Kael's blood ran cold. The being before him wasn't like the instructors. It wasn't even like the students. It was something older, something designed to erase.
The Threadhunter stood seven feet tall, cloaked in shifting chains of code that tangled around its limbs like sentient armor. Its face was featureless just static in the shape of a skull. Its sword? Not metal. Text. A blade forged from corrupted system glyphs flickering red and black like a dying firewall.
❝Target Identified: Null-Class anomaly.
Fate value: 0.
Narracode corruption: Active.
Execution: Mandatory.❞
The crowd didn't cheer. They didn't speak They barely even breathed. Because Threadhunters weren't teachers. They were janitors. Creatures released only when the system failed to delete something properly. Kael took a step back.
I can't fight that…His legs felt like stone. His breath came in sharp, broken bursts. The blade of the Threadhunter dragged across the ground, carving sparks in marble and yet, it moved without urgency. It knew he couldn't run.
"Nyra…!" he whispered, not turning.
"I can't help you this time," she said behind him, her voice brittle. "If I interfere again... they'll erase me too."
Kael swallowed hard. The Threadhunter raised its blade.
❝Commencing Code Purge.❞
It vanished. Not moved vanished. Kael ducked purely on instinct and felt the wind slice a hair from his neck. He rolled. Slammed his palms against the floor. The glyphs lit up again beneath his skin reacting to his panic.
❝Fate Link Unstable.
Combat System: NOT INSTALLED.
Soul Level: ZERO.❞
❝Engaging: SURVIVAL MODE.❞
His body pulsed not with power, but resistance. Time slowed. Only slightly. Just enough to dodge the second swing.
I'm not fighting it, he realized. I'm surviving it.
The Threadhunter's blade came again this time in a wide arc, shrieking with error-code static. Kael dove beneath it, scraping his arms bloody on the marble, rolling into a crouch. He had no weapons. No powers. No stats. Only one thing.
❝Rewrite Protocol Unlocked:
1 Rule Violation = 1 Rewrite Point.❞
Kael stared at the flashing system screen in his vision. One glowing word blinked below it: "BREAK SOMETHING."
His eyes widened.
"You want me to cheat the system..."
He looked up and for a split second,
he smiled. Kael crouched low, blood on his arms, breath ragged. The Threadhunter towered above him sword raised, ready to strike again. ❝Anomaly delay exceeded. Proceeding with fatal purge.❞
A final blow. Unavoidable. Unstoppable. And then Kael heard it the system's whisper. Not a voice. Not code. A challenge.
❝BREAK SOMETHING.❞
His eyes snapped to the panel floating beside him:
"Current Rewrite Points: 0"
"Condition to earn: Violate 1 Fixed Rule"
"Suggested Violation: Cast a system-linked ability… without having the system."
His hands trembled. He had no combat system. No spell grid. No stats. No right to survive. But what if…What if the only rule stopping me... is the belief that I have none?
Kael stood. The Threadhunter lunged sword glowing, slicing downward with all the precision of a deletion command. And Kael moved forward. Straight into the attack. The crowd gasped. Nyra flinched. But Kael didn't stop. He raised his hand. Empty. Broken. Powerless. And screamed one word:
"CODEFRAY!"
The world glitched. A spark exploded from his palm not fire, not magic. Something else. A ripple of unstable energy burst from his fingertips, colliding with the Threadhunter's blade mid-swing. The sword cracked. Only slightly. A hairline fracture. But it was enough. The Threadhunter was launched backward, crashing into the marble wall behind like a corrupted meteor, static screaming from its body. Kael dropped to his knees, gasping. His body convulsed. Blood dripped from his eyes. But the system reacted instantly:
❝RULE VIOLATION DETECTED.
Unauthorized Skill Activation: [CODEFRAY]
Class: Forbidden
Damage Type: Paradox Surge❞
❝Awarding: 1 Rewrite Point.
Status: UNSTABLE THREAD NOW OBSERVED.
Path of Sovereign has begun.❞
A new screen opened before him:
REWRITE POINTS: [1]
➤ You may now "steal" a single trait from your enemy.
Kael's lips twitched. Not a smile. A defiance.
"So that's how this works…"
"I don't earn power."
"I take it."
He stood, trembling eyes glowing faint crimson now, the residue of the paradox blast still sparking around his fingers. The Threadhunter rose across the arena, blade flickering with instability. A thin line of code-blood dripped down its fractured face. It tilted its head.
❝Impossible.
You were not supposed to act.
You were not… designed.❞
Kael exhaled. For the first time, his voice didn't shake.
"Maybe that's the point."
"I wasn't written into this story…"
"I'm here to rewrite it."
Kael stood beneath the tower's shadow eyes glowing faint red, his body still trembling from the paradox backlash. A single Rewrite Point floated before him
pulsing like a heartbeat made of glitch-light.
❝You may now steal one trait from your enemy.
Target: Threadhunter-Class
Options Available:
— Protocol Blade Summon
— Instinctive Phase Dash
— Code Armor Layer
— Error Resistance Field
Select one.❞
His breath caught. Just one? He stared at the options. The sword? Too obvious. The phase dash? He didn't know how to use it. But the armor field…If he was going to survive what came next, he needed more than speed or weapons. He needed time. He needed resistance.
"I choose… Error Resistance Field."
The second he said it, the world jolted. His skin flared with heat not burning, but bending. Data circled around his body like broken rings, and in an instant, his form was coated in flickering translucent armor not metal, not spell, but defiance-coded shielding.
❝Rewrite Complete.
Trait Acquired: ERROR RESISTANCE FIELD.
Duration: 120 seconds.
Note: System has not approved this integration.
Proceed at your own risk.❞
Kael barely had time to react. Because the Threadhunter was already moving. A surge of static burst beneath its feet propelling it forward like a missile wrapped in shadow. Its corrupted blade reformed mid-swing aiming for Kael's neck.
❝Begin deletion.❞
The crowd screamed. Kael didn't. He didn't move either. He just whispered."Let's see if your system works on someone who doesn't belong."
The blade hit. Direct. Right across his chest. And it shattered. The swing rebounded with a sound like glass cracking inside a church bell. The Threadhunter recoiled, glitching, eyes flickering. Kael stood tall his armor sparking violently, but unbroken.
❝ERROR. UNAUTHORIZED SHIELD DETECTED.
Resistance not in code registry.
Fate Deviation Level: 7.1.
This entity is NOT RECOGNIZED.❞
Kael stepped forward.
"Exactly."
He raised his palm. No skill. No spell. Just raw, broken will.
"You fight by the rules.
But I **am the rule-break."
He struck a simple punch. But with the shield's glitch-charge still active,
it landed like a rewrite spike. The Threadhunter's chest caved inward, code rupturing across its body. It staggered backward, blade dissolving.
❝Threadhunter unit unstable. System crashing.
Retreating into backup realm…❞
And in a blink it vanished.
Gone. Like it was never written into this chapter.
Silence.No claps.No cheers.Only the sound of Kael breathing alone, broken, but standing. The system spoke one last time:
❝Combat Complete.
Null-Class has survived first rewrite.
Verdict: Unstable Sovereign.
Monitoring will continue.❞
And from above…That familiar voice.The one that laughed.
"Interesting."
"So you really are the glitch I left behind."