An identical twin.
The information was a perfectly aimed dagger, piercing through the heart of my newfound peace. Lyra was not just an orphan. She was one of two. The Silvermoon Dynasty had not been completely extinguished.
And the vengeful ghost of the boy I had replaced, the Karmic Abscess that had almost unwritten my soul, had just found the perfect vessel: a woman with my stolen love's face and a legitimate, blood-soaked vendetta against the Ravencrest name I still wore.
It was a masterpiece of cosmic irony. The universe had a sick, beautiful sense of humor.
"Elara," I commanded, my voice cutting through the serene tranquility of my throne room in the Highmont palace, which I had commandeered as my own.
My high priestess was at my side in an instant. "My lord?"
"Mobilize your agents," I ordered, my mind already a whirlwind of calculations. "I want every piece of information you can find on a fishing village on the western coast named 'Oakhaven'. And I want to know everything about the last, forgotten remnants of the Silvermoon Dynasty. Now."
While she scrambled to obey, I focused on the grim details of the system's report. The ghost of Kaelen was not just a possessing spirit; it was bound to the echo of the Void-Eater's Hand. This meant it had access to a fraction of my own, former power. It could devour, and it could manifest. A terrifying, unpredictable combination.
And its new host, this 'twin sister', would be a perfect match. Her hatred for the Ravencrest name would fuel the ghost's vengeance, creating a symbiotic monster of pure, righteous fury.
This was not a threat I could ignore. This was a direct, personal challenge to my sovereignty, a ghost from a past I thought I had annihilated.
The reports from Elara's network came in quickly. Oakhaven was a poor, forgotten village. And yes, there were whispers of a strange, reclusive young woman living there, a fisherwoman known for her startling beauty and her uncanny resemblance to the 'stolen child' princess from the Ravencrest scandal. They called her Liana.
The story was that she was a war orphan, the sole survivor of a forgotten massacre. No one knew her true lineage. But I knew.
I had to act. I couldn't allow this new entity, this "Kaelen-Liana," to grow in power. I had to cut the head off this new snake before it could even learn to bite.
I prepared for a journey, a divine crusade to exorcise a ghost. But as I formulated my plans, a new, shameless quest flickered to life, a testament to my System's ever-present, ruthless pragmatism.
[SOVEREIGN'S WHIM (CORRUPTED): A SOVEREIGN'S COMFORT]
Description: The emergence of a new, intimate threat has caused minor fluctuations in your spiritual stability. A demonstration of your absolute control over your current environment is required to re-center your will.
Objective: Seek out your consort, Lyra. Command her to perform a task that is both deeply personal and utterly subservient (e.g., sing you a lullaby from her forgotten childhood, personally polish your new divine armor, etc.). Her willing compliance will serve as a karmic anchor.
Reward: 'Willpower' stat temporarily boosted, +1,500 SP.
It was a ridiculous, decadent, and utterly necessary act. I was a god, and my rituals were my own.
I found Lyra in the palace library, now her personal domain. She was no longer a broken shell, but a quiet, graceful scholar, her soul mending in the silent peace of my kingdom.
"Lyra," I said, my voice soft.
She looked up from her book, her porcelain face tilting. "My lord."
"Sing for me," I commanded. "Sing the 'Song of the Silver Moon', the one your mother taught you."
A flicker of an ancient, forgotten pain crossed her telepathic expression. It was a song from a life she barely remembered, a life before the Ravencrests. But she did not hesitate. She nodded, and a soft, beautiful, and profoundly sad melody filled my mind, a lullaby from a dead dynasty.
As she sang, my own chaotic, furious will began to settle. The System was right. This act of absolute, gentle dominion was a perfect anchor in the storm of my own past.
With my will centered, my path was clear. I would go to Oakhaven and erase this ghost.
But the world of Veridia had its own plans.
My journey was interrupted before it even began. A tremor, deep and profound, shook the very foundations of the palace. It was not an earthquake. It was a sound, a single, resonant CRACK that seemed to originate from the sky itself.
I rushed to the highest balcony, Lyra's silent, porcelain form at my side. The sky was wrong. A web of iridescent, spider-web-like cracks had spread across the firmament. The fabric of reality itself was shattering.
The Sages' warning, The Architect's schemes, my own world-devouring crusade in Aethelgard—the cumulative cosmic strain had finally broken the dimensional barriers of this relatively weak, magic-based reality.
"Administrator," Unit 734's voice echoed in my mind, its tone now laced with what sounded like genuine alarm. [Catastrophic dimensional breach detected! The spiritual void of this reality has shattered. It is collapsing and re-integrating with a higher-order, multi-dimensional structure!]
A colossal, impossible structure began to phase into existence in the sky above us, a tower of impossible geometry that seemed to stretch from the ground to the twin moons, its peak lost in the stars. It was a nexus, a hub, a place where realities converged.
The world of Veridia was not being destroyed. It was being assimilated.
A wave of pure, universal data washed over the entire planet. A new set of rules was being imposed.
My System, my broken, beautiful Nexus Codex, went haywire.
[!!! UNIVERSAL SYSTEM OVERRIDE DETECTED !!!]
[A 'GAME MASTER' TIER SYSTEM IS IMPOSING ITS PROTOCOLS ON THIS REALITY.]
[Welcome, contestants, to THE TOWER OF ASCENSION!]
A new, universal interface, a sleek, impersonal design of silver and blue, overwrote my own. It appeared in the vision of every sentient being in Veridia, from the King in his throne room to the farmer in his field.
[You have been chosen! Your world, Veridia, has now become the newest 'Ground Floor' of the great game. The goal is simple: enter the Tower, climb its floors, and reach the top. Power, wealth, divinity—all await the one who can reach the Zenith.]
[Your progress will be managed by the Tower System. You will be assigned a 'Class'. You will gain 'Levels'. You will acquire 'Skills'.]
[Good luck, contestants. The gods are watching.]
The world had been turned into an MMORPG. The gods and demons the Sages had spoken of, they weren't just cosmic forces. They were players. Sponsors. And they had just drafted an entire planet into their game.
I stared at the new interface, a feeling of cold, analytical fury washing over me. I, a sovereign, was being reduced to a "contestant"? My unbound power was being re-categorized into "classes" and "levels"?
Unacceptable.
But as I raged against this new, imposed reality, the final, horrifying twist of this new world order unfolded. My personal, corrupted System interface flickered back to life, beneath the Tower's universal one, and it delivered the final piece of the puzzle.
[Nexus Codex analysis complete.]
[The 'Kaelen-Liana' entity, the ghost bound to the echo of your power, is also a 'contestant' in this new game.]
[Due to the unique, dual-soul nature of her existence (mortal host + usurper soul) and her possession of a quasi-system artifact, the Tower has assigned her a unique, legendary-tier class.]
[CLASS ASSIGNED: 'AVENGER'.]
[CLASS DESCRIPTION: A class that gains exponential power by hunting a single, designated 'Nemesis' target. All experience points are doubled when fighting the Nemesis. Special, anti-Nemesis skills are unlocked at regular intervals.]
[Your 'Karmic Abscess' has just been given a System-sanctioned, divinely-sponsored, XP-boosted quest to hunt and kill you for all eternity.]
[You are her designated Nemesis.]