Chapter 33: Codebreaker
The world screamed.
A brilliant pillar of light erupted from the System Core in Valerian’s hand, splitting the skies and burning away the corrupted aurora. The Architect, floating above the battlefield with godlike detachment, narrowed her eyes as new variables emerged. The code beneath reality—once orderly and pristine—now writhed in chaos, rewritten by Valerian’s defiance.
The last shard of the System was responding... but not as it once had.
Selene shielded her eyes as a shockwave blasted outward from Valerian’s form. The shattered ground beneath him fused together. Flames of black and crimson danced around his body. His coat billowed as his obsidian armor began to shift, expanding into plates layered with ethereal runes.
Lira muttered, voice trembling, "He’s... rewriting the code of reality."
The Architect’s eyes glowed with contempt. "You are not authorized."
Valerian’s voice echoed like thunder. "That’s the point."
He raised Vesperfang, now glowing with a deep, ancient red—no longer bound by the System’s logic, but reforged with true will. His wings expanded wider, dragonbone and spectral fire merging as one. Symbols of the broken System spun around him like orbiting moons, disintegrating into raw mana.
The transformation finished in a final pulse that flattened the battlefield. Debris turned to dust. The wind stopped.
Time itself hiccupped.
Then resumed.