We moved at dawn.
Not because the light helped. There was no real sun in Virellia. Just a searing red orb crawling across a poisoned sky like a dying eye.
But the Breaker was gone.
And the Reaper hadn't come back.
Kael and I followed the edge of the ravine, half-limping, half-crawling, the pain setting in like a late bill.
Bones bruised. Cuts everywhere. My left hand was twitching from impact trauma.
The system had given me a class.
But it hadn't given me healing.
No EXP bonus. No reward chest. No soft piano sound effect.
Just this:
🧾 Class: UNBOUNDYou are no longer on the rails.Make your own path.(And suffer for it.)
"You good?" Kael asked, watching me test my fingers.
"No. But we're alive."
"Temporarily."
"Optimism. I like it."
She snorted and wiped blood from her mouth.
We were both cracked, stitched together by stubbornness and spite.
The ridge eventually flattened into a field of charred thorns. The only sound was wind moving through dead vines. A hill rose ahead, crowned with ancient stone pillars—weathered, broken, and half-swallowed by time.
We climbed in silence.
And when we reached the top, I saw it again.
The Black Tower.Distance: 8.3 km.Status: Unknown.Observation Level: MAXIMUM.
It was closer now.
Still distant.
But it no longer looked like a ruin.
It looked like a throne.
A place where something waited.
Something that wasn't a monster.
Wasn't a god.
Something that had built the game and lost control of it.
I couldn't stop staring.
Until the message came.
🧾 [Signal Detected]
Encrypted Source: [ERROR]Origin: Class Black-Level Ruins (Unknown)Message Fragment: PLAYBACK AUTHORIZED
A tone echoed in my ears.
Like static wrapped around a heartbeat.
Then a voice.
Raspy. Broken. Male. But layered—like multiple timelines were speaking at once.
"If you're hearing this... then you broke it too."
I froze.
Kael stepped closer. "What is that?"
I held up a hand. Listened.
"Name's Hiroshi Sato. Former class: Architect. Current status: Redacted."
Architect?
That wasn't in the system chart.
"You're Unbound. That means they'll come for you. Not the Reapers. Not the Breakers. The real ones."
"The Custodians."
Kael paled. "…What the hell are Custodians?"
I didn't answer.
The message continued:
"You can't win alone. You have to reach the tower. Past the Graves. Through the Mire. Into the Data Core."
"Find the Anchor."
"And whatever you do…"
The static spiked.
A voice underneath the voice screamed.
"Don't trust the Narrator."
And the signal cut.
🧾 [Signal Logged]
Source Identity: ARCHITECT-Class / DeceasedMessage Integrity: 57%Data Echo: Residual
Anchor Objective Added→ Objective: Reach the Black Tower→ Subgoal: Discover the Anchor→ Warning: You are not the first. You are not alone.
Kael sat down hard on a crumbled pillar.
"I'm sorry, but—what the actual fuck just happened?"
I didn't sit.
Didn't blink.
Because I was still watching the sky.
It twitched again.
And I felt it.
For the first time since waking in this nightmare world—
The system was scared.
Not of me.
But of what I was about to remember.
In the back of my mind, buried deep beneath logic and rage, something stirred.
Not a memory.
A seed.
A whisper not in my voice.
"Anchor online."
"Time loop active."
"Welcome back, Itsuki Amagi."