Kael's knees buckled.
The moment the Revenant disintegrated, his body sagged like a marionette with its strings severed. The sanctum was silent—eerily so—as the dust of his fallen foe slowly scattered into the still, frostbitten air. He wanted to collapse, to rest. But something else was breathing in this chamber now.
Not air.
Code.
It whispered like strands of silk unraveling through the cosmos, and Kael could feel it spiraling around his limbs, slithering through his veins. The sanctum itself trembled softly, as if the defeat of the Revenant had only been a prelude.
Then came the voice.
Not loud, not harsh, but all-encompassing.
"YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE THRONE THAT SHOULD NOT BE."
Kael's eyes darted toward it—the broken throne, still wrapped in rusted chains and enshrouded by crumbling glyphs. The symbols were failing, the lock unraveling.
Something inside was waking up.
[WARNING: Outer Protocol Seal Breach Detected.]
[Origin Throne Awakening — Classification: Forbidden.]
[System Attempting to Reestablish Containment… Failed.]
A soft click echoed from the throne.
The chains snapped—one by one.
Kael staggered to his feet, blood still dripping from his wounds, and instinctively raised both hands, energy flaring across his fingertips. Nullfire licked along his arms, but it stuttered erratically—warped by the presence that now emanated from the shattered throne.
Then it emerged.
Not a being, not entirely. It had no legs, no defined face—just a massive form, cloaked in ever-shifting fragments of failed code, broken concepts, and discarded memories. The center of its chest glowed with a single eye — not biological, but built from seven rotating rings of data, all orbiting a singular void.
Kael knew its name before it was spoken.
[Entity Identified: "The Hollow Sovereign"]
[Tier: Undefined. Origin: Pre-Systemic. Status: Incomplete Manifestation.]
[Threat Classification: Conceptual Extinction-Class.]
The Hollow Sovereign stared at him.
And Kael felt it looking through him — not at his body, but his soul, his code.
"YOU WEAR THE SPARK. BUT YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST."
Kael didn't flinch. He was too tired to bluff, too angry to run.
"What are you?"
It didn't answer. It projected.
The world around him changed again.
He stood in a realm of endless nothing—a battlefield of forgotten wars. Dead systems floated like husks, their architecture crumbling. Worlds shattered into silence. Beings—some shaped like gods, others like serpents made of numbers—lay slain, erased from every layer of existence.
And in the center of it all: a throne, whole and burning.
Kael's breath caught in his throat.
Atop that throne sat a figure.
Hunched. Crownless. Hands like skeletal relics clasped together.
"You were there…" Kael muttered. "When the Codes were first written."
"I WAS THE FIRST CODE."
Lightning tore through the vision.
Kael fell back into the sanctum.
The Hollow Sovereign hadn't moved, but the air now bent in slow ripples around it. It didn't speak again. Instead, it extended one hand—and a single black shard floated toward Kael.
[System Fragment: Alpha Lineage Detected.]
His body screamed in protest, but he reached out anyway.
The moment he touched it, something clicked.
[You have acquired: "Throne Memory - I: The Unmaking"]
[Memory Integration Incomplete — 14% Processed]
Kael collapsed.
His body went still.
When he awoke, the Sovereign was gone.
Only the throne remained—quiet now. Dormant. But changed. The chains were ash. The runes were gone.
Kael sat up slowly.
Something inside him had changed.
Not a skill. Not a level.
Perspective.
The System had always felt like a guiding force. An impartial arbiter of growth.
But now… now it felt like a narrator writing Kael into a story he didn't consent to.
And somewhere, the writer had gone insane.
He stood, swaying slightly.
[Update: You have unlocked Memory Layer One.]
[Caution: Viewing all Throne Memories may cause permanent instability.]
Kael gritted his teeth.
He didn't care.
If the System feared what came next, then that's exactly where he needed to go.
He looked toward the throne one last time—its stone cracked, glowing faintly with something that felt like regret.
"I'm not your weapon," he whispered.
"I'm your reckoning."
Then he turned and walked away, leaving the Hollow Sanctum behind.
SYSTEM UPDATE — Kael | Nullborn Ascendant
Level: 43
New Passive Gained:
Throne Memory – Layer 1 (Incomplete): Passively absorbs fragments of pre-Systemic truths. Increases resistance to system hallucinations, false quests, and narrative constructs. Grants access to suppressed lore.
Affinity Mutation:
Nullfire — Phase 2: Pale Consumption.
Now consumes external energy sources. Devours weakened abilities during combat.
Corruption risk: Medium.
Hidden Fragment Gained:
System Shard: Alpha Lineage (1/3)
The Alpha System never vanished—it was buried. You now hold its first surviving shard.