❖ Abyss-Sanction — Realm Time: +72 Hours
❖ Threat Window Reopened: External Forces Detected
❖ Status: Infiltration Imminent
❖ Initiating Passive Scour—[SUCCESSFUL]
Abyss-Sanction trembled.
Not violently. Not visibly. It was the kind of shudder only a realm itself could feel—like the breath between a heartbeat, or the pause before a blade falls.
The Crucible whispered:
❖ Foreign Signature Detected: [Echo-Class]
❖ Designation: Phantom Will
❖ Origin: Lost Realm "Xyn'Dralus"
❖ Objective: Unknown
❖ Hostile Probability: 91%
The boy stood atop one of the obsidian spires overlooking the Voidforge Basin, his realm's core stabilizer.
Around him, the realm breathed. Constructs reshaped, timelines fluttered, and ambient energy fields bristled with the aftertaste of Null.
"Where is it entering from?" he asked the Crucible aloud.
❖ Response: No Entry Detected.
❖ Entity Already Inside.
He turned slowly.
A silhouette stood on the far end of the spire. Cloaked in robes of dimensional static, its face was hidden behind a smooth porcelain mask etched with ancient glyphs. No eyes. No mouth. Just the faint glow of violet fractals swirling behind the eye-slits.
"You forged a realm without a root," it said. Its voice sounded like two conversations overlaying each other—one in rage, the other in grief. "And now you invite collapse."
The boy's grip tightened on Nullfang, which now hovered midair beside him, vibrating like it knew blood was about to be spilled.
"I didn't invite anything," he said. "But I don't turn away messengers. Speak or vanish."
"I am not a messenger," said the Phantom Will. "I am what remains of the ones who tried to rebel against the Throne and failed. I am here not to stop you—"
The mask cracked slightly. Just enough to reveal a tear of starfire leaking down the ghostly figure's face.
"—but to warn you."
The Crucible screamed again.
❖ Subsystem Analysis:
→ Phantom Will = Semi-Fragmented Former Thronebearer
→ Threat Class: [Ancient Paradox Survivor]
→ Hostile Actions: Suppressed
→ Cognitive Loop: Stable (For Now)
"You were a Thronebearer?" the boy asked.
"I was the Thronebearer... of a realm no one remembers," the entity replied. "Xyn'Dralus. A place made of living symphonies. A domain born from sound, memory, and rebellion."
He paused, then stepped forward, boots silent against the void-forged stone.
"They came for us the moment we refused the edict. We defied the decree of Eternal Reclamation. We broke the code of submission."
"And?" the boy asked.
"They unmade our name. Scrubbed our timeline clean. Not just conquered us—erased us."
The Phantom Will pulled back its hood. Beneath the mask, the remnants of what once was a god shimmered and flickered—features glitching between male and female, human and divine, until it settled on something barely recognizable.
"Now I exist as a story that cannot be told. But you... you're writing a new one. And that means the Reclaimers will come."
"Let them," the boy said, Nullfang humming at his side. "I'm not building a throne."
"No," the entity nodded. "You're building a weapon. And that makes you worse than a heretic. It makes you necessary."
The Crucible pulsed.
❖ Phantom Will Requesting Temporary System Link
❖ Function: Echo Transfer
❖ Result: Skill Inheritance Possible
❖ Risk Level: Unknown
"Why are you really here?" the boy asked.
"To pass on what I couldn't finish," said the Phantom Will. "And to offer you a piece of what the Throne fears most—truth outside the code."
The system shimmered.
❖ New Skill Available:
[Paradox Blade: Symphony Cut]
– Description: A blade technique forged from contradictory laws, capable of severing causality, identity, and memory.
– Cost: Fragmented Sanity.
– Chance of Realm Instability: Moderate.
→ Accept Transfer?
He stared at the offer.
Another power that could tip the realm—and himself—into dangerous territory. But also something no Throne-follower could ever use.
❖ Skill Accepted.
❖ Upgrade: [Nullfang] attuned with [Paradox Protocols]
→ New Function Unlocked: Timeline Cleave
As the skill integrated, the Phantom Will began to dissolve, as if its purpose had finally completed.
"You may never see me again," it whispered, fading. "But if you do... I hope it's not as enemies."
The boy watched until the last wisp vanished, then turned toward the Crucible's pulsing interface.
❖ Realm Stability: 83%
❖ Threat Imminent:
– Projection: Outerverse Recon Pair en route
– Entities: [The Choir of Silence]
– Time Until Breach: 7 Hours
They were sending a Choir this time.
Silent agents that didn't speak, didn't bleed, and didn't stop.
But now, he had something new.
A blade that could cut time. A will forged in defiance.
And a realm no one could predict.