Timeline 882-Alpha - The Northern WildernessDay 1 (Post-Shift)
The wind howled through the pine trees, biting at Dante's exposed skin. It was the only thing he felt.
He sat in the snow, his back against a rough bark pine, staring at nothing.
His mind wasn't calculating trajectories. It was looping the same three seconds over and over again.
The Silhouette looking down.The feeling of his atoms unspooling.The absolute, crushing realization that he was nothing.
"I'm a bug," Dante whispered, his voice lost in the wind. "I built a railgun. I thought I was strong. And that thing... it just deleted reality."
He looked at his hands. They were shaking uncontrollably.
"What is the point?" he laughed, a brittle sound. "Build a kingdom? For what? So He can come back and erase it with a thought? I can't fight physics manipulation. I can't fight a God."
Despair, heavy and cold as the snow, settled over him. For the first time in two lives, Ryan—Dante—wanted to quit.
"My Lord?"
A soft hand touched his freezing cheek.
Dante flinched, looking up.
Elara was awake. She was pale, her blonde hair matted with snow, shivering violently from the cold and the shock of the dimension shift. But she wasn't looking at the mountains. She was looking at him.
"You're crying," she whispered.
Dante touched his face. It was wet. "I thought I was a player in this world, Elara. But I'm nothing."
"But you saved me," Elara said firmly.
She moved closer, wrapping her arms around his shivering frame, sharing her meager body heat.
"I saw it too," she said, her voice trembling. "The white light. The thing that wasn't a man. It was terrifying. It made me feel like... like I didn't exist."
"We don't," Dante rasped. "To them, we are less than dust."
"Maybe," Elara pulled back, looking him in the eye. "But to me? You are everything."
Dante froze.
"You pulled me out of the mud in Blackcrag," Elara said fiercely. "You gave us fire when we were freezing. You gave us hope when we were starving. I don't care about Gods, Dante. I care about you. And as long as you are breathing, I am with you. Always."
Dante looked at her.
A warmth bloomed in his chest.
[System Alert][Emotional Resonance Detected.][Subject: Elara (ID: 001).][Synchronization Rate: 100%.]
The blue screen flickered.
[New Trait Unlocked for Subject Elara: Soul Bound.][Effect: Mana Capacity Unlocked. Healing Output amplified by Host's System Energy.]
Elara gasped. A golden light, warm and vibrant, erupted from her hands—far brighter than the weak flicker she had summoned before. It washed over Dante, and the pain in his dislocated shoulder vanished instantly.
"I..." Elara looked at her hands, amazed. "I can feel it. It's not burning me anymore. It feels... endless."
Dante flexed his arm. He looked at the golden light, then at the girl who refused to let him give up.
"Thank you," Dante whispered.
He took a deep breath, the cold air filling his lungs. He pushed the despair down.
"System," Dante said, his voice regaining its steel edge. "Status."
[System Reboot Complete.][Timeline: Stable.][Inventory: 1 Item Detected.]
Dante frowned. "Item? I lost everything in the shift."
[Notification: Administrator Gift Package.][Message Attached.]
Dante opened the inventory. A single, glowing data shard floated there. He selected it.
A message window popped up. The text wasn't the standard robotic font. It was elegant, handwritten script.
> "You survived the encounter. Good. But let us be honest, Little Variable. You survived because I moved the board, not because you played well."> "The Entity (Variable X) found you too early. My calculations were off. The difficulty spike was... unfair. And I do hate an unfair game. It ruins the entertainment value."> "So, I am issuing a Patch."
Dante narrowed his eyes. "A patch?"
> "You are an engineer, Ryan. You rely on my System to drip-feed you blueprints. You wait for me to tell you how to build a steam engine. It is slow. It is boring."> "If you are going to kill a God, you cannot rely on a pre-set Tech Tree. You need to be unbound."
[System Update: MASTER BUILDER PROTOCOL.][Restriction Removed: Blueprint Library.][New Feature: Conceptual Fabrication.]
[Description: The User is no longer required to unlock blueprints. If the User can visualize the mechanical structure, understand the physics, and provide the resources, the System will fabricate ANY object.]
Dante stared at the screen.
"Any object?" he whispered.
He didn't need to wait for Level 10 to unlock the Gattling Gun. He didn't need to find a specific ore to unlock the Combustion Engine.
If he knew how it worked on Earth, he could build it here. Right now.
> "I have given you the tool," the Administrator's note finished. "Use your imagination to find a way to kill Him. I await you."
Dante closed the window.
"Who are you?" Dante murmured, looking up at the sky. "You have the same power as the one who hunted me. You speak of 'variables' and 'games'. Are you his brother? His rival?"
He didn't get an answer. But the fear was gone.
Dante stood up, brushing the snow from his coat.
"Elara," Dante said.
"Yes, my Lord?"
He looked at the new interface. [Conceptual Fabrication: Ready.]
He thought of the weapons he had designed on Earth. The weapons that were too dangerous to build.
Then, his mind went further. He thought of the weapons that were impossible on Earth. Theoretical physics. Concepts that Earth lacked the technology to realize. Here, he wasn't bound by manufacturing limits. He was only bound by cost.
"We need gold," Dante said, starting to walk through the snow. "And in this timeline, I know exactly where it is."