They said the Second Pact Ritual was supposed to be symbolic.

A flame. A vow. A whisper into the void.

They didn’t say it would feel like dying again.

Aria knelt inside the heart of the Flamevault—deep below the capital, where molten walls pulsed with ancient magic.

Kael stood at the perimeter, silent but ready. He didn’t speak. He didn’t stop her.

Because he knew she wouldn’t stop even if he tried.

She pressed her palm into the ritual stone.

System Sync Initiated: Pact Phase II – Core Merge Request

Warning: Firebound System Core is semi-conscious. Temperamental. Prone to rebellion.

Side Effects: Possible hallucinations, identity fracture, or... worse.

She whispered her name.

Not the name nobles used. Not the one Yvonne burned.

Her real name.

And the fire answered.

It wrapped her in heat. In memory. In something older than code.

And then it ripped her out of time.

Suddenly—

She stood on a battlefield made of blood.

Stars overhead flickered like dying embers.

The ground was littered with corpses, but none of them bled.

And above her floated a figure.

A woman with her face—but eyes made of flame.

BLOOD ORACLE ACTIVATED

“You will die in 21 days. Not by blade.

Not by betrayal.

But by the system you failed to rewrite.”

“You will choose the crown…

Or the flame.

But not both.”

Aria screamed—

—and woke in darkness.

Alone.

The chamber was gone.

So was her body.

Critical Alert: SYSTEM INITIATING FAILSAFE —

USER STATUS: FATAL TRAJECTORY DETECTED

Protocol: Sleep Mode (Fake Death) Suggested

"No."

Her voice echoed in the void.

Override Denied. Risk exceeds parameters.

"No."

Last chance to accept protection.

“NO.”

She reached into her system.

Past the interface.

Past the protocols.

Into the roots.

And she rewrote them.

ALERT: USER HAS BREACHED SYSTEM CORE AUTHORIZATION

Accessing forbidden kernel command...

New System Class Detected:

— Throneweaver (Unstable Prototype)

Origin: User-defined

Function: Authority Override + Construct Creation

Status: BETA | Growing | Dangerous

She gasped.

Flames erupted from her fingertips.

She wasn’t just using a system now.

She was becoming one.

Kael reached her just as the chamber cracked open.

Her body levitated in the air, eyes glowing, heat radiating like a newborn sun.

He caught her as she collapsed.

She whispered through cracked lips:

“I saw it.”

“Saw what?” he asked.

She looked up at him, firelight dancing in her pupils.

“The end.

And how I burn it differently.”

New System Class: Throneweaver (Lv.1)

Passive: Aura Authority + Construct Spawn

Active: Royal Override (1/day)

System Type: Evolving Self-Origin – Immune to external takeovers

Countdown to God Protocol: 18 days

Chapter 20: The Double Agent, the Secret Map, and the First Throneborn