The silence had grown heavier since that night. Je could feel it—an unseen hand tightening around his world, as if reality itself was shackled. Every step, every breath felt like he was walking deeper into a labyrinth that had no exit.
The System flickered again. Not with clarity. Not with order. Only with fractured echoes.
[Calculating…]
[Error. System Sync Delayed.]
[Warning: Fragment detected.]
Je stopped. The void inside him stirred, a sensation not unlike hunger, but older—hungrier.
He saw it. Not with his eyes, but with something deeper. Chains, infinite in length, stretched across the cosmos. They rattled in silence, forged of stars and blood, holding something far beyond comprehension.
And then came the whisper.
Not from the system. Not from any god he had ever heard of.
> "The chains do not bind to protect you…
They bind to protect them from you."
His breath hitched.
The System screamed in resistance—
[Suppression Engaged!]
[Unauthorized Knowledge Detected!]
[Memory Wipe Initializing—]
But Je clutched at the words, refusing to let them vanish. His heart pounded like a war drum.
The whisper lingered, almost amused.
> "Awakening has a price, child of the void.
Do you think you're ready to pay it?"
The stars above flickered—then died. For one heartbeat, the night was blind.
And Je knew: something had seen him.
---