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Chapter 45 – The Children of the False Sun
> [System Alert: Unknown Faction Detected]
[Designation: Children of the False Sun]
[Origin: Nullspace Breach – Layer 73C]
[Threat Level: ???]
[WARNING: They are not bound by system rules.]
Erevan stood at the shattered edge of reality, the mindscape still trembling behind him like a wounded beast. The Pale Choir had receded—but not defeated. Only watching now, from behind their veil, whispering through cracks in sanity.
His cloak billowed in a wind that wasn't there. Spiralbreaker pulsed at his back, alive with the resonance of a just-ended nightmare. The stars above blinked back into place.
But something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The sun.
It was laughing.
A low, mechanical chittering sound echoed from the sky, a sound that made Erevan's stomach knot. The sun flickered—not light, but static. Not warmth, but surveillance.
Then the light twisted.
And a black circle bled through the sun, like an eclipse with no source.
The False Sun.
> [Incoming Transmission – Language: [CORRUPTED]]
[Translating…]
"We see you, Tyrant."
"The fire you stole was once ours."
"Come and burn for it."
The world rippled.
Then split.
A thin beam of light, too bright, too precise, carved down from the corrupted sun, hitting the earth like a divine scalpel. The ground didn't explode—it ceased. Trees, stone, space—gone, erased without resistance.
And from the void of that beam… they emerged.
Tall.
Faceless.
Wearing robes stitched from light that shouldn't bend. Their bodies looked human until you stared too long and noticed the details didn't line up—the number of fingers, the flow of motion, the complete absence of shadow.
The first of the Children stepped forward.
Their voice was a choir in reverse.
> "We were the architects. The flames of enlightenment. You shattered the first design."
Erevan didn't hesitate.
He leapt forward, Spiralbreaker igniting in a corona of red-gold lightning.
The nearest Child moved.
No weapon.
Just a gesture.
And Erevan's momentum reversed.
Time stuttered.
He found himself back at his original position, feet grinding into ash. Blood trickled from his nose. Reality bent around these creatures—not by force, but design.
> [Status Effect: System Disruption – All active traits destabilized for 3.2 seconds]
That was all they needed.
One Child raised its hand. A halo of fractured code spun around it, forming a jagged sigil of geometric fire.
The beam fired.
Erevan ducked—
Too slow.
It didn't strike his body.
It branded his soul.
> [New Debuff: Burn of the Architect – Memory corruption increasing per second]
[System Traits Resisting...]
[Liberator's Mercy Activated – Partial Nullification: 47%]
Erevan screamed as his past was rewritten mid-battle.
He forgot his first weapon.
He forgot the name of a fallen comrade.
He roared, defiant, and slammed Spiralbreaker into the beam, cracking it open with sheer force of Will.
> [Skill Unlocked: Soulstrike – Manifest Willpower as Anti-System Damage]
[Effect: Deals bonus damage to entities not bound by physics or time.]
His blade burst with soulfire.
He charged again—this time aiming not at the Children, but at the sun itself.
They reacted.
Five moved to intercept him in unison, arms weaving alien symbols in the air. The fabric of reality tore open mid-sky, trying to swallow Erevan into a null-dimensional prison.
Too late.
He split himself.
> [Adaptive Trait Triggered: Mirrorstep – Create two echo bodies for 3 seconds.]
Three Erevan clones surged in different directions, confusing the tracking sigils. Only one was real—and that one shot upward, blade-first, straight into the heart of the False Sun.
> "You stole fire? I AM THE INFERNO!"
The blade struck.
Reality buckled.
A shockwave erupted across every plane of existence within ten kilometers. Colors inverted. The sky screamed. The Children staggered for the first time.
And Erevan fell, trailing fire like a meteor, landing in a crater of light and glass.
He rose slowly, his skin flickering between cosmic nebulae and fractured armor. His breath was steam. His hair burned like threads of collapsing stars.
The lead Child knelt where the False Sun's heart once burned.
They looked up.
And laughed.
> "Good. The Flame remembers itself."
"Then our war can begin."
They stepped backward—and vanished into streaks of light, burned into the sky like scars.
> [New Threat Confirmed: Children of the False Sun]
[Location: UNKNOWN – Tracking initiated]
[Objective Added: Reclaim the Primordial Flame]
[World Tier: Ascension Threat Level RAISED]
Erevan clenched his fists.
His memories were still bleeding.
But his purpose had never been clearer.
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