The Aethyros Grand Stadium still trembled in the wake of the chaos. Cracks webbed across the pristine white marble floors, and faint blue sparks still flickered in the air where divine system conduits had overloaded during the allocation ceremony. Students filed out in hushed murmurs, their excitement drowned under a suffocating weight of fear.
The murmurs weren't about the thousands who had gained their systems. They weren't about the few who had collapsed under the pressure of awakening.
No—every whisper, every sharp intake of breath, was about him.
Neil Runders.
He felt it pressing on his skin like the heat of a forge—the gazes, the suspicion, the awe. People kept their distance, but their eyes followed him like predators circling something they couldn't understand.
Neil kept his hands shoved into the pockets of his academy-issued jacket, jaw tight. His head buzzed with one repeating thought:
What the hell just happened to me?
Sophia walked beside him, her usual sunshine smile dimmed into something sharp and unreadable. Her steps matched his, deliberate and tense, like someone walking a narrow bridge over a canyon.
Finally, she broke the silence.
"Neil… that wasn't normal."
He gave a humorless laugh. "No kidding. Half the stadium looked like it was about to implode."
Her emerald eyes slid to his face. "Don't joke. Your… system. It wasn't like anything I've ever seen. Not even in the archives."
He didn't answer. Because what could he say? That when the console scanned him, it shattered? That instead of the usual system chime, his mind had been drowned in an ocean of black and gold threads, and a single voice had whispered in a tone that felt older than existence:
[Welcome, Architect of Duality. The Nexus acknowledges your paradox.]
Even remembering it made his skin prickle.
They reached the academy gates. Beyond them, Aethyros sprawled like a city carved by gods—a labyrinth of luminous towers, skybridges humming with mana streams, and streets paved with white crystal. The evening sun painted the horizon in bruised gold and violet. Normally, Neil would have stared in awe. Today, the world looked dull against the storm inside him.
He exhaled slowly. "Let's… get somewhere private. I need to check something."
Sophia nodded without a word.
---
They stopped at a secluded park near the Academy's outer ring. The place was quiet, just the whisper of wind stirring the silver-leaved trees. Neil sank onto a stone bench, pulse hammering as he called out mentally:
'Status.'
A soft chime resonated inside his skull—not the crystalline tone of normal systems, but a layered hum, like countless voices speaking as one.
And then—
[PRIMORDIAL NEXUS ONLINE]
A translucent panel unfolded before his eyes, obsidian and gold, intricate glyphs rotating like constellations. Sophia leaned closer unconsciously, breath catching as the interface bloomed like a living thing.
---
NAME: Neil Runders
LEVEL: 0 (??? Cap)
TITLE: [The One Who Shouldn't Exist]
SYSTEM CLASS: Primordial Nexus
Alignment: Undefined
Core Attributes:
Vitality: ∞ (Locked)
Arcane Potential: ∞ (Locked)
Adaptation: Dynamic
Existential Authority: Pending Activation
---
Sophia's jaw slackened. "...∞? Are you serious? That's—"
But Neil barely heard her. His eyes locked onto the next section, where cascading golden threads formed symbols that shifted as he focused:
---
Core Functions Unlocked:
[Eternia Threadweave]: Manipulate existence at its foundation. Create, mend, or rewrite reality's laws on localized scales.
[Oblivion Authority]: Erase matter, energy, or even concepts from the fabric of reality. Absolute deletion.
[Singularity Forge]: Absorb broken rules and weave new systems, items, or abilities.
[Dimensional Anchor]: Deny external spatial or temporal interference. You cannot be displaced against your will.
Hidden Protocols: [Locked | Evolution Threshold Required]
---
Neil's throat went dry.
This wasn't a system. This was… something else. Something alive.
Before he could react, the panel shimmered, and a pulse of cold slid down his spine as words carved themselves into the air:
---
[Origin Report Available.]
Would you like to view the Nexus genesis log?
---
Neil hesitated for a heartbeat—then: 'Yes.'
The world went silent. For a moment, the park faded, replaced by an infinite void where titanic gears turned, grinding against universes like mortar and pestle. And then—
---
[Origin Protocol:]
In the First Silence, before gods wrote order, two absolutes clashed—Eternia and Oblivion. Creation's pulse and Destruction's void. Their convergence was forbidden, for it could birth paradox—limitless and lawless.
Yet you exist, Neil Runders. The paradox incarnate. The One Who Shouldn't Exist.
Thus, the Nexus was forged—not as a system, but as a fail-safe. A lattice to bind your duality. But fail-safes break. And when they do… reality trembles.
---
The vision snapped away like a taut string cut loose. Neil gasped, sweat chilling his skin.
Sophia gripped his arm. "Neil! What happened?"
He stared at her, voice hollow. "...They didn't give me a system, Sophia. They gave me a cage."
Before she could reply, her own interface flared, a halo of emerald light:
[Aurora Crown System Online]
Neil blinked as Sophia's status unfurled like a blooming flower.
---
NAME: Sophia Beth
SYSTEM CLASS: Aurora Crown (Mythic-tier)
Authority: Sovereign Radiance
Features:
Celestial Dominion: Command constructs of pure solar plasma.
Radiant Mantle: Converts incoming damage into light shields.
Dawn Ascension: Passive growth. Stat scaling at 10x standard systems.
Solar Judgement: Absolute light annihilation in a 5km radius.
---
Neil whistled low. "Damn. Mythic-tier on your first roll? That's… insane."
Sophia's lips curved, but there was tension there. "Yeah… but compared to this—" she gestured at his obsidian-gold interface, voice trembling "—I feel like a candle next to a supernova."
Neil didn't answer. Because the truth was, he wasn't a supernova. He was the void and the star that could swallow it whole.
A sharp crack split the air. Both of them spun toward the sound—just as the sky tore open.
A jagged rift, pulsing with sickly violet, unfurled above Aethyros' skyline. Screams erupted as shadowy beasts clawed their way out, slick with ichor that burned through the crystalline streets.
[Emergency Broadcast: Dimensional Breach Detected in Sector 7!]
Students scattered like leaves in a storm. System windows flickered everywhere, mission alerts screaming.
Neil's pulse spiked—then something primal stirred in his bones. The Nexus purred, an alien hunger vibrating in his skull.
[Priority Directive: Eliminate Anomalies OR Assimilate.]
A beast lunged toward Sophia, jaws splitting wider than its skull should allow. She raised a trembling hand—Aurora light flared, blasting the creature into vapor. But three more replaced it instantly.
Sophia's voice cracked: "Neil! We can't—"
But he was already moving.
Not thinking. Just obeying the instinct whispering in his marrow.
He reached inward. The Nexus answered.
And the world… broke.
---
Black tendrils rippled from his shadow, threads of Oblivion unraveling the air like rotting silk. Space folded with a sound like shattering glass as the beasts froze mid-lunge—then collapsed into nothing, erased without ash or blood.
But where reality tore, golden filaments wove anew, stitching the fractures seamlessly. Eternia Threads.
Sophia stared, wide-eyed, as the impossible unfolded before her: Neil unmaking and remaking existence in the same breath.
The silence afterward was deafening.
Neil exhaled slowly. The Nexus pulsed, satisfied.
[Assimilation Complete. Residual Concepts Absorbed: 3.]
[Singularity Forge Updated.]
---
As emergency forces converged, Neil and Sophia slipped away into the shadows of an abandoned skybridge. Her hands trembled—not from fear of the beasts, but from what she'd just seen.
"Neil…" Her voice was a whisper. "What are you?"
He didn't meet her eyes. Because he didn't know anymore.
The Nexus hummed. A new notification bloomed, cold and final:
---
[New Quest: Survive the Arrival of the Forgotten King.]
Time Limit: 72 Hours
Failure: Absolute Erasure.
---
And then—
A voice that didn't belong to the system coiled through his mind, silk over steel:
"Found you at last… little paradox."
Neil's heart stopped.
The Nexus screamed warnings. Reality dimmed. And for the first time, Neil felt it—an overwhelming presence, peering through the cracks like a god pressing its face to the glass of his world.
The voice purred:
"Try to run."
---
[TO BE CONTINUED…]