When he'd first heard the system whisper "Child of Fate," Damien had paused.
Not in confusion.
In calculation.
Because that phrasing? That wasn't from the original game.
Not exactly.
The system spoke in terms that hadn't appeared in any event text, sidequest chain, or NPC dialogue. There was lore, sure—rich with divinity, prophecy, golden threads of destiny and coded illusions of control—but that particular phrasing?
It hadn't existed in the script.
'That's the thing about perspectives,' Damien mused, his gaze locked on the still horizon. 'The game was told from mine. Or rather—from his. The original Damien. And he was too weak, too lazy, too scripted to ever see the larger web.'
Which meant the real story had always been hiding beneath the surface.
The players only saw what the waste saw.
So of course there wasn't information about Children of Fate. Of course there were no direct paths, no explicit lore trees, no system logs that explained them.
