The world didn't fade to black. It shattered.
One moment, Kael was staring at the dissolving corpse of the Leviathan Spawn, the thrill of victory humming in his veins. The next, a spike of agony drove itself through his skull, hotter than any fire he had ever conjured.
He hit the ground, but he never felt the impact. The cavern, Eren's shouting face, the steam rising from the water—it all tore apart like a corrupted video file.
Static roared in his ears.
[ WARNING. ] [ System Integrity Critical. ] [ Error Code: 0x404_SOUL_OVERFLOW ]
The blue text that usually floated calmly in his vision turned a violent, bleeding crimson. It flickered rapidly, scrolling faster than he could read.
[ Skill "Infernal Resonance" caused unstable logic loop. ] [ Energy output exceeded hardware limitations. ] [ System Overheat. ] [ CRITICAL FAILURE. INITIATING FORCED REBOOT… ]
"Kael!" Eren's voice sounded like it was coming from underwater, distorted and slow. "Stay with me! I can't—my healing isn't—"
Then, silence. Absolute and terrifying.
Kael felt himself stripped away. His body, his hunger, his pain—everything dissolved into the dark.
[ SYSTEM REBOOTING… 12%... 45%... 99%... ] [ PATCH APPLIED: THE SANCTUM UPDATE. ]
Kael gasped, his lungs filling with air that tasted like dry dust and ozone.
He opened his eyes. He wasn't in the damp cavern anymore. He wasn't in his cramped apartment.
He was standing on a plain of endless grey ash.
Above him, the sky was a void of static, shifting between white and black noise. There was no sun, only a pale, ambient light that seemed to bleed from the ground itself. The silence here was heavy, pressing against his eardrums like deep water.
"Where the hell…" Kael's voice died in the open air. There was no echo.
He pushed himself up, his hands sinking into the thick layer of ash. It felt cold, softer than sand. He looked around, his heart hammering against his ribs.
In the distance, dominating the desolate landscape, stood a tree.
It was massive, its trunk thick as a fortress tower, its bark black and scarred as if struck by lightning a thousand times. Its branches stretched up into the static sky, leafless and skeletal.
Kael recognized it. He had seen it in the system interface before—the Skill Tree. But here, it was physical. It was real.
"A dream?" he muttered, standing up. He pinched his arm. It hurt.
"Not a dream," a voice replied.
It didn't come from behind him. It came from everywhere. The wind, the ash, the static—it all spoke at once.
Kael spun around, flames instinctively sparking in his palms—but they were different here. The fire wasn't orange or black. It was pure white, cold and silent.
"System?" Kael called out.
The shadow beneath the great tree lengthened, detaching itself from the roots. It rose, forming a silhouette that looked vaguely human, composed entirely of drifting smoke and code.
"Welcome to the Kernel," the Codex said. Its voice was stripped of the usual sarcasm. Here, it sounded ancient. "Or as your interface calls it: The Sanctum of Ash."
Kael took a step back, his eyes narrowing. "You brought me here? Eren—the dungeon—"
"Your physical body is unconscious," the Codex interrupted. "Your logic processor—your brain—could not handle the feedback from the Infernal Resonance. You crashed, Kael. If I hadn't pulled your consciousness into this partition, you would be brain-dead."
Kael lowered his hands, the white flame flickering out. "I crashed?"
"You tried to merge a Soundwave with a Cursed Flame using an F-Rank body. You are like a calculator trying to run a high-end graphics engine. You are lucky you only melted your nervous system temporarily."
The shadow gestured to the endless grey wasteland. "This is the Sanctum. Until now, it was locked. Your near-death experience forced the lock open."
Kael looked around at the desolate world. "Great. I unlocked a wasteland. What am I supposed to do with a pile of dust?"
The Codex's shadow rippled, almost like a shrug. "This is not dust. It is potential. Here, the laws of physics are... suggestions. Time does not flow the same way. Matter responds to will."
A window popped up in the air—not blue, but a sleek obsidian black.
[ FEATURE UNLOCKED: SANCTUM OF ASH ] [ Current Time Dilation: 1:12 ] [ (1 Hour in Real World = 12 Hours in Sanctum) ]
Kael read the text, and his breath hitched.
"Time dilation," he whispered. "You're saying... I can train here."
"You can endure," the Codex corrected. "Your physical body is recovering. But your mind? Your mind can work. You can practice skills, refine fusions, and study the archives without the limits of stamina. When you wake up, your muscles will be weak, but your mastery will be absolute."
Kael looked at the massive, withered tree again. He walked up to it, placing a hand on the cold bark. He could feel a faint pulse inside it—a heartbeat waiting to be fed.
"The Ascension Trials," Kael said, his mind racing. "The Protectors want the best? They have years of training. I have days."
He turned to the shadow, a sharp, hungry grin cutting across his face.
"Twelve hours for every one hour?" Kael asked.
"Correct."
"And if I stay here until my body wakes up?"
"Subjective time estimate: Two weeks."
Kael sat down in the ash, crossing his legs. The panic of the crash was gone, replaced by the cold calculation that had kept him alive for ten years.
"Then let's get to work," Kael said. "Boot up the simulation. I want to master that cursed fire before I open my eyes."
The Codex flickered. "Loading: Combat Simulation. Difficulty: Sadistic."
The world of ash dissolved into darkness.
"KAEL!"
The scream dragged him back to reality.
Kael gasped, his body jerking upright on the bed. Pain exploded in every joint, his nerves screaming as they reconnected. He was drenched in sweat, his sheets tangled around his legs.
He was in a hospital room. The smell of antiseptic and cheap cleaning fluid assaulted his nose.
Eren was sitting in a plastic chair next to the bed, looking like he hadn't slept in days. His eyes were red-rimmed, his healer's robes rumpled.
When Kael sat up, Eren dropped the cup of water he was holding. It splashed across the linoleum floor.
"You're awake," Eren breathed, his voice cracking. "I thought... the doctors said your brain activity was erratic. They thought you were in a coma."
Kael groaned, rubbing his temples. His head felt heavy, but his mind... his mind felt razor-sharp. He remembered every parry, every flame angle, every fusion formula he had practiced in the Sanctum for the last two weeks.
"How long?" Kael rasped. His throat felt like sandpaper.
"Two days," Eren said, slumping back in relief. "You've been out for forty-eight hours."
Kael froze. "Two days?"
"Yeah. We missed the early registration window, but..." Eren paused, seeing the look on Kael's face. "Kael, you almost died. Maybe we should skip the Trials. There's always next year."
Kael swung his legs over the side of the bed. His muscles trembled with weakness, but he forced himself to stand. He walked to the window. Outside, the city of Arcanvale was lit up with banners. Giant holographic screens played loops of the Protector Vanguard, hyping up the upcoming Ascension Trials.
[ DAYS UNTIL TRIALS: 02 ]
Two days left.
To Eren, Kael looked like a patient who could barely stand.
But Kael felt the Sanctum humming in the back of his mind. He felt the phantom memory of thousands of repeated strikes. He felt the Eternal Ashfire, not as a wild beast, but as a leash in his hand.
He turned back to Eren, a terrifying calmness in his eyes.
"We aren't skipping anything," Kael said softly.
He held up his hand. A small flame ignited—not the sputtering spark from before, and not the wild explosion that nearly killed him. It was a perfect, concentrated sphere of black-gold fire, spinning silently, completely stable.
Eren stared at the flame, then up at Kael. "You... you were in a coma. How did you get stronger?"
Kael clenched his fist, extinguishing the flame.
"I didn't sleep, Eren," Kael smirked, reaching for his clothes. "I was just taking a very long class."
He checked the system notification blinking in his vision.
[ SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE. ] [ WELCOME BACK, ANOMALY. ]
"Get your gear," Kael ordered. "We have two days to get my body to catch up with my brain. The Protectors want a show? Let's give them a war."