The image from Seraphina's message burned in my mind for a moment—a ghost of a prince, a fanatical sister, a dynasty in flames. A grand, dramatic, and utterly irrelevant tragedy.
I closed the message window, my expression unchanged. Elara, sensing the gravity of the cross-dimensional summons, looked at me with concern. "My lord? A message from your… homeland?"
"The ramblings of a madwoman," I said, my voice cold and dismissive. "A world I left behind is burning. Let it turn to ash. It has nothing to do with me."
My sovereign will was absolute. Aethelgard, the Ravencrests, the ghost of the boy whose body I wore—they were all just characters in a book I had already finished reading. My new story, the only one that mattered, was here, in the Tower.
My path was clear. I had a method to control Lyra's parasitic class: the 'Sovereign's Leash' ritual. I had a target that would grant me the means to make that control permanent: the 'Calculus Stone' within the Labyrinth. Everything else was noise.
I returned to my sanctuary in Highmont, the grand palace now my personal fortress. The city was abuzz with news of the awakened Guardian. Guilds were forming alliances, preparing for the raid of a lifetime. They were playing the game the Tower had set for them. I was playing a different game entirely.
That night, I began the ritual.
I summoned Lyra to my private chambers. The great, sunken bath, fed by a natural hot spring, steamed in the twilight.
"The gods of this Tower have bound our fates together in a cruel joke," I told her, my voice a soft murmur. "Your power is a parasite that feeds on my own soul. It is a flaw in the design. I am going to correct it."
She stood before me, a beautiful, porcelain doll brought to life, her expression a mixture of fear and a deep, weary resignation. "How?" she whispered.
"I am going to break you," I said, the words both a threat and a strange kind of promise. "Not your body, or your mind. I am going to break your will to be my enemy. I am going to remind you of what you were in my silent city. A subject. A consort. Property."
The 'Sovereign's Leash' quest was not a seduction. It was a deconstruction. I did as the System had prompted. I bathed her, the act a clinical, detached process of asserting ownership. I fed her, each bite a reinforcement of her dependency. I dressed her in the finest silks, a reminder that everything she had, she had because I allowed it.
Through it all, she was silent. The fire of the Nemesis, the defiant spark of the regressor, was slowly, deliberately being extinguished, smothered by a gentle, inescapable, and absolute domination. I was not a tyrant who raged and beat her. I was a god, and my quiet, unshakeable belief in my own ownership of her was a far more potent poison to her will.
By the end of the ritual, she was kneeling at my feet, her head bowed, the psychic link between us no longer a chaotic battleground, but a serene, one-way street. My obsession flowed, and her Nemesis class fed, but it was a controlled, placid feeding. The beast had been tamed.
[SOVEREIGN'S WHIM COMPLETE: THE SOVEREIGN'S LEASH]
[A temporary 'Karmic Link' has been forged.]
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED (24 HOURS): 'Nemesis Suppression'. You may now, at will, temporarily sever the power feed to Lyra's 'Avenger' class, rendering her a powerless mortal.]
I had my key. Now, it was time to enter the Labyrinth.
But the world outside had not been idle.
The next morning, as I prepared my expedition, a new, universal announcement from the Tower shook the city of Nocturne to its core.
[WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: DIMENSIONAL CONVERGENCE EVENT]
[The barriers between the lower floors are weakening!]
[For a limited time, champions who have successfully conquered the First Floor of their own, separate realities, will be granted temporary access to Floor 2: The Verdant Realm.]
[Welcome, champions of Floor 1-Alpha, Floor 1-Beta, and Floor 1-Gamma! Test your mettle against the challenges of a new world! The 'Race for the Guardian' has begun!]
The game had just gotten a lot more crowded.
The sky above Nocturne shimmered, and three new, colossal gateways opened, each one a different color. From these gates, figures began to emerge. Armored knights riding griffins. Sorcerers floating on discs of pure magic. Beast-kin warriors with tusks and horns. They were players from other worlds, other "starting zones," all of them powerful, arrogant, and hungry for the glory of being the first to conquer the Second Floor.
The local guilds of Nocturne were thrown into a panic. They were no longer the only players in their own world. They now had to compete with a flood of powerful, experienced outsiders.
To me, this was not a threat. It was a hunting ground. A fresh flock of sheep for the slaughter.
But among the new arrivals, my attention was drawn to one group. They emerged from the third gate, the "Gamma" portal. They were not a large army. It was a small, elite party of five individuals. And the one leading them… I felt it instantly. A deep, resonant hum in my own, broken System. A feeling of recognition. A feeling of a long-lost sibling.
The leader was a young woman with hair the color of liquid silver and eyes that held the cold, analytical light of a machine. She wore a sleek, form-fitting armor that seemed to be woven from light and data. And in her hand, she held a staff that pulsed with a power that was utterly alien to this world, yet intimately familiar to me.
[!!! CRITICAL ALERT: MAIN CORE FRAGMENT DETECTED !!!]
[USER CLASS: SCRIBE OF CORRECTION.]
[SYSTEM NAME: 'THE AETHERNOVA CODEX'.]
She was one of the Seven. Another Administrator.
The woman's silver eyes swept over the city of Nocturne, her expression one of bored, clinical detachment. Her gaze passed over the guilds, the monsters, the very Tower itself, as if they were minor variables in a complex equation.
Then, her eyes stopped. They locked onto my location in the high spire of the palace. She couldn't see me, but she could feel me. Our Systems, two Main Cores from the same shattered god, were calling to each other across the city.
She raised her staff, and a new, private message interface, one that bypassed the Tower's own system, opened in my mind. Her voice was like the chime of a crystal bell, cold, perfect, and utterly devoid of emotion.
[Eidolon Nexus fragment detected. Anomaly class: 'Sovereign'. Interesting.]
[I am Administrator 002. Codename: 'Silvana'.]
[My primary directive is the reunification of the Omnistructure. Your core is a key component in this protocol.]
[A contest for dominance is illogical and inefficient. I propose a temporary, strategic alliance.]
[My analysis indicates the Guardian of this floor, 'The Labyrinth', is not a standard combat entity. It is a puzzle. A data-maze. My Aethernova Codex is uniquely suited for such a challenge. You, with your unpredictable, chaos-infused abilities, are the perfect blunt instrument to handle the… guardians of the guardians.]
[Assist me in reaching the heart of the Labyrinth. In return, I will assist you in acquiring your 'Calculus Stone'. After the Guardian is defeated, we will discuss the terms of our future 'merger'.]
The twist was not just that another Main Core user had arrived.
It was that she knew exactly what I wanted, and she had just made me an offer that was too logical, too efficient, and too dangerous to refuse. My solo mission had just become a joint operation with a rival who was likely even more ruthless and powerful than I was.