The moment Aiden stepped beyond the ruined temple, he felt it.A presence.It wasn’t just powerful—it was ancient. A deep, suffocating force that drenched the sky in darkness, warping the air itself. Even the clouds above swirled unnaturally, twisting like they were being pulled toward something... or someone.Aiden’s eyes narrowed."What the hell is this?"His new power, the Dragon King’s Authority, pulsed within him, reacting to the disturbance. It wasn’t fear that gripped him—no, it was something deeper. A challenge.And Aiden never backed down from a challenge.Ding! [System Alert: Unknown Entity Detected][Warning: Power Level Exceeds Measurable Limits][Title Match: Ancient Calamity – The Fallen One]"Fallen One?" Aiden thought, his muscles tensing.Then, the sky split apart.A rift tore through reality itself, pitch-black energy seeping from the wound in the heavens. A massive, clawed hand—shrouded in swirling shadows—began emerging from the void.The ground shook violently be

The sky went black.Not from shadow. Not from storm.From silence.Azrathos froze mid-lunge. His body jerked as if suspended by invisible strings. Every ounce of corrupted energy locked in place—no longer responding to his will.Aiden stood with one arm raised, palm open, the system's glow pulsing through his veins like veins of living circuitry.DING![Devour Corruption Initiated...]Phase 1: Containment – Complete.Phase 2: Extraction – In Progress.Azrathos screamed—not in rage, but in horror.His body convulsed as streams of inky black energy began pouring from his chest, swirling in the air, then funneling into Aiden’s hand.“What… what are you doing to me?!”The Dragon Lord’s voice cracked like old stone, and suddenly—he sounded mortal.Aiden's eyes didn’t blink. He stepped closer with each siphoning pulse.“You corrupted this world with your poison.”Another wave of darkness ripped from Azrathos's spine.“You hunted the other Dragon-blooded, drained their hearts, wore their sou

She didn’t blink. Didn’t breathe.Or if she did, the air itself bent around her to keep it secret.Aiden had seen many impossible things since awakening the Dragon Code. Mutated beasts. Bloodforged necromancers. Even a sword that sang when it killed.But this woman was… different.She stood there in the vault’s doorway, where no living thing should’ve been able to enter. The Admins weren’t supposed to exist in the physical realm. They were myth. Rumors. Ghost-constructs left behind by the original system builders.Yet here she was.Real.And smiling.“Give me the key, Aiden,” she said softly, like they were discussing a favor, not the culmination of a multiverse-breaking protocol.He tightened his grip on the Root Override Key, feeling the sharp ridges press into his skin. “No.”Her smile didn’t waver. “You don’t understand what that object is. What it does to a person.”“I understand it gives me access,” he said, stepping back slowly. “I understand that you were willing to let a corr

“You passed,” the Architect said again, as the last of the ash settled around Aiden.The mirror-clones were gone. The chamber was quiet again, except for the hum of raw system current vibrating through the obsidian walls.Aiden didn’t move.His breath still came in shallow gasps, each one laced with the sharp taste of static. His vision flickered with lines of code, random glyphs overlaying reality like cracked glass.He raised his hand, watching the light-phase runes ripple along his fingers.This isn’t my body anymore.“Take a moment,” the Architect said gently. “It’s always disorienting when the system starts rewriting your sense of self.”Aiden’s voice was hollow. “You lied to me.”“I never lie,” the Architect replied, descending the steps of his throne. “I simply speak from a perspective outside the illusion of morality.”Aiden’s head snapped up. “You made them fight me. Past versions. You wanted to break me.”“No,” the Architect said. “I wanted to make sure you were real.”He st

The Prototype’s chamber faded like static unraveling on a dead screen.Aiden stepped through what looked like a torn veil—shimmering fragments of source code breaking off his armor as he passed. His boots hit nothing.He walked anyway.The world stretched forward without texture or depth, until finally, something solid appeared ahead.A door.Hanging in space. Suspended in the middle of the void like an accusation.It was blacker than black, so dark it absorbed light from the very code around it. No keyhole. No handle. No border. Just a rectangle of silence.Then a system prompt burned across his vision:[LOCKLESS DOOR DETECTED][UNSEALED ONLY BY TRUE NAME][SPEAK: The last line flickered. Nine characters. All blanked out.Aiden’s breath caught in his throat.He’d seen this before. In dreams.No—not dreams.Crashes. Data loops.Every time the System reset him. Wiped a failure. Hid something too large for his fragmenting mind to hold.He reached out, hand trembling just inches from th