The air shifted.
It wasn't just wind—reality itself rippled like fabric stretched too tight. A storm without clouds, a silence louder than thunder.
Everyone in the rebel camp felt it.
The children cried. The guards looked to Lin Xian with fear in their eyes.
He stood still.
[System Alert: WARNING – External Entity Detected]
[Classification: Protocol Hunter | Tier: Cataclysm]
[Objective: Target Lin Xian. Eliminate and Reclaim System Core Fragment.]
The skies above the canyon tore open.
Something fell.
No—not fell. Descended.
A figure slowly lowered into view, clad in an obsidian bodysuit, its face a void, glowing red lines like cracks in a porcelain shell. It floated without wings. No aura. No life.
Just pressure.
Lin Xian's breath caught in his throat. Even with Dragon Soul active, his knees nearly buckled.
"Subject 113-A," the Hunter intoned. "Unauthorized evolution. You are marked for deletion."
Behind Lin Xian, rebels screamed. Some tried to run. One burst into flames just by being looked at.
"Stay behind me!" Lin Xian roared.
[System Override – Emergency Protocol Unlocked]
[New Skill: Voidburn Step – Warp through fragmented reality | Cooldown: 45 sec]
[WARNING: Enemy Combat Tier Exceeds Current Host Level by x4]
"So be it," Lin Xian whispered. "If I die here, I'll die fighting like a dragon."
The duel began.
The Hunter moved faster than light—no, faster than thought. Lin Xian could barely parry the first strike. His blade shattered on impact.
But he twisted, Voidburn Step activated—blink—he was behind the Hunter.
Dragon Breath Strike!
A torrent of flame roared point-blank. The Hunter staggered—only for a black spike to shoot from its shoulder, impaling Lin Xian through the gut.
Blood sprayed.
"I see," the Hunter said. "Your kind bleeds the same."
Lin Xian fell to one knee. Darkness edged his vision.
But then…
[System Override Triggered – Forbidden Trait Waking…]
[Godless Architect – Phase I Initiated]
[Construct Ability: "Command Rewrite" – Duration: 12 sec]
[Effect: Steal enemy protocol permissions within local field]
Lin Xian opened his eyes. They glowed with binary flame.
"No," he growled. "Your system… is mine now."
With a roar, his blood surged in reverse. The mark on his wrist ignited.
The Hunter twitched, freezing mid-strike.
"Impossible—how did you—"
"I rewrote the rules."
Lin Xian grabbed the spike inside his body, pulled it out—and stabbed it back into the Hunter's core.
A burst of golden-red flame engulfed them both.
When the smoke cleared, the Hunter's armor had collapsed, burned clean through. Its body turned to ash in the wind.
[Protocol Hunter Eliminated]
[Godless Architect Awakening: 12%]
[New Title Gained: Systembreaker]