"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
***
0...
The countdown reached zero.
Nothing happened.
The System hung suspended in that impossible moment. Trapped between execution and error. I could feel it struggling, like a clockwork mechanism with a gear stuck between teeth. The termination command had been issued. The order was absolute. Final. Irrevocable.
But the Rune of Diminishment was interfering in ways the System couldn't comprehend.
It was like watching a predator try to bite down on prey, only to find its jaws clamped around something that shouldn't exist.
Wait.
I've been thinking about this wrong.
I can't force my way past the System's defenses. They're too strong. Too fundamental. Woven into the fabric of reality itself, probably older than the kingdom, maybe older than the continent.
But what if I don't need to break through?
What if I need to break the System itself?
