I didn't sleep.
Velin's shard pulsed on the table like a heartbeat. A rhythm that echoed in my bones, matching my pulse until I couldn't tell which was mine. For three nights it remained, an alien presence humming like a silent scream. Not bright—never blinding—but present, pale and sharp like moonlight reflected off a blade.
Lira tried to examine it.
She used aether lenses, scrying mirrors, even shadow-bound imps. All failed.
"The system won't read it," she muttered. "It won't even acknowledge it's there. Elias, this thing shouldn't exist."
I held her gaze. "But it does."
"Then it's older than the system. Or outside it."
Outside.
The word settled into my mind like a seed taking root.
Ayla came close once. Just once. She reached for it—then pulled back.
"It feels like it's watching me," she whispered. "Like it knows my secrets."
Kael never entered the room again.
It changed the air around us. Every breath felt like drawing in the void. The others didn't say it, but I knew: the shard had made me different. And they didn't know if that was still a good thing.
The truth?
Neither did I.
But I had no choice.
---
The shard didn't wait to be used.
It led me.
Down.
I followed the pull through Arinvale's undercity, descending past collapsed sewer grates and forgotten mage tunnels. It wasn't just instinct—it was a pressure. A magnetic draw, pulling at the soul. A whisper at the edge of thought.
I passed ruins older than Arinvale itself. Broken runes of the Old Tongue. Doors sealed by logic traps. The deeper I went, the more the walls bled shimmer.
There were remnants of others—scratched symbols, blood-stains, fragments of system logs carved into the stone.
> [Query: Unknown Entity Accessing Ghost Layer]
[Response: Path Denied. Core Lock Engaged.]
Even the system seemed confused.
At the final descent, the shard burned in my hand. Not with heat—with memory. I saw flashes.
A tower in the void.
A man standing before it.
A blade of light being shattered.
I didn't understand it.
But I remembered it.
Then the world peeled open.
I didn't open a Veilgate. Didn't channel magic.
I stepped through a tear that had already been made.
And found the Gate.
---
It wasn't a door.
It wasn't a portal.
It was a wound.
A jagged slash through reality itself. It hovered above a stone dais, suspended in midair. Light bled from its edges—not white, not gold, but something that hurt to look at. Fractals. Glitchlines. Code symbols that re-wrote themselves as I stared.
> [Warning: System Layer Breach Detected]
[Proceeding Will Nullify Current Class Tree]
[Backup Memory Initiated... Failed.]
[Unbound Access Level Required: GRANTED]
My breath caught.
"Unbound..."
Velin's word.
The shard floated from my hand, pulled by unseen force. It fitted into a groove on the dais, like a key returning to its lock.
The Gate pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
And then it opened.
No sound. No explosion.
Just change.
The entire chamber folded outward.
Not in space—in logic. The rules broke. Gravity reversed. Time staggered. My body flickered through seventeen different versions of itself before stabilizing. I collapsed to one knee.
A flood of knowledge tore through me. Not words—concepts.
> [New Path Detected: SYSTEM NULL - CLASS VOIDWALKER]
Description: You are a fracture in the code. A question the world forgot to ask. You exist where logic ends.
> [Abilities Gained]:
Ghost Step: Phase through non-temporal matter.
Reality Deny: Cancel a single event.
Code Rend: Unwrite minor system effects.
> [Warning: Each usage increases Entropic Instability.]
> [Current Entropic Instability: 2%]
I screamed.
But no sound came out.
Then I was standing again.
Alone.
The Gate had closed.
The shard was gone.
And so was the version of me that walked in.
---
I emerged from the undercity at dawn.
The streets of Arinvale were silent.
But the world had changed. I could see it in the lines. The cracks. People didn't notice it yet—but the system was fraying. The sky had a glitch in its blue. NPCs stuttered for half-seconds. Spells misfired slightly.
I walked into the hideout.
Lira stared.
Ayla reached for her blade.
Kael stepped between us.
"What did you do?" he asked.
I looked down at my hands.
"I broke the script."
And for the first time—the system didn't correct me.