The punch didn't just break the Regent's jaw. It broke the timeline.
As Mali's fist connected, a shockwave of golden light exploded outward, stripping the wire-frame monster down to its base code. The Regent shrieked—a sound of dial-up static and grinding metal—as his very existence was overwritten.
" DELETE THIS! " Mali roared, pouring the entirety of his Alkahest soul into the strike.
The Regent dissolved. He didn't turn into ash or dust. He turned into numbers. Billions of zeroes and ones cascaded like rain, falling harmlessly to the ground. The red sky of the Abyssal Sector flickered, then shattered like glass, revealing the true, ancient starlight behind it.
Mali stood panting, his fist smoking with golden energy. He felt Anya stir on his back, sliding down to stand on her own feet. She was groggy, but alive.
"Did... did we win?" she whispered.
Before Mali could answer, the Primordial Anvil woke up.
The dead white dwarf star above them ignited. It didn't burn white or yellow. It burned Gold. A beam of pure, concentrated data shot down from the star, engulfing Mali and Anya.
It wasn't painful. It felt like drinking sunlight. It felt like suddenly remembering a language you had forgotten you knew.
The System—the tyrannical, red-text interface that had governed their lives—vanished.
In its place, a new interface booted up. It was sleek, silent, and terrifyingly omnipotent.
[SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE]
[ADMINISTRATOR: DELETED]
[NEW USER IDENTIFIED: MALI ALKAHEST]
[BIOMETRIC SCAN... MATCH: 100%]
[BLOODLINE... PURE]
[TRUE NAME... UNLOCKED]
Mali gasped as his body arched, lifting off the ground. He wasn't just leveling up. He was evolving. His bones cracked and reformed, turning denser, infused with the golden light of the star. The 'scary cat' wasn't just gone; the biology that supported fear was being rewritten.
[CRITICAL UPDATE: MALI ALKAHEST]
[CLASS CHANGE: HEIR -> SOVEREIGN]
[LEVEL CAP: BROKEN]
[XP GAIN: +999,999,999 (ADMIN KILL BONUS)]
[LEVEL: 5 -> 50]
[NEW TRAIT: THE COSMIC AXIOM] > Effect: Your existence is now a fixed point in reality. You cannot be 'Deleted', 'Moved', or 'Altered' by any external force without your consent. You are the Admin.
[NEW SKILL: GENESIS TOUCH (DIVINE CLASS)] > Description: The Alkahest unmakes. The Genesis remakes. You can now expend EP to restore matter, energy, or code to its prime state.
[STATS UPDATED:] > POW: UNQUANTIFIABLE (Err: Infinity) > VIT: GOD-TIER > CTL: 100 (MAX)
Mali fell back to the ground, landing on his feet with the weight of a planet. He looked at his hands. They weren't just hands anymore. They were tools that could sculpt galaxies. He felt the POW—it wasn't a jagged ocean anymore. It was a calm, limitless reservoir.
But the light wasn't done. It turned to Anya.
She didn't scream. She inhaled. Her eyes, usually a soft silver, turned into spinning galaxies of data. She was the Hacker who had cracked the Admin. She had touched the source code and survived.
[CRITICAL UPDATE: ANYA ALKAHEST]
[CLASS CHANGE: PRINCESS -> FATE WEAVER] [LEVEL: 5 -> 45]
[NEW TRAIT: THE OMNISCIENT EYE] > Effect: You can now view the 'Source Code' of the universe. You do not just predict probabilities; you can edit the variables. (Restricted to Local Reality).
[NEW SKILL: SYSTEM OVERRIDE] > Description: You hold the Keys. You can rewrite the laws of physics within a 1km radius. Gravity, Thermodynamics, and Time are now suggestions, not rules.
[STATS UPDATED:] > INT: OMNISCIENT > PER: OMNIPRESENT > CTL: 95
The beam of light faded.
Mali and Anya stood on the platform. They looked at each other. They weren't just a married couple anymore. They were the new pantheon.
"Mali," Anya whispered. She looked at the air around them. "I can see the code. I can see the oxygen molecules. I can see the refresh rate of the universe."
"I can feel the Anvil," Mali said. His voice echoed with a natural reverb, deep and commanding. "It's waiting for orders."
He looked out at the field of horror—the Failed Heirs. The zombie-cyborgs that the Regent had enslaved were standing still, their red eyes fading to a dull gray. They were waiting to die. To be discarded again.
Mali looked at the suit of his grandfather, Aurelius.
"No," Mali said. "No more discarding."
He walked forward. He didn't draw a weapon. He raised his hand, palm open.
"Anya," he said. "I need you to isolate their source codes. Strip out the Regent's corruption. Leave the souls."
"Done," she said instantly. She flicked her wrist, and a ripple of silver code washed over the army, severing the purple cables of the Regent's control.
Mali activated his new skill.
[GENESIS TOUCH]
A wave of blinding gold light erupted from him. It didn't destroy. It didn't unmake.
It healed.
The rust vanished from the armor. The cybernetic horrors fell away, dissolving into light. The shattered plates reformed.
And the souls trapped within... they woke up.
They didn't come back to life—their bodies were long gone—but their spirits, anchored to the armor, were restored to clarity. Hundreds of glowing, white-gold figures emerged from the metal suits. They looked young, proud, and free.
The ghost of Aurelius, a towering man with a kind face, stepped forward. He looked at his hands, then at Mali. He smiled.
" The Unmaker... became the Restorer, " the spirit whispered. The voice wasn't audible; it was a Karmic impression.
The army of ancestors bowed. Not to a Prince. To the Sovereign.
Then, they began to fade, dissolving into particles of light that drifted up toward the golden star. Finally at peace.
Mali watched them go, a single tear tracking through the dust on his cheek.
"Admin rights," Anya said softly, walking up to him. She placed a hand on his chest. "You really went overboard."
"We needed the upgrade," Mali said, covering her hand with his. "The Regent said he was eating the stars. He wasn't alone, Anya. He was sending the energy somewhere."
He pointed to the sky, past the Anvil, into the deep dark of the Void.
"There are others," Mali said, his Cosmic Axiom trait allowing him to sense threats galaxies away. "The Regent was just the Jailer. The real enemy... is still out there."
Anya's eyes narrowed, her Omniscient Eye scanning the vector he pointed at. "I see them. Probabilities shifting. Massive Karmic signatures. They're waking up because the Regent stopped feeding them."
Mali turned to her. He didn't look scared. The scary cat was gone, replaced by something far more dangerous: A protective god.
"Let them wake up," Mali said.
He clenched his fist, and the entire Primordial Anvil hummed, engines coming online for the first time in ten thousand years.
"We have a ship," Mali said, looking at the massive ring world. "We have a fleet." He looked at the Stiletto. "And we have Root Access."
He pulled Anya close, the Binary Star link flaring naturally, effortlessly, and infinitely.
"Let's go fix my universe."