Ari sat on the marble edge of the ancient reflecting pool, staring into the shimmering water. The soft ripple of floating sigil-lilies pulsed with ambient glyphlight. For once, the world was still.
His shoulders sagged. Not from exhaustion, but from overload.
"Corruption Seed. Rewrite key. Null-Origin."He repeated the terms like a curse. Or a prophecy.
Eluin had quietly slipped him a cup of warm essencefruit tea and left him alone. Even she seemed to know Ari needed to pause before moving again.
"I didn't ask to be this," he murmured to no one. "I just wanted to live."
But even as he breathed deep, the very air around him felt… expectant. Like the world itself was waiting to see what he'd do next.
The next morning, a silver-threaded courier from the Crown House of Vastelune appeared at Sanctum's east gate. He delivered a scroll embedded with a living sigil—it bloomed open only when Ari touched it.
"By decree of Her Highness Seralune Vastelune, first daughter of the Lightbound Line, you are cordially invited to the royal Midseason Convergence Gala. Attendance is mandatory for candidates of rare rank or interest."
There was no signature. Just a final shimmering glyph:
"Let light reveal what darkness conceals."
Ari looked up at the sky and sighed.
"Can I have one normal week?"
The Royal Gala – Vastelune High Citadel
The ballroom was carved from prismglass, the entire ceiling a luminous aurora of refracted lightweaving. Floating spell-chandeliers rotated in perfect rhythm above nobles clad in augmented robes—glamour-bound, enhanced with sigil harmonics.
Ari felt out of place immediately.
He wore a black suit with minimal enhancement—a gift from Cerys, who had spent nearly an hour sculpting his appearance to something socially survivable. Even so, his presence drew stares.
"That's him," whispered a Luxthread noble boy."Threadless. They say he bent a duel into another dimension."
Cerys stood by his side, radiant in sapphire Aetherweave, her arms folded as she glared at those who got too close.
"Try to behave," she muttered. "This is a political battlefield."
"More dangerous than duels?"
"Worse. You can't dodge diplomacy."
Her Highness Seralune Vastelune
And then she appeared.
The Princess.
Seralune was around sixteen, her posture regal, her presence luminous. She wore formal Luxthread vestments in white and gold, a silver tiara laced with light-bound runes rotating slowly over her brow.
When her gaze met Ari's, everything else seemed to fall away. Not due to beauty—but because of the pressure.
"Null-Origin." She didn't call him by name.
"Princess," Ari replied with a stiff bow.
"You fascinate me. You broke a dueling pattern against my cousin. You bent Cerys' gravity net. And you corrupted a Class III spell with nothing but instinct."
"Is that… a compliment?"
She raised her chin. "No. It's a challenge."
Gasps echoed across the hall. The Princess challenged a commoner—an Unbound. It was rare. Scandalous.
"A single exchange," she said. "For the honor of the System."
"I didn't bring my dueling gloves," Ari replied dryly.
"You won't need them."
The royal guards moved the crowd back. A sigilring flared to life at their feet. Luxthread glyphs formed in the air, forming an audience of light-specters recording the moment.
Cerys hissed at him from the sidelines.
"Lose politely," she said. "Don't trigger a cascade."
A Threadless Spell vs. Royal Light
The moment the duel began, Seralune launched three radiant sigilbursts—twin arcs of Lightwoven chains and a spiraling purification crest meant to stun and lock.
Ari reacted purely by reflex.
He tried to dodge.
But his mana surged, bent, and inverted the incoming light.
It wasn't a spell. It was System Refusal—his body rejecting the expected outcome.
The crowd gasped.
Seralune's eyes widened.
She shifted to a higher pattern—a Lumen Prism Shard, a forbidden Luxthread sigil that bent reflections into explosive beams.
Ari responded by shaping something like a shield—but the system warped it mid-cast into a swirling vortex of runes and memory-sparks.
It destabilized. And exploded upward—harmlessly, but loudly.
The Princess's blast hit him through the haze.
Ari staggered back, his arm numb.
The duel ended.
The system sigil dimmed.
Seralune approached him as nobles whispered furiously behind fans and illusion-veils.
"You lost," she said. "But not because you were weak."
"Because I don't know what I'm doing?" Ari coughed.
"Because the System fears you," she whispered. "Even your losses bend the script."
She smiled faintly.
"I look forward to seeing what kind of chaos you bring next, Null-Origin."
Then she walked away, her radiant gown trailing behind her like a banner of war.