The ruins crumbled behind them, swallowed by an endless void. The sky fractured, jagged lines of black nothingness spreading like cracks in a broken mirror.
The System was erasing this place.
And they were still inside it.
Rheon sprinted, his breath ragged, his spear clutched tightly in his hands. Beside him, Elara, Lorien, and Hadric ran with everything they had. The ground shifted beneath them, sometimes turning to mist, sometimes solidifying just long enough for them to push forward.
The Forgotten Ones howled, their twisted forms writhing as the erasure consumed them. They weren't attacking anymore. They were trying to escape, too.
But there was nowhere for them to go.
Ahead, the black tower loomed, untouched by the collapse.
It was the only thing left.
"Faster!" Rheon shouted.
Hadric cursed under his breath, his armor slowing him down. "If I go any faster, I'll collapse, damn it!"
Elara reached back, grabbing his wrist. "Then don't stop!"
Behind them, the void swallowed the ruins, an endless abyss expanding outward. The last remnants of the Forgotten Ones screamed as they were erased, their bodies stretching into oblivion—
And then, they were gone.
No corpses. No remains.
Just... nothing.
Rheon's stomach twisted.
This wasn't just destruction. This was absolute erasure.
The kind of fate the System reserved for mistakes.
And they were next.
---
The Black Gates
The tower's gates loomed before them—massive, ancient, carved from a stone black as the void itself. Symbols older than time glowed faintly along its surface.
The masked figure stood at the entrance, waiting.
Rheon didn't hesitate. He slammed his hand against the gate. "Open it!"
The figure didn't move. "Only those who have been forgotten may enter."
Lorien scowled. "What the hell does that mean?!"
The ground beneath them shook—the void was nearly at their heels.
The masked figure's voice remained calm.
"You are already being erased. The System no longer recognizes you. That means you qualify."
Elara gasped, looking at her hand.
Her fingertips were fading.
Her body flickered, like a candle about to go out.
Rheon glanced at himself. His own form was unstable, his edges distorted—like he was slipping between existence and nothingness.
He didn't have time to think.
He grabbed Elara's wrist, dragged her forward, and shoved her through the gates.
She vanished into the darkness.
"Go!" Rheon roared.
Lorien and Hadric hesitated for only a second before diving through.
Rheon turned back.
The void was right there.
If he took one step back—he'd be swallowed whole.
The masked figure spoke one last time.
"Once you enter, there is no going back. What lies inside will change everything."
Rheon took a breath.
Then he stepped forward.
And the gates slammed shut behind him.
---
Inside the Tower
Darkness.
For a moment, Rheon felt like he was floating.
No up. No down. No air. No time.
Then—
He hit the ground.
The world snapped into focus.
The room around him was massive, lined with towering bookshelves, stretching beyond sight. The air was thick with the scent of dust and forgotten knowledge.
Lorien groaned, pushing himself up. "Where the hell…?"
Hadric grunted. "Are we dead?"
Elara touched her chest, as if feeling for a heartbeat. "I don't think so."
Rheon rose to his feet, scanning the room.
The masked figure stood at the far end, beside a massive black monolith.
Etched across its surface were names.
Thousands. Millions. More than he could count.
Some glowed faintly. Others were fading.
One name, at the very bottom, shone brighter than all the rest.
Rheon stepped forward.
His breath caught in his throat.
It was his own name.
Lorien's, Elara's, Hadric's—all of them, carved into the stone.
The masked figure spoke.
"This is the Record of the Forgotten. Every name etched here belongs to someone the System has erased."
Elara touched her own name, her fingers passing through it like mist. "But… we're still alive."
The figure nodded. "For now."
Rheon clenched his fists. "Why show us this?"
The figure's golden mask shimmered.
"Because now, you have a choice."
The air around them shifted—the tower's walls seemed to breathe, the books whispering in languages long lost.
The figure gestured to the monolith.
"You can walk away. Hide within the cracks of the forgotten world. Live outside the System's reach, safe… but powerless."
A pause.
"Or… you can take control of your own fate."
The monolith hummed, a deep, ancient sound.
"If you choose the second path," the figure said, "you must become more than just an anomaly."
The golden mask tilted slightly.
"You must become the one who will rewrite the System."
Rheon's heart pounded.
This was it.
No more running. No more being a pawn in the System's game.
He reached forward, fingers brushing against the glowing name carved into the stone.
And as he did—his body ignited with power.
The tower shook, the whispers rising to a deafening roar.
And then—
The world changed.
The Name That Defies Fate
The moment Rheon's fingers touched his own name on the monolith, a shockwave pulsed through the tower. The stone beneath him cracked, and the air twisted as if reality itself was resisting what he had just done.
The whispers in the bookshelves grew louder, words spoken in countless forgotten tongues. The very structure of the tower trembled as if it were alive.
Then—
The monolith reacted.
The name Rheon—engraved in glowing letters—began to shift. The symbols rewrote themselves, warping and changing. The glow around them intensified, burning so bright that the others had to shield their eyes.
Rheon felt something pulling at him, an unseen force trying to drag him into the depths of the monolith itself. A wave of knowledge crashed through his mind, a flood of images, memories that weren't his, whispers of figures long lost to history.
You were never meant to exist.
You were never meant to be remembered.
And yet… you refuse to be erased.
The weight of those words settled deep into his chest, but he gritted his teeth and held on. He would not be erased. Not now. Not ever.
A voice—deep, resonating with power—echoed from within the monolith.
"You have chosen the path of defiance. The path of creation. The path of destruction."
The golden-masked figure took a step forward. "Now, you must choose your true name."
Rheon's breath caught. "What?"
The figure gestured to the monolith. "Your old name no longer holds power here. You are beyond the reach of the System. If you are to rewrite fate, then you must take a name that the world will never forget."
Lorien, Elara, and Hadric stared at him, the weight of the moment settling between them.
This was it.
A rebirth.
A name that would become legend.
Rheon stared at the shifting letters of his old name.
And then—he spoke.
A new name.
A name that sent another shockwave through the tower, making the walls shudder and the books burst open, their pages flying into the air.
The moment he said it, the monolith accepted it.
And Rheon's body ignited with power unlike anything he had ever felt before.
The System reacted.
And for the first time in history—it did not know what to do.
---
The Awakening of a New Power
The golden-masked figure watched as Rheon's form began to shift. His aura expanded, pulsing with an energy that defied the natural laws of the world.
Hadric took a step back, gripping his war hammer. "What the hell is happening to him?"
Elara's eyes widened as she saw the symbols from the monolith beginning to burn themselves into Rheon's skin—not as a curse, but as a mark of something entirely new.
Lorien whispered, "He's changing."
The books in the tower flew into the air, their pages rewriting themselves, as if history itself was being altered in real-time.
And then, for the first time since entering this forgotten place—
A notification appeared before them.
But it wasn't the System's usual cold, indifferent text.
It was different.
[New Entity Detected]
[Unknown Classification: Error... Override Attempt Failed]
[New Title Assigned: The Nameless Sovereign]
A crack ran through the air itself, as if the world had just witnessed something it could not comprehend.
Rheon—no, the one who had now claimed a new name—slowly opened his eyes.
And in that moment, he knew.
He was no longer just a pawn in the System.
He had become something else entirely.
Something the world had never seen before.
Something that even the System could not control.
And the war for fate had only just begun.