The moment Kael's hand met the Architect's, the universe convulsed.
Not violently.
Not loudly.
But with the silent shudder of a creature remembering a predator it had tried to forget.
The Forgotten Star inside Kael didn't merely flare—
it screamed.
> [SYSTEM ERROR: LAWLESS CONTACT DETECTED]
[UNAUTHORIZED LINK: ARCHITECT ∴ ORIGIN-LAYER]
[WARNING: USER IS SURPASSING SYSTEM JURISDICTION]
Light and darkness spiraled around Kael's arm, racing through him like wildfire.
His vision blurred—then split—then multiplied.
He saw himself from above.
From behind.
From ten thousand possible futures.
The Architect didn't move.
But reality moved around them.
"You feel it, don't you?" the Architect whispered inside his mind.
Kael's voice cracked. "The seal…"
"Yes. The first lock placed upon your existence. The one meant to keep you from remembering what sleeps beneath your identity."
The Forgotten Star pulsed violently—
BOOM.
Kael staggered as the void behind him tore open.
Not into darkness—
but into memory.
A colossal chain descended, wrapped around a dormant silhouette floating in infinite nothingness.
Its features were blurred.
Its presence—terrifying.
Kael instinctively knew:
This sealed being was him.
A version of him.
A truth he wasn't meant to reach yet.
The Architect stood beside him, hands folded calmly.
"This is your Void Arc," they said.
"The part of you the System fears most.
The part even I could not fully erase."
Kael clenched his fists. "Why seal it?"
The Architect tilted their faceless head.
"Because a Kael without limits has no path.
And a god without a path…"
Their voice lowered to a whisper colder than the void:
"…is extinction."
The chains around the sealed Kael rattled.
The void shook.
> [CRITICAL ALERT]
[VOID ARC SEAL FRACTURING — 3%]
[USER IDENTITY DESTABILIZING]
Kael gasped as a wave of power surged through him—alien yet familiar, ancient yet newborn.
The kind of strength that didn't bend rules…
…but deleted them.
The Architect extended a finger toward the sealed form.
"Break it," they commanded softly.
"Prove the System cannot cage what I created."
Kael hesitated.
Power this deep—this old—felt wrong.
Like touching a weapon not meant for the living.
"What happens if I unleash this?" he asked.
The Architect finally answered without riddles:
"You begin to remember who you were before the System claimed you."
The chains cracked.
A single fragment of the sealed Kael opened its eye—
a void-colored iris ringed with starlight.
Kael's heartbeat stopped.
Because the sealed version didn't look at the Architect.
It looked at him.
And it smiled.
Kael's blood froze.
The Architect's voice boomed:
"Kael.
Break the first seal—
and step into the deeper Lawlessness."
Kael inhaled.
The Forgotten Star burned.
And he reached toward the chains.
---