The world around Elias trembled.
He stood amid the wreckage of what had once been a throne room. Azeron knelt a few feet away, his form twitching, bleeding code from the stump of his severed arm.
The corrupted spires of the Throne of Ruin crumbled behind them.
> [System Notification: Crimson Vow Disrupted]
System Authority Shifted: 34%
Remaining Threat: High
Elias' lungs burned, and not just from fatigue. He had accessed forbidden layers of the Devil's System—levels no other Monarch had ever survived.
He'd tasted the code that lay beneath creation.
And it had nearly devoured him.
Azeron's body jerked once, then twice. The crimson veil surrounding his face began to melt away, revealing not flesh—but something else.
A hollow space. A void.
Inside his skull, there were no eyes. No features.
Only a mirror.
And in that mirror…
Elias saw himself.
---
Flashback: The Origin of the System
