[System Priority Message: User must evacuate.]
The voice in his head was sharper now, urgent — but something was wrong. The tone was different.
"You're not my System," Je said, narrowing his eyes.
The reply came too quickly.
[Incorrect. I am your System.]
The world around him began to rewrite itself. The shards melted into obsidian pillars, each one etched with screaming faces that twisted in silent agony. He felt an instinct — primal and certain — that one of those faces was his future self.
The masked figure stood atop the tallest pillar.
> "And now," it said, "the test begins."
[System Override Confirmed.]
[User Consciousness Bound to Trial of the Black Sun.]
The sky inverted. Darkness became light, and light became a predator.