00:11:02
The air hadn't moved since Jonah vanished.
His body didn't explode. It didn't glitch. It just… stopped existing.Like he'd been undone.
Elya didn't speak. Neither did I.There were no words for what I'd just done—only silence.
[New Trait Gained: Emotion Binds – Tier 1]Your power now responds to emotional surges. Regret, rage, love, fear—these can modify Chaos magic effects.Warning: Binds may unintentionally amplify or warp spells during high-stress moments.
I sat on the floor of our server vault, hands shaking. The ∆ rune pulsed with a faint blue light—no longer chaotic, but sad.I didn't even know magic could feel.
"You okay?" Elya asked, kneeling beside me.
I looked at her. "He asked me not to let him disappear."
She nodded. "You didn't. You made him matter. That counts for something."
I wanted to believe that. But the System didn't hand out moral victories. Only upgrades.
The AI returned, quieter than usual.
"You've passed the second critical threshold. You're no longer just using magic—you're shaping it with your will."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your power now mirrors your state of being. Your next spell won't just be cast—it will echo what you feel."
I swallowed hard. "What happens if I feel the wrong thing?"
"Then reality gets a headache."
Elya tossed me a scrap of cloth—Jonah's scarf. It hadn't vanished with him.
"You need to test your bind," she said. "Don't bottle it. Channel it. Let's see what kind of Chaos you've really become."
She led me to the top of a ruined broadcast tower just past the northern quarantine zone. The sky was hazy with static clouds. The city stretched beneath us like a virus waiting to spread.
She pointed to a rusted antenna that once pulsed with data. "Focus on your regret. Channel it through a spell. The System wants to see how human you really are."
I held the scarf in one hand, the ∆ rune glowing in the other.Closed my eyes.
And I remembered: Jonah's glitching voice. The soft panic in his eyes. The fear of being erased. I felt it all.
Emotion Detected: GuiltEmotion Bind Initiated.Spell Infusion: Chaos Bolt → [Remnant Lance]Description: A soul-linked projectile of unstable energy, designed to remember the target's final state.Effect: Inflicts damage equal to the caster's emotional intensity. Leaves behind a memory fragment.
I opened my eyes. Cast.
The bolt of energy that emerged from my hand wasn't fire or light—it was quiet.It moved like a falling tear.When it hit the antenna, it didn't explode—it hummed.
A faint echo of Jonah's voice whispered through the metal.
"I don't want to disappear…"
Even Elya flinched.
"That," she said softly, "was beautiful. And terrifying."
[Skill Unlocked: Remnant Lance Lv.1]Effect: Inflicts moderate Chaos damage and embeds a psychic echo. Echo can be retrieved later to gain insight or unlock unique spell paths.Side Effect: Emotional feedback loop—caster relives target's final memory fragment.
The city below us shimmered faintly.
And then my System flickered.
A new prompt appeared—unlike any before.
[SECRET PATH UNLOCKED: ECHO CLASS – Soul Weaver (Unstable)]Do you wish to pursue this path?Caution: Progressing further may remove access to conventional spell trees.
I stared at it. A whole path… built from guilt and memory?
And I knew, deep down, this was the road only Chaos Mages could walk.
The road where power costs something real.
I whispered, "Yes."