Chapter 26 - The First Step Into the Abyss

  The Arbiter’s hooded gaze remained fixed on Akari.

  Even without seeing their face, she could feel their amusement.

  “So, you choose to listen.”

  The void behind them pulsed, dark energy spiraling outward.

  Akari’s grip on her sword tightened. Every instinct screamed at her to run—to leave before she became tangled in something she couldn’t escape.

  But she ignored them.

  She had already come this far.

  There was no turning back now.

  “I want answers.”** Her voice was firm.** “What exactly are you offering me?”

  The Arbiter lifted a hand.

  And then—

  Reality itself bent.

  The battlefield dissolved. The distant ruins, the cracked stone, the lingering mist—all of it was gone.

  Instead, Akari stood in a space of pure darkness.

  No ground beneath her feet.

  No sky above.

  Just endless void.

  Yet she did not fall.

  The Arbiter’s voice rang through the emptiness.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “The Veilbound Realm is not a game.”

  Akari’s breath hitched.

  “It is a prison. A testing ground. A battlefield for forgotten gods and abandoned souls.”

  Her mind raced. She had suspected something was off, but this—

  This was beyond what she imagined.

  “And you,” the Arbiter continued, “were never meant to survive this long.”

  Akari’s heart pounded.

  “Then why am I still here?”

  For the first time, the Arbiter laughed.

  Not cruelly. Not mockingly.

  But as if she had asked a stupid question.

  “Because the system is broken.”

  Akari’s stomach twisted.

  Broken?

  The system—the one that let her level up, summon beasts, grow stronger—

  It wasn’t supposed to work like this?

  A Forbidden Truth

  The Arbiter raised a finger, and suddenly—

  Notifications flooded Akari’s vision.

  Lines of text, countless system messages she had never seen before, filling the air like shattered fragments of code.

  > ERROR: Unregistered Player Detected.

  ERROR: System Override Attempt.

  ERROR: Foreign Entity Interference.

  Akari stared.

  Her existence in this world was a mistake.

  She shouldn’t have been able to progress. She shouldn’t have been able to defeat the Guardian.

  And yet, somehow, she had broken through the system’s limitations.

  The Arbiter’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.

  “You are not like the others.”

  Their tone was neither kind nor cruel. Simply… factual.

  “You are an anomaly. And anomalies attract attention.”

  Akari clenched her fists.

  She hated that word. Anomaly. As if she didn’t belong. As if she was some glitch in a world she had fought so hard to survive in.

  “Then tell me,” she said, her voice low, “what happens to anomalies?”

  The Arbiter didn’t hesitate.

  “They are erased.”

  A shiver ran through her.

  So that was it.

  She had been playing all this time, thinking she could carve out a life for herself here.

  But the system—whatever ruled this world—wanted her gone.

  The Veilbound Realm was never meant to be a place where someone like her could thrive.

  She had defied fate.

  And fate would try to correct itself.

  The Offer

  The Arbiter extended a hand toward her.

  “But you do not have to die.”

  The darkness around them seemed to pulse, reacting to their words.

  “You can stand against the system. Against those who would see you erased.”

  Akari’s breath was shallow.

  She had expected a warning. A threat.

  Not… this.

  Not an invitation.

  Her summon, standing beside her, shifted uneasily. It could feel it too—the weight of this moment.

  This wasn’t just an offer of survival.

  This was an offer of power.

  A chance to rewrite the rules.

  “Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

  The Arbiter tilted their head.

  “Because you amuse me.”

  Akari’s eyes narrowed.

  Was that really the reason?

  Or was there something deeper at play?

  The First Step

  The Arbiter’s hand remained outstretched.

  Waiting.

  This was the true choice.

  The portal before had been an illusion. A test.

  This—

  This was the moment where she decided her true path.

  Stay within the system, and fight against the inevitable?

  Or become something else entirely?

  The darkness around them whispered.

  Her fate was in her hands.

  Slowly—

  Akari reached out.

  Her fingers brushed against the Arbiter’s hand, and instantly—

  The world shattered.

  Pain lanced through her skull.

  Her vision blurred, filled with symbols she couldn’t understand, whispers of forgotten voices echoing in her mind.

  Then—

  Silence.

  And a single notification.

  > System Override Initiated.

  You have stepped beyond mortality.

  Your new path begins.

  Akari gasped, stumbling backward as the world came into focus again.

  She was no longer in the void.

  She was som

  ewhere else.

  Somewhere ancient.

  And the real game… had just begun.