The city of Elaria still sparkled under sunlight, but beneath its beauty, something was changing.
Rael walked through the temple halls with a heavy heart. The priests greeted him with wide smiles, but he barely heard them. Each day, the dreams came clearer. The voice no longer whispered—it spoke.
"You must see the truth, Rael."
He had tried to ignore it. He trained harder, followed more missions, gave more speeches. But he felt it deep inside—like a thread pulling at his chest. Something was wrong.
His fellow heroes had started to notice.
"You've been... different," said Alina, the Sorceress of Dawn. Her golden hair shimmered like light magic itself. "You hesitate in battle. You ask strange questions."
Rael couldn't answer. He just looked at the horizon.
"I'm fine," he said quietly. But even Alina didn't believe him.
Far from the city, in a ruined observatory that overlooked a forgotten valley, Yuu stood beneath a sky full of glitching stars. The system trembled faintly around him—he had been pushing the limits.
He waved a hand, and threads of data formed a map. On it, tiny figures moved: kings, heroes, soldiers, spies. He had inserted false quests, broken links, planted "errors" in the prophecy. All without ever drawing his sword.
He had one goal now: destabilize the system from within.
Yuu focused on Rael. The hero was moving off-script again.
"Good," he said. "You're waking up."
But he wasn't ready to meet him. Not yet.
A week later, Rael stood in a village that had not appeared on any of his mission scrolls. A strange beast had attacked—one not listed in the system. The people were scared. The local guards were gone.
He had come here alone.
The beast was like nothing he'd fought before. It didn't follow patterns. It didn't roar or charge—it studied him.
When Rael finally defeated it, it vanished without leaving a single system reward. No gold. No message. Just silence.
The villagers bowed in thanks, but Rael didn't smile. Something was deeply wrong.
Later that night, while walking through the forest nearby, he saw a mark burned into a tree: a symbol—a black circle with seven fading lines around it.
He reached out to touch it.
> System Error: Unknown Signature
Warning: You are straying from your path.
Rael pulled back.
"I don't care," he said.
He turned away from the mark—but not before a shadow shifted deep in the woods, watching him with glowing violet eyes.
Yuu didn't step forward. Not yet.
But the next piece had moved.
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