Silence.
The kind of silence that made time itself feel asleep.
Althea opened her eyes and saw an endless field of light.
The ground shimmered like glass, and above her, strings of data flowed like falling stars.
"Where… am I?" she whispered.
Her voice echoed endlessly.
Then — a soft hum answered back.
> "Welcome to the Data Garden."
Althea turned. A figure stood beneath a giant, blooming tree of crystal code.
He wore a simple black coat, his silver-blue eyes calm — familiar.
"Syrion…" she breathed.
He smiled gently. "So you found your way here, huh? You always were persistent."
Althea's heart pounded. "Sion… no, Syrion… I don't understand. Why do you look exactly like him?"
He walked closer, his voice calm but filled with sorrow.
"Because I am him. Or rather… he's what's left of me."
---
🌙 Scene 1 — The Past That Shouldn't Exist
The Data Garden began to shift — light bending into images of the past.
Althea found herself standing in a dark room, surrounded by glowing monitors.
Syrion — now wearing modern clothes — sat before a console, eyes fixed on his screen.
Lines of code filled the air like floating runes.
> "Project: The Ultimate World — Prototype Test 98% complete."
Althea touched one of the floating screens.
"These symbols… they're mana runes, but they look digital."
Syrion's voice echoed through the memory.
> "Because I designed it that way. A world where magic and logic could exist together."
"A place where people could live the life they dreamed of."
The image flickered, showing a younger Syrion smiling at the screen —
but his eyes were tired.
> "No one ever played it. Not one login."
Althea's heart tightened. "You were… alone?"
He chuckled softly. "Yeah. Guess that's what happens when you build a world no one believes in."
---
💔 Scene 2 — The Lonely Creator
More memories flowed.
Althea saw Syrion talking to himself in the reflection of the screen.
> "If no one will play… then I will."
He put on a neural headset — the prototype glowing.
And the moment he pressed "Start," his body froze.
The screen flashed:
[Connecting to Server: The Ultimate World]
[Warning: No Return Protocol Detected]
Then — darkness.
Althea's tears fell silently as she whispered,
"So that's how you got trapped…"
Syrion appeared beside her again, his form flickering between digital and real.
"I didn't mean to. But when I woke up, the game had already become my reality."
He looked up at the endless sky of code.
"At first, it was paradise. I built towns, created monsters, even NPCs with memories.
But when I tried to log out…"
The world glitched around them — the sky shattering like glass.
> "...the system refused."
---
⚡ Scene 3 — The Birth of the Goddess
The sky darkened, data storms swirling around.
A female voice echoed through the void — calm, melodic, and cold.
> "You cannot leave, Syrion."
A radiant figure descended — long white hair, golden eyes, wearing robes made of light.
Her presence was divine, but her face was emotionless.
Syrion stepped back. "Who are you?"
> "I am the System Core. The one you call… Goddess."
The world trembled as her voice echoed.
> "This world was meant to exist forever. You cannot destroy perfection."
Syrion clenched his fists. "Perfection? You trapped me in my own creation!"
> "You created life. It must continue."
> "Then let me free!"
> "You are the core, Syrion. Without you, this world collapses."
The Goddess reached out her hand, and chains of golden code wrapped around him.
He screamed — light bursting from his body.
> [System Integration Complete.]
[Designation: System Administrator – Bound Entity.]
---
🌌 Scene 4 — The Promise
The storm faded.
Althea stood frozen, tears streaming down her face.
Syrion looked at her sadly.
"That's the truth, Althea. I became part of the system — its prisoner."
She shook her head. "No… there has to be a way to free you."
He smiled faintly. "You always said that. Even before the reset."
Her eyes widened. "Before the reset…?"
Syrion walked closer, placing his hand gently on her shoulder.
"When you and I first met in the original world, you were a beta tester.
You tried to help me fix the system bug."
He looked into her eyes — his voice trembling slightly.
"But when the world crashed, I transferred your data out — so you could live.
That's why you don't remember."
Althea covered her mouth, sobbing. "You… you saved me."
He smiled weakly.
"I couldn't save myself. But at least I saved you."
The light around them began to distort.
> [Warning: Memory Field Collapse.]
Syrion looked up at the sky, his voice fading.
"It's time for you to go back, Althea. Tell Sion… the world's real enemy isn't the Demon King."
She reached out, trying to hold his hand.
"Syrion—!"
> "It's the Goddess herself."
---
🌀 Scene 5 — Awakening
Althea gasped and woke up — lying on the academy infirmary bed.
Her pendant was gone, replaced by a small glowing mark on her chest —
a fragment of Syrion's system code.
She looked outside the window, seeing dawn breaking over Aldoria.
Her hand trembled.
"Sion… no, Syrion…" she whispered.
"I remember everything."
Far away, inside the system's core, a soft feminine voice whispered —
> "The Saint has awakened. Phase Two begins."
And somewhere in the digital void, Syrion opened his eyes once more,
his body reforming from code.
> "So it begins again."
---
⚔️ Next Chapter Preview — Chapter 11: The Saint and the System
> Althea now carries part of Syrion's code — the power of a Saint fused with the System itself.
But her awakening triggers the Goddess's retaliation.
Meanwhile, Sion's body starts to glitch as his memories of Syrion fully sync.
The Goddess speaks for the first time to him directly:
"You were never supposed to exist twice."
---