The darkness wasn't natural.
It was alive.
It crept across Aiden's vision like ink spreading through water—slow, cold, and sentient. The sky above cracked with veins of deep crimson, bleeding light across a barren wasteland where nothing lived and everything whispered.
Aiden stepped cautiously, his heartbeat louder than his footsteps. His sword was already drawn, its edge pulsing faintly with system-forged energy.
"This isn't any zone I've seen before…" he muttered.
[ WARNING: COORDINATES UNKNOWN. SYSTEM INTERFERENCE DETECTED. HOSTILE PRESENCE APPROACHING. ]
The warning came just as the ground beneath him cracked.
A low screech cut through the air like a serrated knife across glass.
Then it emerged.
The Shadow Crawler.
Eight limbs, twisted like broken spears, supported its elongated body. Its flesh was smoke, and yet somehow solid—shifting between forms with each movement. Glowing ember eyes burned with hunger, and a mouth that split its entire face hissed as if tasting Aiden's fear.
"Of course," Aiden said grimly, bracing himself. "You again."
He launched the first strike, blade flashing through the gloom. Sparks flew as metal clashed with claw, and the Shadow Crawler shrieked in response. The fight was a blur of motion—each of Aiden's blows parried, dodged, or absorbed by the abomination's shifting form.
But something was wrong.
It was adapting.
Faster than before. Smarter.
His breath grew heavy. His moves felt sluggish. Every time he struck, the crawler countered more precisely, more efficiently.
His system chimed again:
[ STAMINA CRITICAL. DAMAGE SUSTAINED. CAUTION ADVISED. ]
He blocked a deadly swipe just in time, but the impact threw him back, skidding across blackened stone. As he tried to rise—
A voice echoed through the gloom.
"You're slow."
Aiden froze. That voice wasn't mechanical.
It wasn't the crawler's.
It came from above, behind—somewhere just out of sight.
And then he saw it.
A throne of shadows, jagged and alive, stood atop a black spire. Seated upon it was a man clad in a white robe that hung like burial cloth. Pale skin. Black veins. Golden eyes that gleamed like light twisted through honey.
Lucius.
The name hit Aiden like ice water.
The traitor. The butcher. The one that records is cursed in red.
"You," Aiden hissed, rising slowly, sword at the ready. "You're the reason behind this?"
Lucius didn't move. His hands rested loosely on the arms of his throne, his eyes watching the ongoing battle below like a king spectating a pit fight.
"No," he said coolly. "It is."
Aiden turned slightly to see the Shadow Crawler pausing, twitching unnaturally—waiting.
Lucius stood from the throne with fluid grace, shadows clinging to him like loyal dogs.
"You came just in time," Lucius said. "The Author's watching."
Aiden's eyes narrowed. "What did you just say?"
Lucius's lips curled into a smile, not warm, but knowing.
"Let's just say… we're all characters, my boy."
The statement hit like a hammer to the chest.
"Bullshit," Aiden spat. "You're insane. This world is real. My pain is real. I've bled. I've lost friends. You expect me to believe we're just—"
"Lines in a manuscript?" Lucius interrupted. "Cliché, I know. But the truth rarely sounds poetic."
Aiden pointed his blade toward him. "You're stalling. You summoned that thing. You want me broken."
Lucius raised an eyebrow. "You're already broken. I'm just helping you see why."
The Shadow Crawler hissed again but didn't move.
"Do you even remember your first choice?" Lucius asked quietly, stepping down from the spire's edge. "When you were offered the system? The power? The path? You thought you chose it, didn't you?"
Aiden said nothing.
Lucius's eyes narrowed. "You didn't. It was chosen for you. Scripted. And now… it's starting to bleed."
The cracked sky above let loose a sound like paper being torn. Another tremor rattled the earth beneath them.
"You're lying."
"I wish I was."
Lucius's voice was suddenly bitter, heavy with something that might've once been sorrow.
"I've lived a hundred lives in one," he said. "Watched myself kill innocents while screaming inside. Watched my hands burn cities I loved. And every time I tried to stop it…" He looked away. "...the story dragged me back."
"You don't get to play the victim," Aiden growled. "You slaughtered everyone at Dawnreach."
"I know," Lucius said, his voice quiet. "And I hated every second of it."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
The Shadow Crawler began twitching violently, like a dog eager for the next command.
Lucius slowly returned to his throne and sat, letting out a long breath. Shadows pooled beneath him again, licking at his boots.
"You'll survive this," he said flatly, eyes dull now. "Because you're meant to."
"What if I don't want to be meant to do anything?"
Lucius's gaze sharpened again. "Then wake up."
Aiden charged forward—not at the Crawler, but toward Lucius.
But before he could reach him, the creature leapt between them, screeching violently.
Lucius didn't even flinch.
"Kill it," he said softly. "Prove you're still playing your part."
Aiden screamed and struck.
The final clash was brutal. He moved with raw fury now, not following any system protocol—just instinct, rage, and pain. He ducked a claw, spun, and jammed his sword into the crawler's throat, twisting.
The beast let out one last unnatural howl before collapsing into black dust that blew away in the windless air.
Aiden dropped to his knees, panting. His sword trembled in his grip.
Lucius watched in silence.
"Do you understand now?" he asked.
"I understand you're a coward," Aiden snapped. "Blaming some 'Author' so you don't have to take responsibility."
Lucius didn't respond immediately.
Then he whispered, "You're not wrong."
The shadows grew thicker around his throne. They writhed, forming grotesque shapes—hands, faces, things that weren't supposed to exist.
"Then why tell me this?" Aiden asked.
Lucius's golden eyes locked with his.
"Because when I summon Him…" he said, voice cold, "you'll wish you hadn't survived this chapter."
Aiden stood, sword still drawn, glaring up at the man who might be a liar—or might be a cursed prophet.
"I'm not your pawn," Aiden said.
"Then don't be," Lucius answered.
And with that, he leaned back into his throne, crossing one leg over the other as the crimson light flickered across his skin. Shadows thickened around him like a cocoon.
Waiting.
Watching.
Plotting.
The air around the throne thickened like coagulated smoke, as if reality itself strained to hold shape. The eerie silence that followed the Shadow Crawler's death felt worse than the battle—like a breath held by the world that refused to exhale.
Lucius still hadn't moved.
Aiden paced slowly now, muscles coiled, blade dripping with the creature's fading essence. But he wasn't looking at the throne anymore. His eyes traced the horizon.
Cracks.
Hairline fractures in the sky—like glass being stepped on from the other side. He could hear something behind it. Something scratching.
"What is this place?" Aiden asked, voice hoarse.
Lucius smiled faintly. "A patch. A forgotten corner of code. A void between updates."
"You speak like a glitch," Aiden muttered. "No wonder you went insane."
Lucius's golden eyes narrowed, glowing faintly. "Insane? No, boy. I've just read ahead."
The ground trembled again, this time subtly—as if reacting to his words.
"There's a pattern," Lucius continued. "You fight. You level up. You lose something. You rage. You grow stronger. Over and over. Until what?"
"I save the world," Aiden snapped.
Lucius chuckled dryly. "Which one?"
Aiden flinched.
Lucius stood once more, descending the steps of his throne. Each footstep left an imprint in the stone that bled shadow.
"Have you wondered why the system always pushes you forward? Why every choice is a fight, every path a war?"
Aiden kept silent.
"Because your suffering is entertainment," Lucius said. "You are designed to bleed. To lose. To endure."
"You speak like a man with no fight left," Aiden muttered.
Lucius stopped a few paces away. His eyes shimmered not with rage, but resignation.
"Tell me, do you even remember your mother's voice?"
Aiden froze.
"…What?"
Lucius's voice dropped. "Exactly. You remember her death. Her last scream. But her voice? Her warmth?"
He shook his head.
"That's what they do. They let you keep the pain. They delete the rest."
"You're lying—!"
"I'm remembering," Lucius snarled suddenly. "Because I wasn't always this. I had a brother. I had a life before this prison wore my face and called it fate."
Aiden backed a step. For the first time, he wasn't sure if he was facing a villain or a warning.
"What are you trying to do?" Aiden asked quietly. "Corrupt me? Make me quit?"
"I'm trying to wake you up," Lucius said. "Because the moment I summon the Author, the story breaks. And when it breaks…"
His gaze turned skyward. "...we'll see who bleeds then."
Aiden looked up as well, at the cracks above.
Behind them, he could swear he saw something.
"…You're bluffing," Aiden whispered. "There is no Author. Just consequences."
He turned and walked back to the throne, the ground trembling faintly beneath each step.
"You're not ready to meet Him," Lucius muttered as he sat once more. "But soon, you'll beg for the right to rewrite your page."
Aiden stood alone now, blood cooling on his blade, breath fogging in the chill.
For the first time since he got the system—
—he felt small.
"Look, I just teleported you here to talk about this," said Lucius
" I will explain to you everything just wait..."