CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 56

Elias stood at the heart of the fractured realm, the Sovereign Crown now fused with his very essence. Its once-fragmented code now pulsed like a second heartbeat beneath his skin. Every breath he took came with whispers—echoes of dead gods and forgotten systems that once ruled entire planes of existence.

The void he once knew was gone.

In its place stretched a strange liminal world, suspended between collapse and rebirth. Pieces of ancient realms drifted like islands in a black sea of static, shards of timelines and broken ideologies colliding silently. This was the Remnant Expanse, the last stage before full Breach Authority could be achieved.

Lira approached him slowly, her crimson blade still glowing faintly from the battle.

"That thing changed you," she said, her eyes wary, scanning him like he might disappear.

Elias turned, and for the first time, she saw it—the flicker of the Sovereign Crown behind his head. Not sitting on it. Fused with it. A crown of shifting symbols, burning runes, and the occasional glitch that split space behind him.

"I changed myself," Elias replied. His voice was no longer just his own. It echoed slightly—as though something greater now spoke with him.

"Is it done?" Ishael asked, leaning on his spear, eyes scanning the floating wreckage of dead systems nearby. "Is Zereth the last?"

"No," Elias answered, his gaze cold. "Zereth was a warden. There’s still the Gatekeeper, the final Architect. The one they call the Original Thread."

He looked up. In the sky—or what passed for sky in this chaotic expanse—an obsidian rift had opened. Thin, almost hidden. But he could feel it watching.

They know I’ve taken control, he thought. They know I’m ready to break their order.

Suddenly—

[System Message: Sovereign Decision Initiated]

Breach Tier Authority Achieved – Options Unlocked

Choose one:

(1) Reconstruct System Core: Rewrite base logic, slow corruption, and begin reformation.

(2) Ignite Flame of Collapse: Tear the system down. Start from zero.

(3) Search for the Hidden Path: Seek those who came before the System.

Elias froze. Each choice held unfathomable consequences. Lira and Ishael waited for his words. But before he could answer—

The rift tore wider, vomiting out a figure unlike any Elias had seen.

It wasn’t made of flesh. Or data. Or soul.

It was... unrendered.

A being caught between becoming and unbeing.

And from its eyes leaked a void darker than death.

[WARNING: Entity Identified – Designation: Nullshade Hunter]

Tier: ???

Origin: Pre-System

Objective: Eliminate Sovereign Flamebearer

Authority Match: 94%

Threat: EXTINCTION

Elias raised his hand. The Sovereign Crown flared—and for a moment, the void obeyed.

"Run!" he shouted at Lira and Ishael.

But it was too late.

The Nullshade lunged, moving faster than thought. It bypassed all logic, rendering itself directly where Elias stood, its claw laced with non-code—anti-system matter that could unravel existence itself.

The strike came—

But Elias caught it.

The shockwave broke the floating islands behind them. Echoes of screams. Flashes of dead universes. Static bled from the wound it caused in Elias’s arm.

"You’re not like the others," Elias hissed, blood and data mixing as his aura surged. "You’re from before. You were waiting for someone like me."

The Nullshade said nothing. It didn’t need to.

Its existence was its answer.

This was the true reason the Architects had imprisoned the Crown. Not because of ambition. Not because of balance.

But because this thing was always watching. And only a Sovereign could draw it out.

Elias bared his fangs now, not metaphorical ones, but literal—the system-enhanced mutation of his rebirth. The Devil’s System pulsed alongside the Sovereign Crown, their auras converging.

[Devil’s System Fusion Event Triggered]

Condition Met: Opposing Prime Entity Engaged

Fusion Trait Gained – Sovereign Wrath

Description: Temporarily bend system rules. Cause damage to anti-system threats.

"I’m done being used," Elias muttered, then raised both hands and tore the space around them.

From within his soul, the Devil’s power answered. Black fire laced with royal code burst forth, shaping itself into a weapon—half spear, half judgment.

He lunged.

The battle was unlike anything he’d experienced. The Nullshade didn’t bleed or break. It collapsed. Every hit Elias landed caused patches of void to go silent—devoid of even potential.

But Elias didn’t stop.

Not now.

He pressed forward, pushing the unbeing back toward the rift it came from.

And then—

A flicker.

He saw it.

A door, half-glitched, half-memory.

Etched on it: SYSTEM: VERSION 0.0.0.1

"Found you," Elias said, understanding now.

The Hidden Path wasn’t just an option.

It was the origin of everything.

He turned toward Lira and Ishael, who had survived by clinging to the edges of collapsing islands.

"I’m going through," he called.

"The crown isn’t enough," Lira shouted. "We don’t even know what’s on the other side."

"I do," Elias whispered. "The truth. Not of the system. But of what came before it."

He reached toward the door. Behind him, the Nullshade shrieked, its body finally crumbling under the Sovereign Wrath’s code.

The door opened.

And with one step—

Elias vanished.

There was no sensation.

No sound.

No time.

Just a heartbeat.

Elias opened his eyes—or whatever passed for eyes now. He stood in a realm that had never been seen by mortal or Monarch. The air hummed with raw, undiluted creation. Not magic. Not code. But essence—the primordial weave of existence.

This was Version 0.0.0.1.

The original blueprint.

Before systems.

Before gods.

Before laws.

[System Offline...]

[Devil’s System... Suspended]

[Authority Crown... Dormant]

[You are alone.]

Elias gritted his teeth. "No... not again."

The silence was suffocating. But he was not weak. Not anymore. He forced himself to breathe—and with each breath, he rewrote reality around him.

The void responded.

Strange colors bled into the distance—reds that tasted like memories, blues that sang ancient hymns. Shapes floated, twisting in geometries that broke logic. Planes stacked atop planes.

And in the distance—

A tree.

Massive. Alive. Covered in roots made of voices. Each leaf glowed with flickering dreams.

Elias instinctively knew its name.

Ysilith. The First Mind.

It was the first thing to think before the system began.

He walked toward it, his boots stepping on nothing and everything at once.

But with each step forward—

Something watched.

---

The First Predator

A ripple tore through the primal mist.

Then a form.

A beast of pure hunger, shaped like a shadow wrapped in lightning. It didn’t move—it existed forward. Each time Elias blinked, it was closer.

[WARNING: Entity Detected – Null Prime: Ekrion]

Origin: Pre-Code Manifestation

Objective: Consume All Thought

Elias is currently systemless.

For the first time in a long while—Elias was truly vulnerable.

He ran.

Not out of fear—but strategy.

His memories clicked like fire. He recalled the system patterns, the lines of power that made up his abilities. Even without the system’s support, he was the system now. It had fused into his soul.

He ducked under a lunge, twisting into a roll that rewrote gravity. Ekrion howled, ripping through the environment—destroying concepts as it moved. The color red vanished from the world wherever it passed.

Elias slid under a floating glyph and slammed his palm into it.

"Reactivate... NOW."

[Reinitializing...]

[Devil’s System Core – Partially Restored]

Soulburn Power: 38%

Sovereign Traits: Awakening in Ancient Domain... 12%

Trait Gained: Precursor Adaptation – Allows manipulation of thought-construct matter.

Elias stood again, a spear of molten silver forming in his hand. Not from metal.

But from belief.

"Come on then," he muttered. "Let’s see how the first monster dies."

---

The First Fight Without Rules

Ekrion charged. It wasn’t flesh, or bone—it was absence. But Elias met it head-on. Their clash sent ripple storms through the dream-space, ripping holes in the sky where forgotten ideas spilled out: forgotten gods, ancient war cries, languages that hadn’t yet been spoken.

Each swing Elias made was powered by will.

And with each strike, the system inside him slowly remembered what it was.

[System Recovery: 54%]

New Skill Unlocked: Primordial Willstrike – Forge attacks from raw soul logic

Passive: Authority Anchoring – You can force unstable spaces to follow your logic for 3 seconds

The beast shrieked, part of its form torn by Elias’s will. But it retaliated with something worse—it stabbed through memory.

Elias blinked—and suddenly forgot his mother’s face.

He stumbled.

The spear flickered.

"No."

He forced himself to recall. His name. His purpose. His pain. The experiments. The betrayal. The flame.

And then—

Her voice.

The system’s.

"You are not alone, Elias Black."

A red flare burst in his chest. The Devil’s System reawakened in full, no longer bound by realm limits.

[Devil’s System Fully Reactivated – Welcome Back, Sovereign Flamebearer]

Authority Boost: +25%

Soul Memory Restored

Passive Ability Activated: Infernal Dominion – Mental assaults lose effectiveness against user

Elias let out a roar that wasn’t human.

He struck with both hands now, shaping his thoughts into burning glyphs—dozens of them—unleashing a storm of belief-formed blades.

Ekrion shrieked as it dissolved, trying to reconstitute—but Elias pressed in with finality.

One final strike.

A crimson brand of his soul.

[Primordial Execution Successful]

Entity Ekrion Terminated

Memory Leak Prevented

System Blessing Obtained: Essence Thread – Flame of Thought

He fell to one knee.

Panting. Shaking.

But he was whole.

More than whole—he had survived the world before gods.

And then, from behind the Ysilith Tree, a figure stepped out.

No system message announced her.

But Elias knew her face.

It was the woman from his dreams.

The red-eyed queen in his visions. The one who whispered truths while he burned in the rebirth chamber.

"You finally made it," she said softly.

"Who are you?" Elias asked.

She smiled. "I am your system’s mother. And your flame... came from me."