❝Location Confirmed: Rewrite Zero Realm Level 2
Thread Link: None
System Access: Blocked
Reality Anchor: Refused
You are alone. And you chose this.❞
Kael stood on a vast field made of shattered mirrors each one reflecting a version of himself that never survived. Some young. Some older. All broken. Ahead of him, at the very center of the empty realm, stood a throne. Black. Cracked. Glowing with faint blue runes that flickered like dying embers. It wasn't made of gold. Or iron. It was made of erased words. Each chunk of the throne bore a sentence crossed out violently, as if someone rejected the story mid-birth:
"He was meant to be forgotten."
"No one would remember his name."
"His power ends before it begins."
"Glitches don't become gods."
Kael approached it. Each step echoed not against stone, but against silence. There was no system. No guidance. No enemies. Only this: A seat that no one was meant to sit on. He placed his hand on the armrest. A spark. A burn. A voice low, genderless, cold.
"Identity mismatch. You are not a thread. You are not a rewrite. You are… an error."
Kael whispered:"And errors change everything."
He sat. The world didn't roar. It froze. The realm glitched violently chunks of sky broke into binary shards.
❝WARNING:
You have seated yourself on the Throne of What Shouldn't Be. System timeline cannot stabilize this path. New canon will be born.
Authority: Undefined.
Danger Level: Origin Class.❞
A new glyph burned into his vision one word:"CHAOSPEN."
A trait?
A weapon?
A curse?
The system didn't explain. It couldn't. Because Kael was no longer part of the system.
Suddenly, lines appeared midair sentences, glowing, twitching, trying to form. He hadn't written them. But they were trying to write him.
"What if you lose control?"
"What if you become worse than the Editor?"
"What if you rewrite the world into extinction?"
Kael rose from the throne.
"Then let the world try to erase me again."
He raised the glowing quill now pulsing with raw chaos energy. And wrote:"Let this throne belong to the mistake that refused to die."
❝NEW TITLE GRANTED:
✒️ GLITCH SOVEREIGN
Effect: Your story is no longer tracked.
You cannot be paused.
You cannot be saved.
You cannot be erased.
You can only be... read.❞
Somewhere far above…in the Editor's void-space...A dozen Narracodes crashed. The Observer scripts blinked red. A single phrase repeated across the sky: "SOVEREIGN PATH FOUND."
And the Editor…laughed.
"So... he sat.
The glitch grew claws."
Kael stood before the Throne of What Shouldn't Be a seat built from rejected sentences and abandoned fates. The moment he claimed it,
the world bent. Not shattered. Bent. Like reality itself was trying to rewrite around him... but couldn't decide what genre he belonged to. Above him, floating lines began to form. Not from his thoughts this time. From others.
❝Narrative Echo Detected: External Source.
First Readers entering Rewrite Zero Realm.
Emotion Trace: Curiosity × Fear.
Manifestation Level: Real.
Intent: Unknown.❞
Kael narrowed his eyes. The mirror floor cracked. And from it three shapes rose. Humanoid. Detailed. Complex. But off. Like characters copied from a script and then… forgotten mid-sentence. They had no names. Just labels.
[READER TYPE 001 – Doubter]
[READER TYPE 002 – Critic]
[READER TYPE 003 – Devourer]
001: The Doubter
He looked like Kael.
Spoke like Kael.
But his eyes were hollow.
"Why are you still here?
You should've died in Chapter 1.
This throne was never yours.
It's not earned. It's stolen."
Kael didn't flinch. He looked past the Doubter. Toward the second.
002: The Critic
A figure with ink-splattered glasses, holding a red quill.
He didn't speak with anger. He spoke like a disappointed editor.
"You broke structure.
Your pacing is unapproved.
Where's your world logic?
Why did Nyra anchor herself to you? This arc should've ended three scenes ago."
Kael replied calmly:"And yet, you're still reading."
The Critic blinked then hissed.
003: The Devourer
It didn't speak.
It just stared. And the longer it stared, the more Kael's memories began to vanish. First his name. Then his pain. Then Nyra's face. Kael clutched his head.
"What… are you doing?"
A system prompt blinked:
❝WARNING: Reader-Type: DEVOURER
Feeds on emotional anchors.
Goal: Erase story depth.
Counter: Author Core Stability.❞
Kael dropped to one knee. The throne behind him pulsed as if offering support. But he didn't sit. He wrote. On the air. With his Chaospen.
"You don't get to decide what's worth remembering."
The moment he wrote that a pulse burst from his hand. The Devourer shrieked its shadowy mass pulling back as memories re-solidified. Kael stood tall again. Breath steady. Mind clearer.
The Doubter stepped back. The Critic shattered into unreadable punctuation. The Devourer… fled.
System prompt:
❝External Reader Influence Neutralized.
Your story has gained: Reader Resistance Rank 1
New Trait: Author Echo – Your truth hits back.❞
Kael whispered:"So that's how it is."
"The stronger your story becomes...the more the world tries to read it before you finish writing."
But far above… in the void…The Editor watched it all. His fingers drummed against an invisible page.
"First readers already, hmm?"
"Then it won't be long before the first fan arrives."
He smiled darkly.
"And when that happens…
he'll realize that admiration...
is just obsession wearing perfume."
The throne behind Kael pulsed with slow, glitching light like it was breathing now. The mirror-field around him had quieted. The Doubter was gone. The Critic erased. The Devourer… retreated into shadow. For a moment silence. But then a heartbeat. Not Kael's. Not the system's. A new one. Faint. Heavy. Too slow to be natural. Too loud to be imagined. A flicker of presence. Then, a voice.
"I found you…"
Kael turned. And there standing at the edge of the shattered field was a boy. Young. Maybe 14. Barefoot. Pale. His eyes glowed with static-red rings, like someone had installed obsession into his retina. He smiled. It wasn't warm. It wasn't cruel. It was… worship.
"You're real," the boy said. "You're actually real. The Glitch Sovereign... the one who writes his own fate. I knew you'd exist someday."
Kael took a step back.
"Who are you?"
The boy tilted his head.
"I don't have a name. I didn't exist until you earned your title.
I'm not a person."
"I'm a fanfiction."
Kael's heart stopped for a moment.
What?
❝SYSTEM NOTE:
Emotion-Spawned Entity Detected.
Name: UNDEFINED
Origin: Reader Obsession Fragment
Type: Worship Echo – Fan-Class
Status: UNSTABLE
Intent: ABSORB & PROTECT AUTHOR AT ALL COSTS❞
The boy stepped forward.
"You don't need friends. Or systems. Or even Nyra.
You need someone who'll protect the story even from you."
His skin shimmered like melting ink trying to rewrite itself into purpose. Kael raised the Chaospen.
"Stop. You're not real. You're just another echo."
The boy laughed softly.
"Everything in this world is an echo.
I'm just the one who stayed."
Suddenly the air fractured. Lines of obsessed memory shot toward Kael like threads each one screaming with phrases like:
"He's flawless."
"I'd die to keep his story alive."
"Anyone who hurts him should burn."
Kael deflected them with a swipe of his quill the threads tore, but regrew instantly.
❝WORSHIP ECHO — AUTO-HEAL RATE: 300%
Immune to logic. Immune to self-denial.
Only weakness: Author Disapproval.❞
Kael's eyes narrowed. He heals faster than I can erase. I can't outfight admiration. The boy walked calmly through the chaos.
"You don't have to be alone anymore."
"Just give me a piece of your script…And I'll guard it forever.
Even from the Editor. Even from Nyra. Even from… you."
Kael lowered his hand. Closed his eyes.
"I don't need protection from my story."
"I need protection for it."
He raised his quill again not in attack. But in judgment.
"I reject you."
"You are not a reader.
You are a parasite pretending to love."
The moment he spoke those words
the boy stopped smiling. His face cracked. Literally. Like a mask breaking. He shattered into a thousand obsession-born phrases that dissolved midair.
❝WORSHIP ECHO DELETED.
Reward: +1 Control Point
New Passive Gained: Author's Boundary
Effect: No unapproved reader can form a link again.❞
Kael breathed slowly. And sat again on the throne. This time, it felt right.
Far above…The Editor stared in silence. He didn't smile. Not this time.
"So…"
"He even denied admiration."
"Then next…"
He opened a file. And whispered:
"Let's show him… what happens when the reader is right."