The Watcher's eyes glowed like distant stars. Their voice still echoed around me, offering sanctuary—or surrender.
"Sever your link to the System. Reject the Source. Become free."
The words weighed on me. On what I was. On what I might become.
I stepped forward. A soft tremor ran through my form. Tendrils of shadow peeled back, as if I were letting go. The Resonant Core would dim. The male voice would be silenced. A sacrifice—gestured, symbolic.
Lala gasped behind me. Haruna's grip tightened somewhere in the hivemind. The Watcher paused, expecting compliance.
"Do it now," the leader murmured, fractal tone gentle. "Be cleansed."
I dropped to one knee. My voice quiet, reverent. "Yes… I reject the System. I sever the chains."
For a moment, the world exhaled.
The Watcher advanced, its wings of fractured geometry unfurling. The distortion lines in the air began to blur. Tendrils of their code reached toward me.
I closed my eyes.
Then—
No severance.
No surrender.
Instead, a surge.
A torrent of alien energy—I absorbed it. From the Watcher. Their Source signature. Their power code. It flooded my system.
First shock: pain. Then power. Then clarity.
[System Override – Source Code Integration Detected][Adaptive Physiology Maxed][Watcher Power Assimilated]
The Watcher shrieked—a soundless echo. Their wings collapsed inward, geometry fracturing. Light spilled. I reached out mentally, latching onto their essence, folding it into my core.
Sephie's voice cut through the distortion. "Scourge—what have you done?!"
I opened my eyes. They glowed brighter than any before.
"Freed," I said simply.
Lala staggered forward. "Scourge—your form…"
My shape shifted instantly: armor glowed with fractal veins of alien light; my aura expanded, resonating with power that engulfed the throne room. The soldiers reeled.
King Gid raised his blade, eyes ablaze.
"You've made a mistake!" he roared.
I laughed. "No — you did."
I stepped toward him. Energy crackled beneath my feet.
[New Trait Unlocked: Sourcebreaker's Will]— Gains amplified strength and authority when rejecting external control— Passive effect: Half of the power of any absorbed Watcher entity, usable as signature ability
The King's attack was immediate. Light. Blade. Attack.
But it faltered. My new power bent his strike. I countered—not to kill, but to prove dominion. A strike that shattered marble.
Sephie's hand flew to her mouth. Lala's cry echoed. Haruna's whisper shook: "Scourge—don't…"
I stood over King Gid. The throne room cracked under my feet, as though reality itself recognized a new hierarchy.
In that moment, I chose not just freedom. Not just power.
I chose sovereignty.
The Watchers receded—somewhere in the void—defeated or assimilated.
The system pulsed in my core, stabilizing, recalculating.
No longer whispering commands. Only my voice now matters.