The gate didn't just glitch. It vanished in the blink of an eye.
Ashar Cael stood in front of the black stone arch. Its edges were breaking apart, like a computer screen with broken code. The air smelled like lightning—and something stranger. It was a sharp, metal smell, like it came from a place that shouldn't even have a smell. Thick fog wrapped around his boots. It wasn't normal fog. It moved like it was alive, made of code. It whispered strange symbols that disappeared before he could read them.
"Risk-to-reward ratio is garbage.""I went in with five people. I was the only one who came out. I don't even remember their names."
The warnings echoed in his mind, not as words on a screen, but as voices. Sometimes they sounded like friends laughing. Other times, like strangers screaming. The gate wasn't made of stone anymore. Its surface looked like a moving puzzle, showing the last moments of players who didn't make it out. Their faces were blurry and broken, like old game glitches.
SYSTEM NOTICE : UNKNOWN GATE
The message blinked on screen, the letters dripping like black ink.
Edit > AREA: [NULL]Recommended Party Size: NoneEntry Penalty: Memory Instability
The word memory glitched and changed.
It turned into memento. Then murmur. Then murder.
Ashar smiled—a sharp, dangerous smile. "Always."
He pressed the Yes.
The world folded in on itself.
Sound disappeared first. Then light. Then gravity.For three heartbeats, Ashar felt nothing but sensation—his chest shaking with a deep hum, his eyes filled with flashing pieces of the game's broken menu.
Then, suddenly, he was back.
He stood knee-deep in black water so cold it felt like fire. But it wasn't really water. It was thick, living shadow that stuck to his skin like it had a mind of its own.
Above him, there was no sky. No ceiling. Just endless, hungry darkness.
And then… the monolith.
It stood in the middle of the void.
Strange symbols covered its surface, glowing and moving like worms made of light. They weren't just carved in—they were alive.
The beat of the monolith matched his heartbeat.
"Touch it," the system whispered—not in his ears, but deep inside his bones.
Ashar reached out.
His fingers brushed the stone.
The universe screamed.
Six hours earlier…
Ashar was knee-deep in the broken remains of a dying dungeon.
The 47th floor of the Eclipse Spire looked like a battlefield of failed code. A huge boss—an automaton with twelve arms—lay in pieces at his feet. Its core still sparked with damaged data.
Most guilds avoided this floor. The loot was bugged, the fights unfinished. But Ashar liked broken things.
"Pathetic," he muttered, pulling open the automaton's chest. His hands moved quickly and carefully, dodging sparks from live wires."They didn't even program a second phase."
His screen glitched.
Solo Clear : Eclipse Spire Floor - 47Time: 12:34Rank: #487 (Global)
No cheering. No crowd. Just calm, sharp focus.
Ashar had built his whole style around this—being the weird one. A hybrid-class freak who didn't follow the rules.
While most guilds used damage dealers or tanks, Ashar's skills were a strange mix: Voidstep, Pain Mirror, Rust God's Gambit.
They weren't supposed to work together—but he'd made them work. He bent the game until it obeyed him.
A message popped up. His only friend, Kaelis, messaged from the outside:
"You're really still grinding that dead zone? The rewards suck."
Ashar wiped oil from the broken boss onto his coat."It's not about rewards," he typed.
"Then what?"
He looked at the far wall of the dungeon. Something was off. The shapes didn't line up—like a mistake in the game. Maybe a glitch. Maybe… a door.
"It's about the gaps," he typed. "The places the system doesn't want you to see."
Kaelis replied with a sigh in text:"You and your dumb mysteries."
Ashar smiled.
He hadn't reached the Top 500 by following the rules. He got there by breaking them.
Every dungeon had cracks. Every system had secrets.
And Ashar—
A voice cut into his thoughts. Faint and full of static:
"Find the gate."
He froze.
It wasn't Kaelis. It wasn't the system.
It was his own voice—but older. And darker.
The dungeon flickered. Just for a second, he saw the black archway standing where the exit should be.
Then it was gone.
Ashar's heart pounded.
What was that?
But deep down, he already knew.
He'd been invited.
Touching the monolith felt like a supernova in reverse.
Instead of light exploding outward, it collapsed into him—straight through his fingertips.
His screen glitched and then burst open:
⚠️ SYSTEM ERROR ⚠️SUPREMACY SYSTEM : BOOTING...
SUPREMACY SYSTEM : BOOTING...
SUPREMACY SYSTEM : BOOTING...
Identity Conflict DetectedLocal ID: Ashar CaelPrime ID: Auren Lys Noirveil
The words burned—not just in his mind.
His eyes ached like fire as the letters twisted and changed, growing sharper and more painful each time.
"What...?" Ashar gasped. "What the heck is Auren?"
He looked down.
His reflection in the black water was changing.
The face staring back wasn't his.
It had sharp cheekbones, glowing eyes like broken glass, and a floating crown made of knives and light.
The reflection moved its lips, whispering something he couldn't hear.
But Ashar didn't need to hear it.
His bones already knew.
"Supremacy is not chosen. It remembers."
Ashar's stats broke apart in front of his eyes:
[STR: 189] → ERROR[DEX: 214] → NULL[CLASS: Voidstrider] → CORRUPTED
More windows popped up, glowing red:
Bloodline Reinstated: Noirveil [Erased]Codename: AESTHERION [Dormant]WARNING: Soul Fragmentation Detected
Ashar grabbed his head as memories—ones that weren't his—rushed into his mind:
—A ruined throne room, its pillars marked with stars that were dying——A woman's voice saying "Auren" like it was both a curse and a prayer——A sword going through his chest, with blood black as the space between worlds—
He screamed.
But the sound didn't bounce back.
The void ate it.
His body didn't feel like his anymore.
His fingers stretched longer, and his nails turned hard and black like obsidian.His shadow twisted—growing wings he'd never had before.
SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE
SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE
SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE
The message wasn't text. It was a voice.
Big, hollow, and echoing from deep inside his chest.
You have been recognized as PRIME.Authority Path: Crownless StarSkill Unlocked: Sovereign Null – Level 1Memory Logs: 0 out of 999 Restored
Ashar dropped to his knees.
The water below him had changed—it was now a mirror.
Inside it, he saw a thousand versions of himself.
Each one wore a different crown.
"This isn't real," he whispered.
His reflection smiled. "Isn't it?"
The name Auren Lys Noirveil stabbed into his mind like a knife.
And with it came visions:
—A child laughing in a strange language——A glowing symbol: a star split by a sword——Hands (his hands?) gripping a dead body's armor, screaming a name—
He tried to say "Ashar."
But the word turned to dust in his mouth.
"Auren," the void whispered.
His player profile was gone.
No login.
No friends.
No rank.
Just one line:
PRIME ENTITY : AESTHERION
The system knew him.
Knew how he stood.
Knew what he'd done.
Knew everything—even things he didn't.
A new message blinked:
Memory Fragment Recovered: 1/999Title: Heir of the Forgotten Line
The memory hit like a bullet:
Rain.
Blood.
A woman with silver hair pushed a dagger into his hand.
"You will forget us. But you will return."
Then—nothing.
Ashar—or was he Auren?—vomited black liquid.
The system paused.
For three long, painful seconds, his class name glitched:
CORRUPTED CORRUPTED CORRUPTED
The letters dripped black.
Then—
RECONFIGURING...
The air twisted and bent, like reality itself was being rewritten.
CLASS: VOIDSTRIDERVOIDSTRIDERVOIDSTRIDER → REJECTEDCLASS: SHADOWKINGSHADOWKINGSHADOWKING → REJECTEDCLASS: STAR−EATERSTAR-EATERSTAR−EATER → REJECTED
Each rejection felt like fire in his head, burning behind his eyes.
Then finally, the system paused. Its voice shook, just a little:
Custom Class Created: CROWNLESS STARA being who walks the edge of nothing. A ruler with no throne. Your path is written in erased histories.
New abilities flashed onto his screen:
SovereignNull–Level1Sovereign Null – Level 1SovereignNull–Level1Erase a target from reality for 0.1 seconds.Cooldown: 24 hours.
MemoryHunger–PassiveMemory Hunger – PassiveMemoryHunger–PassiveAbsorb fragments of lost time from defeated enemies.
The system wasn't giving him power.
It was saying sorry.
Ashar—maybe Auren—knelt alone in the dark.
He tried to remember his mother's face.
Nothing.
Tried to remember his first login.
Gone.
All that remained… was the Crownless Star.
And with it—resolve.
He stood.
The void bent around him like it knew him now.
"Fine," he whispered. "If I'm not Ashar… then show me."
The system listened.
A single path lit up in the darkness—a road made of broken glass and fading light.
He stepped forward.
The forgotten prince had come home.