The black sphere in Ren's hand didn't just pulse. It hummed with a frequency that felt like a scream from a different dimension. As the S Rank Core merged with his chest, the golden cracks on his skin turned into deep violet veins. The pain was no longer physical. It was as if his very soul was being rewritten in a language he had never heard.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Science Tutorial: Completed.
New Expansion Detected: The Aetheric Weave.
Integrating Mana Circuits: 12%... 25%...
Ren looked at the sky and saw the impossible. The mechanical dragon was a nightmare of brass and silver. Its wings were made of translucent energy that shimmered like a prism. It breathed a torrent of green fire that didn't just burn the Archivist ships. The fire seemed to dissolve their molecular bonds and turned the high tech alloy into harmless flower petals that floated in the vacuum of space.
Anya stood up with her hand on her side and blood dripping from her lip. She asked what kind of weapon could do that. She looked at the green fire with a mixture of terror and wonder. Elara was frantically tapping at her device but the screen was just a mess of ancient runes and shifting symbols. She shouted that the laws of thermodynamics were being ignored. She said the energy was coming from nowhere.
Ren stood in the center of the Lunar Apex and watched the Archivist fleet flee in terror. The cold and logical machines had no defense against a force that defied their programming. Ren realized that the Archivists were just the top tier of a very small pond. He looked at the S Rank Core in his chest and saw the new data streams.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Skill Transmuted: Sovereign Logic to Aetheric Architect.
Effect: You can now perceive the code of reality as Mana.
The voice that had spoken through the comms returned. A small and elegant ship shaped like a golden swan descended toward the lunar platform. It didn't use thrusters. It floated on a cushion of shimmering violet light. A ramp made of solid light extended from the ship and a woman stepped out.
She wore a gown of starlight and carried a staff tipped with a glowing emerald. Her eyes were not grey or black but a vibrant and swirling purple. She looked at the wreckage of Subject 001 and then at Ren. She smiled and told him that he was the first Subject 004 to survive the transition without losing his sanity. She introduced herself as Lyra and said she was a Proctor from the Astral Hegemony.
Ren didn't lower his guard. He told the woman that he didn't care about her Hegemony or her games. He asked her what she had done to his world.
Lyra laughed and her voice sounded like wind chimes. She told Ren that his world was never real. She explained that the Earth and the Academies were a closed simulation designed to produce the perfect "Strategic Core." She revealed that the Archivists were just the automated guards of the nursery. She said that now that he had reached S Rank, he was finally a "Player."
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Main Quest Updated: The First Trial of the Hegemony.
Objective: Secure your Sector against the Mana Tide.
Reward: Permanent Sovereign Status.
Anya walked to Ren's side and stared at Lyra. She asked if they were just toys for people like her. She gripped the hilt of her sword and the violet veins in her own arms began to glow. The Caelum 7 in her body was reacting to the new atmosphere of the moon. It was evolving into something denser and more powerful.
Lyra looked at Anya and nodded with approval. She said the "Shadow" line was also developing nicely. She turned back to Ren and told him that he had one hour before the "Tutorial Shields" dropped. She explained that once the shields were gone, the Earth would be visible to every mercenary and conqueror in the galaxy. She warned him that the Archivists were the least of his problems.
Ren looked at the holographic pillar. The names were gone. In their place was a leaderboard that stretched across thousands of sectors. Ren saw his name at the very bottom of the list. He was Rank 9,999,999. At the top of the list was a name that made his blood run cold.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Leaderboard Rank 1: Silas the Eternal.
Ren realized that the Silas he had fought was just a low level avatar. The real Silas was a god in this new expansion. Ren looked at Lyra and asked what the catch was. He knew that people like her didn't give warnings for free.
Lyra's smile sharpened. She told Ren that he was as sharp as the records said. She admitted that she wanted a stake in his sector. She offered to provide him with basic "Mana Instruction" in exchange for 30% of his future soul harvest. She told him it was a fair price for survival.
Ren looked at his sister who was standing silently by the pod. She looked at him and nodded. She whispered that the Mana was the only way to save the kids in the Wastes. She said the Earth was already starting to freeze as the Science engines died.
Ren looked at Lyra and then at the leaderboard. He felt the weight of the S Rank Core and the power of the Aetheric Architect skill. He realized that magic was just a more complex form of code. He saw the "syntax" of the mana flowing around Lyra's staff. He saw the "bugs" in her defensive aura.
Ren told Lyra that he had a counter offer. He explained that he would take her instruction but he wouldn't give her a single soul. He offered to show her how to "Optimize" her own magic in exchange for the safety of his people.
Lyra laughed and asked how a "Newbie" could optimize the magic of a Proctor. She challenged him to show her a single thing she didn't know.
Ren reached out and grabbed the air in front of him. He didn't use a spell. He used his Sovereign logic to find the "Admin Backdoor" of the local mana field. He pinched a strand of violet light and twisted it.
Suddenly Lyra's ship turned into a pile of rusted iron. The starlight gown on her body flickered and became a simple grey rag. The emerald on her staff shattered into dust.
Lyra fell to her knees in shock. She gasped and asked what he had done. She looked at her hands and realized her mana was completely blocked.
Ren looked down at her with a bored expression. He told her that her "Magic" had a very inefficient memory leak. He explained that he had simply deleted the "Render" command for her equipment. He said that to her it was a miracle but to him it was just bad coding.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Hidden Achievement Unlocked: The God-Hacker.
Reward: 10,000 Mana Credits.
Current Rank: 9,500,000.
Ren told Lyra that she was going to help him for free because if she didn't, he would delete her entire existence from the sector's database. He told her that he was the Architect and he was reclaiming his world.
Suddenly the moon began to crack. A massive creature made of pure light and obsidian emerged from the lunar core. It was a "Mana Sentinel" and it was ten times larger than the mechanical dragon. It let out a roar that could be heard in the minds of every human on Earth.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Emergency Event: The Sentinel Awakens.
Difficulty: Impossible.
Ren looked at the giant monster and then at the terrified Lyra. He looked at Anya and saw her eyes turn a brilliant violet. He realized that the game had truly begun.