The Sun Shrines surrounding Aurelius' tiny patch of dry land instantly turned to dust. The territorial shield collapsed. The invisible barrier vanished. And for the first time in his existence, the Golden King was forced to breathe the choking, soot-filled air of Bastion. He coughed violently, falling to his hands and knees in the mud.
"No..." Aurelius choked out, clawing at his throat as the divine power bled out of him like a severed artery. "I am Rank 9... I am the Sun..."
But the System did not care about titles. It only cared about the math. And Aurelius' account was overdrawn.
Above him, the fabric of reality shattered with a CRACK.
The sky itself seemed to tear open, revealing the raw, unrendered void of the System's backend.
From the tear, massive, heavy chains materialized. They weren't made of iron or magic, they were forged of pure, glowing red code cascading streams of hexadecimal symbols and jagged, hostile runes.
