The atmosphere around the Seer was thick, not just with mist or magic, but with something more intangible — weight, perhaps, or truth too heavy to carry. They sat cross-legged atop a smooth stone in the middle of a ruin that shouldn't have existed. Time felt thinner here, like every second echoed louder than it should have. Crumbling pillars jutted from the cracked earth, runes glowing faintly along their surfaces in a language no one could read — except, apparently, the Seer.
Their cloak was ragged and colorless, like it had been washed in moonlight and stitched together by shadows. Their face was obscured by a porcelain mask carved into an expressionless smile, and when they finally spoke, their voice echoed from somewhere both far away and just behind MC's ear.
"You carry the anomaly," they said.
MC tilted his head. "...Anomaly?"
"The system that shouldn't be. The tether that binds emotion to power. It breaks the balance. It pulls too hard on fate's strings."
Lina, who had been standing beside him with her hand subtly ready near her wand, leaned in. "Are you saying his System is dangerous?"
"I'm saying it is different. Dangerous? Perhaps. Powerful? Certainly. But different breaks the pattern. And when patterns are broken—" the Seer gestured upward, where a thundercloud cracked open briefly despite no weather in the Zone moments before, "—consequences follow."
MC scratched his head, half listening and half wondering if this was just the Forbidden Zone playing mind tricks on them. "Look, I didn't choose this System. It just... showed up. On my birthday. Like everyone else's."
"No one else's includes affection thresholds. No one else's fuses hearts and power and memory into one evolving spellbook. You walk a path no one's walked before — because the path did not exist until you stepped on it."
Iris narrowed her eyes. "Are you warning us... or threatening us?"
"I do not threaten. I reveal." The Seer turned toward MC again. "Your harem grows. Your strength multiplies. But so do the cracks in the world around you. What you copy, you change. What you connect, you reshape. Too many changes and the world will shift in kind — and not kindly."
Kira, arms crossed, muttered under her breath, "Yeah, okay, but where was all this doom-talk when he tripped into a bear trap and healed a dragon by mistake?"
The Seer didn't react. They simply stood, the ruins briefly shimmering brighter around them.
"You will have to choose. Love, or fate. Self, or world. And one day, they will demand payment. Even the System has a cost."
"Okay, but like... can I pay in emotional damage?" MC offered weakly.
The Seer turned, robes fluttering without wind. "The threads are already pulling tighter. The Cult watches. The shards awaken. You will understand too late — or just in time. I hope it is the latter."
With that, they vanished — not in a puff or portal, but simply ceased to exist. One blink, and the rock was empty. The glow faded. The world felt heavier.
MC stared at the spot for a long time.
"So," he said eventually, "was that... real?"
"Did you not hear the thunder?" Iris replied.
"Did you not hear the drama?" Jax chimed in. "Ooooh, I carry the anomaly. That's at least a B-rank prophecy!"
Luna was quiet. Not because she didn't have anything to say — but because her eyes had widened when the Seer mentioned "shards." No one noticed.
MC looked down at his hand. The interface flickered for a second, glitching faintly.
He quickly dismissed it before anyone else could see.
He laughed nervously. "Yeah, okay. So... love, fate, world-ending consequences. Totally normal Tuesday."
Nobody believed him. But nobody said otherwise either.
They kept walking. And somewhere in the dark, something unseen smiled.
END OF CHAPTER 64