The battle below surged like a corrupted river. Thousands of echoes moved with eerie coordination, their bodies blinking in and out like unstable code. But above them all hovered Lord Xerol, arms spread wide, drawing fragments of system commands into orbit around him.
Rael narrowed his eyes. "He's scripting in real time."
Patchling whispered, "He's not just using system commands… he's rewriting the battle logic."
> Xerol Skill Detected: Live Code Invocation
> Mode: Over-Admin Layer
> Effect: Custom Ruleset Injection
Kazen gritted his teeth. "He's a System Warlock now."
Oroth leapt through collapsing echoes, reaching the air above Xerol. His sword met an invisible wall—one of dozens floating around Xerol, shifting like puzzle pieces.
The warlock smirked. "You think forgotten blades can touch me?"
Oroth didn't answer. Instead, his body burst into static, reappearing behind Xerol mid-swing.
The sword passed through him.
> Nullstrike Failed
> Target Status: Layered Projection
Kazen activated Overlord Protocol again.
> Core Rewrite: Law of Causality — ON
> Result: Attack Hits Cannot Be Delayed
His blade struck true this time—cutting across Xerol's arm, disrupting the code-flow.
Xerol snapped around. "So… the system obeys you now?"
"It listens," Kazen said. "Not obeys."
Lightning code burst from Xerol's body, spiraling downward to the battlefield.
Then a shape emerged from his shadow—tall, lean, cloaked in pure white script. Patchling gasped.
"That's not him. That's User Zero."
Rael raised his glaive. "The unknown signature."
The figure didn't speak, but its presence made the air heavy. Every nearby echo unit suddenly paused—then knelt.
> Identity: Unknown
> Source: External Data Set
> Authority Level: Undefined
> Affiliation: Xerol
Kazen narrowed his eyes. "So you're the true wild card."
User Zero raised his hand, and the echoes screamed. Their bodies tore apart and rebuilt—turning into something else.
> Alert: Echo Mutation Event
> New Type: Echo Revenants
> Properties: No Known Weakness
Oroth looked back. "This… is the real war."
And above them, the system cracked once more.