The palace was quiet.
Too quiet.
My feet echoed through the obsidian-floored halls as I followed the System's guiding light. It blinked across my vision like a beacon, pulling me toward the northern corridor just off the throne hall.
Shared Dream Active: Princess Aelya – Sync Level: 63%
Warning: Non-native Entity Detected.
Caution: Dreamspace Hostile.
That last line made me stop.
Hostile?
I had synchronized with Aelya before. Her mind, though strange, had always been a safe place—abstract but soft. Dreamlike, not deadly.
But this wasn't just a memory or future echo. This was… intrusion.
I placed my palm on the cold iron of the corridor's final door.
Synchronize with Dreamspace?
Y/N
"Y," I whispered.
The world changed in a blink.
I stood in a mirrored void.
No sky, no ground—just reflections spiraling endlessly in every direction. My body rippled with distortion, as if this realm rejected the very idea of stability.
And twenty paces ahead stood Aelya—older again, now maybe twelve, clad in silver-gray armor that shimmered like moonlight on glass.
She held a blade of pure energy, pulsing with blue lines.
Facing her was a figure I didn't expect.
Me.
But not me.
This "James" had glowing red eyes. His armor was bulkier, spiked with black crystal. His voice was my own—only colder, mechanical, calculated.
"Emotion is a glitch," he said, stepping forward. "She is a variable. She will break your equation."
Aelya didn't flinch.
"She is the equation."
And then she leapt.
Their blades clashed in silence.
No sound.
Just pressure—waves of force so intense they fractured the mirror-world beneath them. I ducked behind a sliver of suspended reality as the dream-battle escalated, System notifications screaming in my mind.
[Dream Duel Detected]
Entity: SIMULACRUM-JA4: Variant "Cold Path" – Timeline: Rejected
Combat Mode: Deterministic – Quantum Fork Rejected by Host Mind (Aelya)
Override Possible? Y/N
This wasn't a normal dream.
This was a test. A simulation.
And Aelya was refusing a future that some part of the System wanted her to accept.
A future where I abandoned empathy in favor of pure conquest. Efficiency without emotion. A world won, but loveless.
I watched her fight—not with brute force, but with balance.
Her strikes were unpredictable. Human. Beautiful.
And she was winning.
With a scream, she sliced through the false version of me. His chest exploded in black crystal shards, collapsing the illusion into a burning wireframe of dying data.
And that's when the presence made itself known.
[Observation Detected.]
Source: USER UNKNOWN – Privilege Level ∞
From above—far above—a third figure materialized.
Not a person.
A shape.
Ever-shifting geometry, neither divine nor mechanical. It shimmered in and out of dimension like a stuttering flame trapped in a prism.
And then… it spoke.
Not with words, but presence.
"She chooses the flame."
"The path remains uncertain."
"Continue the divergence."
Then it vanished.
The mirror void shattered around us like glass, and I fell back into my body in the waking world—
Gasping.
Sweating.
And clutching the side of my worktable, heart racing like a war drum.
New Dream Path Confirmed: Divergent Thread Activated
Aelya Sync: +10% (Total: 73%)
Entity 'Cold Path James' Destroyed.
Memory Logged. Prototype AI Fork Archived.
Warning: Higher Observer Presence Confirmed.
I looked to Aelya's chamber down the hall.
She was safe.
But she had changed.
And someone, something, was watching us both.
The System was more than I thought.
More than a tool.
It was a stage.And someone had just adjusted the lights.
Level Up!
Level 32 → 33
+5 Stat Points – Assigned: Mana +5
I opened my notebook and wrote one line in Earth ink before the adrenaline faded.
Cold logic won't save this world.But maybe she will.