The world after Viren's withdrawal wasn't just broken.
It was *unstable*.
Like a system holding its breath.
Arinvale's streets were silent, even the wind refusing to whisper. Citizens stopped using system-linked items, relying instead on mundane tools and old-world runes. Guilds placed bounties on glitches, calling them "entity anomalies." A deep-rooted fear had begun to sprout. Fear of *change*.
> **\[Global Update: System Fracture Level 2 Confirmed]**
> **\[Unauthorized Identity Active — Tracking Suspended]**
Lira studied the message for hours, brow furrowed.
"I think the system gave up tracking you directly," she muttered. "It's rerouting logic instead of confronting you. It's scared."
Kael stood at the edge of the balcony, staring at the broken obelisk Viren left behind.
"We hurt it," he said.
"No," I replied. "We *confused* it. It doesn't know how to correct a variable it didn't spawn."
That night, I received another message.
But this one wasn't from the system.
It came from **her**.
---
**Eli, if this reaches you... it means you're close.**
**They hid the Nullborn Sanctum in plain sight. Find the three glyphs. Bind them with Void. When the door opens, don't hesitate. If I'm still alive, I'll be waiting. —R.**
R.
Rivena.
The girl from the dream.
The one I saw in the monolith.
The one who should have died during the first fracture war.
---
We followed the glyph trail hidden through Arinvale: carved beneath a statue in the old plaza, etched into the arch of a forgotten aqueduct, and finally, burnt into the underside of a collapsed chapel.
Each glyph required a pulse of Void energy—delicate, specific, intuitive. When the third one flared, a section of ground trembled and gave way.
A spiral stair, leading deep beneath the city.
Into **Nullborn Sanctum**.
---
The air here tasted wrong—like code too old to load properly. The walls weren't stone, but interwoven plates of dull black steel, fused with bone-like minerals.
Ayla walked beside me in silence, her expression unreadable. Kael and Lira followed, weapons drawn, although both knew instinctively that normal rules wouldn't apply here.
> **\[Entering Forgotten Zone: Nullborn Sanctum]**
> **Access Level: NULL**
> **System Interference: Suspended**
For the first time in this world, the system went *quiet*.
No pings. No alerts. No overhead windows.
Just the sound of footsteps and the occasional pulse of the core fragment hidden in my cloak.
Then came the door.
Wide. Circular. Etched with thousands of names—all of them crossed out.
Except one:
**Elias Black.**
As my hand touched the door, it dissolved into dust.
We stepped into a vault of shattered logic.
A circular chamber layered with frozen time loops, spiraling memory spheres, and broken classes. I saw projections of people fighting battles that never ended, learning spells that cast in reverse, crafting weapons that unmade themselves.
This was where the system sent mistakes.
This was its trash bin.
At the center floated a coffin.
Black glass.
A girl inside.
Breathing.
> **\[Entity Recognized: Rivena Solari - Nullborn Type-1]**
> **\[Vital Status: Stabilized in Isolation Loop]**
I stepped closer.
A single glyph flared on her chest.
The same one pulsing on my palm.
"What do we do?" Ayla asked.
"We wake her up."
Kael shifted, uneasy. "Is that wise?"
"No," I said. "It's necessary."
I placed my hand against the glass.
Void energy surged.
The glyphs aligned.
And the coffin opened.
Rivena gasped.
Eyes snapped open.
And the system *screamed*.