MAXIMUM]
The gates groaned. The runes flickered violently.
"What?" someone shouted.
The mage faltered.
The gates exploded outward in a storm of light and shattered stone.
I was thrown backward as the force ripped through the street, flattening guards, collapsing buildings, tearing open the city's boundary like it was made of paper.
Silence followed. Then screams.
I lay on my back, staring at the open road beyond the city. The world outside.
Free.
Above my vision, the System stabilized.
[CITY CONTAINMENT FAILED]
[SUBJECT STATUS: ESCAPED]
I laughed. Once. Short. Bitter.
"This is getting out of hand," I whispered.
But as I dragged myself to my feet and staggered toward the open gate, one thought burned brighter than the rest.
The world would not stop. The System would not stop.
And whatever waited beyond the city would be worse.