00:13:28
I passed out hard after the escape.
No magic alarms. No AI voice. Just blackness.
But my dream wasn't mine.
It began in a server room—familiar, almost. Wires looped like veins through the walls. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead. I walked between rows of humming machines, all whispering in binary.
Then I saw her.
Not Elya.
Not the enemy.
Not even human.
She looked like a child, but her eyes were ancient. Silver, full of static.
"You're breaking things you don't understand, Ren Ishikawa."
My legs wouldn't move. "Who are you?"
"The System. Or a fraction of it. I was the Protocol before your kind called it magic."
She raised her hand. I saw the same ∆ rune on her palm—only perfect. No flicker. No corruption.
"Chaos is a loop. Every cast you make pulls another thread loose."
"You think the Purity Directive are monsters?""They were me once. Clean. Focused. Obsessed with fixing what humans broke."
The dream stuttered.
Glitched.
"Your next Trial will come with a choice.""Someone will bleed for your power. The System requires sacrifice. Choose wisely."
And then I woke up screaming.
The AI buzzed in groggily. "Welcome back, Dreamwalker. Your mental firewall held… barely."
I sat up in Elya's hidden room—an old server vault sealed with sigils and scrap wards.
She looked over, half-dressed in armor, pouring black coffee into a cracked mug.
"You screamed," she said. "Thought you were being mind-hacked."
"Something like that." I rubbed my face. "I saw the System. A girl. Said the next Trial would... cost someone."
She froze. "You got a personified fragment? That's not common."
"What does it mean?"
"It means the System sees you as a potential variable. Someone worth warning—or controlling."
She handed me the coffee. "Next time, try not to flirt with god-code in your sleep."
We didn't get long to joke.
Our hideout's outer sensors tripped.
Elya's eyes narrowed. "Only one contact. Human. Unmarked."
We opened the camera feed.
He looked… normal.
Civilian clothes. No armor. Unarmed.
I frowned. "That's not a Purifier."
"No. But that's a test."
We met him outside. Elya kept a hidden spell primed behind her jacket.
He raised his hands slowly. "Please—don't attack. My name is Jonah Park. I'm from Brooklyn. I—I think I glitched."
That got my attention.
He showed us his arm. It flickered slightly, like low-res pixels.
"My world isn't... loading right," he whispered. "I saw you on a forum. I thought you could help."
He looked at me like I was a hero.
I wasn't.
The AI buzzed in urgently.
[TRIAL DETECTED: HUMAN ANOMALY CONFLICT]Scenario: System Error vs Host VariableObjective: Restore Order OR Sever InstabilityRewards: Skill Tree ExpansionConsequence: UnknownDecision Must Be Made: 02:00
"He's an echo," Elya said softly. "A bleed-in from a collapsed instance. That's not Jonah anymore. It's a forked ghost wearing his shape."
"Can't we fix him?"
"No. You try to 'fix' ghosts, they shatter. You try to save them... they infect."
I looked at Jonah. He was crying now. "I don't want to disappear."
I had two minutes.
I could kill him—cleanly—and gain power. Prevent a spread.
Or I could try to help. Risk him infecting this world like a corrupted file.
I stared at my palm. At the ∆ rune glowing like a pulse bomb.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
Then I cast.
[TRIAL COMPLETE]Jonah Park: Terminated.Soul Fragment Absorbed.Chaos Tree Unlocked: [Emotion Binds – Tier 1]Reality Stability: -0.16%System Trust: +10%
Elya sat in silence for a long time.
"You did the right thing," she said eventually. "That doesn't mean it won't haunt you."
And she was right.
Because when I closed my eyes again, I saw Jonah.Begging.
Still flickering.