> "You shouldn't exist."
Those were the first words Kael heard from the system.
The cold air of the ruins clung to his skin like regret. Kael Veyron stood motionless, the black thread wrapped around his right wrist pulsing softly—alive, aware, and waiting.
Around him, silence. But within that silence, a voice echoed.
> [SYSTEM ALERT: Anomaly Detected]
[Designation: NULL-CLASS ENTITY]
[Subject: KAEL VEYRON]
[Commencing Erasure Protocol…]
Kael's chest tightened. Not from fear—but from something colder.
"I didn't ask to be born," he whispered.
He took a slow step forward. The ground cracked beneath his feet, metal fragments and scorched debris from whatever nightmare had occurred here littered the floor. Rusted machinery hummed with dying energy, flickering faint blue runes etched into the walls. The facility—whatever it once was—had collapsed, but one thing was clear.
> He had survived. Alone.
Flashes of memory returned in broken pieces.
Needles. Screams. Darkness. Then... pain.
And then—nothing.
Until now.
A shimmer in the air caught his eye. A HUD window blinked into view, bright and foreign.
> [YOU HAVE NO PATHWAY.]
[NO STATS DETECTED.]
[NO CLASS, NO TRAITS, NO LEVEL.]
Kael stared at it.
In this world, even orphans had stats. Even criminals had a Pathway. Everyone was something.
But him?
> "I'm... nothing?"
The black thread on his wrist twitched—as if in agreement.
Suddenly—footsteps.
Kael turned sharply, instinct already bracing for danger. His breath stilled. A glowing red glyph spun mid-air.
> [Hunter-Class Operative inbound.]
[Objective: Full Erasure of Anomaly.]
He didn't need more warning.
A silhouette dropped from the shattered ceiling—cloaked in crimson armor, visor glowing, blades humming with compressed mana. A government hunter. Not just any hunter—this one was system-approved, enhanced, and lethal.
> "Anomaly detected," the voice barked through the mask.
"Kael Veyron. You do not exist. Prepare for permanent nullification."
Kael backed away. His heart was racing now—but not out of panic.
Out of calculation.
> [THREAD INSTABILITY DETECTED.]
[Nullification Thread: Unstable Activation Possible.]
"Then I'll choose to not die."
The hunter lunged.
Kael felt the future—a blade aimed at his neck, another at his leg, a burst of energy to finish him off. He didn't see it with his eyes. He sensed it like a thread of fate pulling tight.
> Snip.
He pulled the invisible thread.
And the attack—
—never happened.
The hunter froze mid-air, eyes wide in disbelief. His blade should've sliced Kael clean in half.
But reality had… changed.
> [ERROR: TEMPORAL POSSIBILITY INVALID.]
[Future event canceled by NULL THREAD.]
Kael exhaled slowly. His hand trembled. Blood trickled from his nose.
The cost of pulling the thread was real.
The more possible the event, the more strain it took to erase.
> "You're not the only one trying to kill me," Kael muttered.
"Even the world wants me gone."
The hunter growled, recalibrated his attack pattern—and struck again.
Kael pulled another thread.
Again, the future rewrote itself.
Again, he bled.
Three threads later, Kael collapsed to one knee.
His vision blurred. He couldn't keep this up forever. The Null Thread was not infinite.
But the hunter paused. Hesitated. Fear had replaced certainty.
> "What… are you?" the man hissed.
Kael looked up, eyes cold.
> "The accident your system failed to delete."
As the hunter moved one last time, Kael didn't reach for a thread.
Instead, he reached for something deeper—something he didn't understand.
The black thread writhed—and exploded outward.
Reality bent.
Walls twisted. Lights shattered. Space itself flickered like a broken screen.
The hunter was gone.
Deleted?
Escaped?
It didn't matter.
Kael collapsed completely.
The last thing he heard
before blacking out was the voice of the system—cold, mechanical, and terrified.
> [ERROR: NULL FACTOR BREACH]
[WARNING: This entity cannot be contained.]
To be continued…