Vivan's Right arm glowed with Sigilforge as the clockwise turn of the logic rings in his eyes activated the eye of Veritas.
The logic of the world revealed itself like open pages of book. The intruder glowed in blue hue even within the hazy vision due to chloroform at the dark corner of the chamber.
Vivan's eyes narrowed.
"Oh! An If-else statement huh?"
Then the glyphs on his right arm glowed as the glyphs crawled on his wrist.
"CodeBreaker!"
The if-else logic of the purple potion broke like a rusted chain of logic. Vivan's vision became clear as the effect of the coded chloroform faded.
But the intruder, The NPC who did not know something like this was possible, leaped up as a sharp pointy end of a dagger flickered silver in moonlight spilling through the window.
A sharp jab with the dagger came rushing towards Vivan.
He hurriedly jumped off the bed as the dagger plunged in to the soft mattress of the bed, spilling cotton like torn feather of a bird.
Vivan dropped on the ground.
*Thud*
Then with a hurried twist he stood up.
A sharp right hook hit the jaw of the intruder flicking him away from the bed and the dagger remained plunged on the bed.
*AAAGH!*
With a heavy moan the green hood dropped from the intruders head as the dark toned man collided to the study table by the bed.
The intruder tried to stagger up from the concussion but Vivan leapt across the bed as his right foot landed on his jaw again with a heavy sweep.
The already concussed intruder flipped as his face hit the mirror on the wall behind him.
The mirror shattered letting the broken pieces of the mirror falling with a heavy *clanks*.
The noise of glass shattering echoed in the chamber.
Some of the broken piece of the glass got plunged on the intruders face as blood spilled from those wound.
He tightened his jaw and with a sharp swing he took out a saber from his back as he stood up.
Vivan smirked as his body stood firm yet fluent to switch stances. He advanced his right arm toward the intruder, palm open and thumb folded in ward.
Then the open four fingers flicked in a motion that invited the intruder to attack as his left arm remain hidden behind his back.
"Let's see what you got."
The intruder did not waste a second. His eyes flickered red in anger. Then the intruder stepped forward with a rushed motion and a vertical slash from the saber charged at Vivan.
Vivan sidestepped.
The attack missed its target and Vivan grabbed the intruder by his wrist that was holding the saber.
Then a clean shoulder throw leapt the body of the intruder's torso and landed him on the ground by his back infront of Vivan.
The intruder's eyes widened as the glance of the clean shoulder throw echoed in his mind.
Vivan tilted his head backward with a smirk, looking down at the intruder on the ground.
"Textbook, my friend."
But the intruder was not easy to be broken. The cursed Sigil of Amionisa peeked out of his green hooded robe.
Then a purple lightning flickered around the Sigil.
But this was not Vivan's first time seeing the Sigil in action.
He smiled as his gaze focused on the flickering pendant.
"I had to use Override against Paul due to that but you my friend met me at an unlucky time of your life."
The eye of Veritas revealed the for-loop of the Sigil. Then Vivan chanted.
"CodeBreaker!"
For a second time the intruder got the shock of his life as the purple lightning of pendant stopped.
His lips failed to seal his thoughts as the words spilled through the silence of the chamber.
"How on earth is that possible?"
The intruder's eyes were still looking at Vivan in disbelief as hurried footsteps echoed in the hall outside.
His eyes blinked with fear as he glanced toward the closed door once. Then with a hurried motion he ran on to the window and tried to jump.
But Vivan was ready. A step side kick threw him away from the window to the floor again and Vivan grabbed him by his collar.
"Where are you going Mr. Uninvited guest? It's time for you to enjoy your royal welcome…" Vivan's lips curled in a wide grin.
"You are in the Royal castle of Novarim after all."
Footsteps crashed through the corridor like a drumline of steel. Shadows raced beneath the door, then-
*BANG*
The chamber doors burst inward. Elara, Samuel, and King Arathen swept in with a wedge of royal guards, torchlight knifing across the wreckage.
The room was a storm frozen mid-snap. The mirror lay in glittering ruin, shards winking on the floor.
A dagger hilt quivered where it had buried itself in the mattress, cotton spilling like the torn down of a slaughtered swan.
A thin ribbon of blood crawled from the study table to the tiles. The sweet, heavy scent of something chemical still clung to the air.
Vivan had the intruder pinned- one knee grinding between the man's shoulders, the other foot braced on glass shards.
His fist twisted the assassin's collar back to bare the throat where the Curse Sigil of Amionisa pulsed like a wicked ember.
Elara's breath hitched. "Vivan…!"
"I'm fine." His voice was flat, eyes like cold steel. "He's not."
Samuel's blade flashed to the intruder's cheek, steady as a metronome.
"Move and you lose more than blood."
King Arathen didn't shout.
He looked.
And the look was worse than thunder.
"In my house," he said, each word low and carved, "in the Royal Castle of Novarim… an assassin slithers into a guest's chamber."
His signet ring clicked once against the pommel at his hip.
"This is not merely an attack. This is an insult."
The guards stiffened as if the floor had turned to ice.
"Seize him alive," Arathen said.
"No one leaves this wing. Captain- lock the corridors, double the posts, and bring the bell to half-peal till dawn. If a mouse breathes in these halls, I will hear it."
"Aye, Your Majesty!"
Elara slid to Vivan's side, eyes scanning him for blood. "You're sure you're…"
"Breathing." He shifted his weight, forcing the intruder's face off a jag of glass. "He brought chloroform and a saber with poor judgment."
Arathen stepped closer, gaze falling to the exposed sigil. The muscles in his jaw ticked.
"Amionisa," he said, as if tasting poison. "They moved bold tonight."
His eyes rose to Vivan. For a heartbeat, the King's fury met the GhostWalker's calm and something like trust tightened between them.
"Bind him," Arathen ordered at last, voice carrying like iron across stone.
Leather straps snapped at his collarbone. Chains kissed his wrists and waist. The intruder was hauled to his knees, the sigil's glow fluttering under rough rope.
Arathen turned at the threshold, a final look sweeping the ruined room- the shattered mirror, the trembling dagger, the blood, the man under the green hooded robe and the man on top of the world's code.
"GhostWalker," he said, low. "You have my ear at the cells."
He spun on his heel. The guards dragged the intruder into the hall; Samuel fell in behind, blade still bare. Elara lingered half a heartbeat longer with Vivan, eyes fierce and bright.
The dungeon of Novarim castle breathed damp and iron.
Torches guttered against stone walls, their smoke curling in the stagnant air.
Chains groaned as the intruder was slammed into the chair, wrists and ankles clamped with iron cuffs etched in old runes.
His hood was gone now, face bloodied from the chamber fight.
The Sigil of Amionisa burned faint purple against the hollow of his throat, twitching like a parasite with every pulse of his heart.
Samuel stood at his shoulder, blade gleaming in torchlight.
The royal interrogators circled, voices low and sharp.
A fist landed against the man's jaw. Another strike to his ribs. He wheezed, spat blood onto the stone, and laughed through crimson teeth.
"The Serpent's coil cannot be broken," he hissed, lips split in defiance.
One of the interrogators grabbed his hair, slamming his head backward against the chair.
Elara flinched, her fingers tightening around the edge of her cloak, but she didn't look away. Arathen only watched, eyes heavy with rage and helplessness.
"Talk," Samuel growled. "What is dark guild plotting?"
The intruder spat again, smearing the table red.
"Your questions… are nothing but smoke. The Serpent has already coiled. When it strikes, there will be nothing left to save."
Frustration thickened the chamber like smoke. The King's hand clenched into a fist, jaw tight as stone.
Then-
Vivan's gaze sharpened.
The Eye of Veritas spun within his pupils, lines of azure code unfurling over the intruder's body like a lattice of hidden script. Something flickered at the assassin's jaw.
A command.
A fail-safe.
| If Captured = True then; Break Molar - Cyanide.Execute |
Vivan's eyes narrowed.
"Tch… sneaky."
The intruder's jaw tensed. Teeth ground together. A faint click echoed in his mouth.
But before the capsule could break—
"CodeBreaker!"
The logic shattered like glass, the line of execution severed mid-command. The cyanide code collapsed into dead fragments.
The intruder jerked in shock, eyes wide, mouth half-open, but nothing came. No bitter taste. No death.
Vivan leaned forward, his voice cool as frost.
"Not tonight. You don't get to write your own ending."
The man's breath faltered, sweat breaking across his temple. For the first time, his defiance cracked - not from pain, but from disbelief.
"You… you can see…just like him?" he whispered, horror widening his gaze.
Vivan smirked faintly as he stepped closer, his eyes still glowing with the Veritas rings.
"You tried to break the code of your own body. But the system doesn't answer you anymore. It answers me."
The intruder crouched down to Vivan's knees grabbing his legs by his chest.
"Where have you been…?"
Tears rolled down from his eyes but others in the cell were in disbelief to the intruder's action.
One of the guards asked in confusion.
"Has he lost it?"
But the intruder continued still holding Vivan's legs.
"We waited for your return for so long. The dream of true freedom was failing in face of harsh reality… and the serpent used that to bind us."
Samuel slapped hard and the intruder lost his grip on Vivan.
He held the prisoner by his collar and looked at Vivan.
"What is he talking about?"
Vivan was silent as the word true freedom echoed in side his mind.
"Does this guy think I am Azerion the binder?"
But those words never left his lips. Instead he replied to Samuel with unexplainable gaze.
"No Idea!"
The cell grew colder as Vivan stepped forward.
The others held their breath - Samuel with his blade still drawn, Elara tense with unease, King Arathen's eyes heavy as stone.
Vivan lowered his right hand onto the intruder's head.
At once, the glyphs ignited along his arm, burning azure, veins of light crawling like circuitry beneath his skin.
The Eye of Veritas spun in his gaze, logic rings clicking into place.
Not breaking this time… rewriting.
[System Chime]
- New Unique Skill Created: Recode(Rewrite existent logic)
The intruder's breath hitched, eyes wide in horror as the glyphs spread from Vivan's hand into his body.
Azure lines carved across his neck, chest, and arms - circuits of command overwriting flesh and faith. His veins pulsed like luminous wires.
Vivan's voice cut through the silence, cold and precise, like a judge delivering sentence:
"Your memory of this night is erased. Your loyalty is rewritten. You will return… but you will be mine from within."
The intruder's body convulsed once then stilled.
His fanatical red glare drained into empty glass. The rage that had burned moments ago flickered, dimmed, and collapsed into blank obedience.
His lips parted, voice dull and hollow:
"…Yes, master."
The glyphs faded. The last traces of azure retreated into Vivan's arm, leaving behind only silence.
Samuel staggered a step back, blade still half-raised. Elara's hand flew to her mouth. Even the interrogators shrank against the wall.
Only King Arathen held steady, though his eyes had sharpened like tempered steel.
Vivan turned, his hand still on the intruder's head. His voice was calm, but the weight of it filled the dungeon.
"Release this man."
The chamber froze.
"What…?" Samuel's voice cracked in disbelief. "You can't be serious…"
Elara's eyes darted from the prisoner to Vivan.
"GhostWalker… what did you just do to him?"
The guards exchanged bewildered glances, chains still clutched in their hands, as if they weren't sure whether to unbind or tighten further.
But King Arathen did not move. He studied Vivan in long, searching silence, as if trying to measure the depth of what he had just witnessed.
Finally, his voice came, low and dangerous:
"Explain… why I should let an assassin of the Serpent walk free from my cells."
The dungeon hung in silence, torches hissing in the damp. The prisoner sat slack-eyed, his fanatic rage erased, his lips sealed in obedience.
Vivan turned to face King Arathen. His eyes, still glowing faintly with the logic rings of Veritas, locked onto the King's as king Arathen glowed in blue codes like others.
"We need a mole inside them," he said evenly. His tone was calm, but it carried the weight of something undeniable.
"To know them better. To track their moves before they strike again. He is totally under my control right now… so don't worry."
The words settled heavy across the stone chamber.
Elara took a step back, her breath caught between awe and unease. Samuel's grip tightened on his sword, as if instinct demanded he hold it between himself and Vivan.
Even the interrogators, men hardened by torture and blood, shifted uncomfortably as their eyes avoided Vivan's.
Only Arathen stood unmoved, though his silence was sharper than any blade.
He looked between the blank-faced intruder and the calm figure of the GhostWalker as the glow in his eyes still alive.
For the first time since the night began, fear was not aimed at the assassin. It was aimed at the man who had just rewritten him.
The dungeon doors creaked open.
Vivan stepped out, leaving behind silence thick as stone.
He walked past the frozen men, their gazes clinging to him as though he carried something inhuman on his shoulders.
And so Vivan ascended alone, their stares heavy on his back - the man who had just rewritten another's mind as though it were nothing.
Vivan's steps slowed as the hall stretched ahead, pale moonlight bleeding across stone. A mirror on the wall caught his reflection.
He froze.
For the first time, the Eye of Veritas didn't just reveal the world around him - it revealed himself.
Lines of logic shimmered in the glass. Not blue but golden.
"So that's it…NPCs are blue. Players burn gold."
A grin curved across his lips as the glow pulsed brighter in the reflection.
"So Veldrick Hollowart you are a…"
…To be continued