By the time I made it to the rendezvous, my hoodie was soaked with sweat and smoke.I'd survived a boss fight against five distorted versions of myself, bent time, and nearly collapsed a city block in the process.
And now I was supposed to meet someone worse?
The drop point was beneath an abandoned train tunnel near the Bronx River. The walls were covered in cursed glyphs—each pulsing faintly, warning me I was in someone else's domain.
She was already waiting.
Leaning against a rusted vending machine, arms crossed, long coat dragging in the mud. Her eyes glowed faint gold—augmented. Her hair, jet-black and braided with copper thread, crackled with energy.
"Ren Ishikawa," she said. "Player Zero. Chaos Mage. System hazard."She smiled. "You're shorter than I expected."
"Let me guess," I said, still catching my breath, "NullKitten88?"
"Please. That was my safe mode. Call me Elya."She extended a hand. "Rogue Caster. Former Prophet. Full-time traitor to the System."
I didn't take her hand.
She laughed. "Smart. You're learning."
Inside the shelter, it looked less like a hideout and more like a lab run by a demon-possessed hacker.Floating spell nodes orbited ancient CRT monitors. Dozens of spellbooks—real ones, not PDFs—were stacked alongside flash drives marked "Reality.exe" and "Don't Plug In."
"I watched your Trial," she said, tossing me a glowing orb. "You're unstable. But promising."
"What is this?"
"A diagnostic. You're bleeding seconds."
I frowned. "From Chrono-Fang?"
She nodded. "That spell eats unspent potential. Do you even know what that means?"
"Not really."
"It means every time you hesitate, stall, or doubt, the spell chews off a piece of who you could've been. You're time-leaking."
I felt suddenly cold.
She paced in front of me. "But that can be fixed."
"With what?"
"A soul pact."
I backed up a step. "Excuse me?"
"Temporary," she said, lifting her coat sleeve to reveal a glowing tattoo with seven broken chains. "I've made pacts with void entities, deep-system fragments, and—briefly—a glitch god. I'm still me."
"Barely."
She ignored that. "I offer you protection, access to my spell network, and a fusion catalyst to unlock your first hybrid skill."
"What do you get?"
Elya stepped closer. Her eyes flickered—gold replaced by black code.
"I get a piece of your soul. Not for consumption. For collateral. If you die, I claim it. Fair trade."
[SOUL PACT OFFERED: Elya the Rogue Caster]Terms: One fragment of soul (non-lethal), duration: 72 hours.Rewards: +1 Fusion Catalyst, Temporary Firewall Shield, Access to RogueNet (illegal magic archive)Risk: Unknown side effects.
The System pulsed, waiting for my answer.
I looked at my hand. The glowing ∆ mark. I thought about the countdown. The next Trial. The hunting.
I exhaled. "Fine."
I held out my hand.
She clasped it.
Pain, heat, static—then a sudden weight inside my mind, like someone had set up a second operating system in the background of my soul.
Elya grinned. "Welcome to the real game, Zero."
[SOUL PACT BOUND.][Fusion Catalyst Received.][New Skill Path Unlocked: CHAOS + TIME]Next Unlock: Level 4 – Skill Fusion Available]
As we finished, a warning screeched through my vision.
[System Alert: Faction Detected – "Purity Directive" Inbound.]ETA: 00:17:32Engage or Escape. No neutral option.
"They found you," Elya said calmly, picking up her staff."Guess our date night's over."