The forest beyond the northern ridge of Auris was not listed on any System maps. Officially, it had been marked as "dormant land," sealed off for "mana instability." In truth, it was a blind spot—one of the few places the System couldn't fully scan.
Which was why the Divine Fragment was buried here.
Ashen crouched in the underbrush, eyes fixed on a clearing up ahead. Moonlight slashed between branches, illuminating a single obsidian altar overgrown with weeds. Atop it pulsed a jagged crystal, black-red like blood under pressure.
Divine Fragment: Class B
WARNING: Entities not registered by the System will not be able to receive Blessing Rewards upon clearing this site.
Ashen read the notification that only Riven could sense. She frowned beside him.
"Even the warnings act like you don't exist."
"That's the idea," he murmured, rising.
Behind them, Lira finished adjusting the straps of her repurposed armor. She held a round shield made from scavenged paladin plate. Her eyes were calm, but the tension in her arms betrayed her.
"You said you've fought this thing before," she said.
"In another timeline."
"And you survived?"
"No," Ashen said, drawing his sword. "That's why we're here now."
They entered the clearing in a three-pronged formation. Ashen moved forward, blade at the ready. Lira circled left. Riven stood back, hands weaving pale blue sigils into the air.
The crystal throbbed faster.
Then it shattered.
A humanoid figure emerged, cloaked in shadow, face a blur of shifting masks. Not a demon. Not a god.
Something in between.
[Divine Fragment: Mask of Reversal Awakened]
It didn't speak. It simply pointed at Ashen.
Then reality inverted.
The ground twisted beneath their feet, and Ashen found himself staring at a battlefield from the future.
The same moment he'd died.
Corpses everywhere. A crater where the Demon God had fallen. His own broken body lying still.
But now, he was the one watching—as Kaleid knelt by Ashen's corpse and claimed credit.
"That's the real timeline," the Fragment's voice echoed in his mind. "Isn't it beautiful?"
Ashen clenched his teeth. "You feed off false prophecy."
"I feed off inevitability," it purred.
In the real world, Riven's spirit shell cracked. She screamed and dropped to one knee.
Lira raised her shield as the Fragment lunged.
Ashen blinked—his body frozen in the vision.
But he remembered this.
The Fragment used illusions, yes—but it was vulnerable during transitions.
As its form flickered, Ashen gritted his teeth and forced himself to move, tearing through the illusion with sheer will.
The Anathema mark on his chest burned red-hot.
System Override Detected.
Warning: Anomaly Class 2.
Cost Imposed: Internal Bleeding (Stage 1)
Ashen ignored the pain and struck.
His blade sank into the Fragment's chest.
It howled as the altar exploded, shadows evaporating around it. But even as its form melted, it laughed.
"You kill me here—but others will awaken."
Ashen drove the blade in deeper.
"That's the idea."
The forest grew silent.
Riven stumbled to her feet, coughing blood from magical recoil. Lira was panting, armor dented but intact.
Ashen stood above the remains of the Fragment, now a smear of ash and cracked earth.
No golden light rained down.
No System notification declared "Heroic Victory."
No one would know.
But this was the first domino.
They set up camp nearby. No fire. Just silence.
Riven finally broke it. "You said this was your first target."
Ashen nodded.
"There are twelve."
Lira tilted her head. "What happens when we kill all twelve?"
Ashen stared into the dark trees.
"Then we find the gods."
That night, Ashen bled quietly beneath his cloak. The cost of overriding a System vision wasn't small.
He stared at the veins in his hand, blackened slightly from the backlash.
The Anathema gave power—but only when he was willing to take on its burdens.
"Pain in place of reward. Silence in place of fame."
That was the trade.
And he had no intention of turning back.