Ethan stood rooted in place, unmoving, feeling every pair of eyes in the alley fixed on him.
"Who are you, really?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady even as his hand still pulsed with the remnants of the golden energy that had just burst from it.
The black-robed man let out a quiet laugh, his voice deep and devoid of emotion, like someone who had long forgotten what it felt like to be genuinely amused. "My name doesn't matter to you right now. What matters is that you understand your position. You aren't the rightful owner of the power you just used, and every time you use it, you're only accelerating a process that should have already finished from the start."
Selene stepped half in front of Ethan, her knife still gripped tight even as her hand trembled slightly. "If you actually planned to kill him, why bother talking so much?"
"Because I didn't come to kill him," the man answered, his tone remaining calm despite how startling his words were. "I came to offer a choice, something I should have offered Kael before he chose his own foolish path."
[Warning: Unknown Entity Approaching. Distance: 5 Meters.]
The black-robed man stepped closer, and the badge-wearing hunters behind him stepped back, as though making way for something more important than the orders they'd been given before.
"Do you know why your synchronization has kept dropping since the start?" the man asked, his eyes hidden beneath the hood still fixed straight on Ethan. "It's not because you're not the rightful owner. That's just a symptom. The real cause is that the System itself is dying, and you, quite by accident, have become the only thing keeping it alive."
Those words silenced Ethan. He thought back to every warning that had appeared in his status box, every number that had kept dropping without clear explanation, and suddenly it all felt like puzzle pieces whose shape he still didn't fully understand.
"Why should I believe you?" Ethan asked, his voice sharper than he'd intended.
"You don't have to," the man answered lightly, "but you don't have many other choices either. That System will die, sooner or later, and when it does, you'll die with it, trapped between two worlds that both refuse to accept you."
Selene nudged Ethan's arm gently, whispering fast, "Don't listen to him. Someone who offers help while surrounded by armed soldiers isn't someone you can trust."
The black-robed man seemed to hear that whisper, because his lips curved into another thin smile. "The girl's right, actually. I can't be fully trusted. But at least I'm honest about that, unlike Kael, who hid the truth from you from the very first second you two met."
[Warning: Synchronization Fluctuating Unstably. 51 percent to 38 percent.]
Ethan felt something inside his chest throb with pain, not a physical wound, but something deeper, like a thread being pulled from two opposing directions at once.
"What are you doing to me?" Ethan shouted, dropping to his knees, clutching his chest.
"I'm not doing anything," the man answered calmly, though his tone shifted slightly, as if even he hadn't fully anticipated this reaction. "This is happening because you're drawing closer to me. Your System recognizes me, just as it recognizes Kael, and that recognition is forcing an already fragile balance to grow even more unstable."
Selene knelt beside Ethan, trying to support him, but her eyes remained watchful, tracking the black-robed man and the hunters surrounding them. "If you really don't intend to kill him, let me take him away now, before this state of his kills him on its own."
The man fell silent for a moment, as though weighing the request, then slowly raised one hand.
The badge-wearing hunters behind him stepped back in unison, opening a path toward the alley's mouth, which had been tightly sealed just moments before.
"You may take him now," the man said, "but remember my words well, little vessel. You have less time than you think, and the next time we meet, you won't have the choice to refuse my offer."
Selene wasted no time. She pulled Ethan to his feet, helping him stagger past the row of hunters now standing frozen like statues, toward the alley's mouth leading to the city's main road.
Ethan glanced back once more before fully leaving the alley, his eyes meeting a pair of eyes hidden beneath the black hood, and for a fraction of a second, the night wind lifted the hood slightly.
The face beneath it wasn't a stranger's face.
That face, though older by some years, with deeper lines of weariness etched around the eyes, still bore a resemblance impossible to mistake, a resemblance identical to the face he'd seen every time he looked at his own reflection since waking in Veyrune Forest.
[Critical Warning: Entity Identity Verified. Name: Kaelan Veyrath. Relationship to Rightful Owner: Unknown.]