Pov: Vik
Once Pushpa's fur was completely dry and fluffed back up to its proper, velvet sheen, I tucked a fresh handkerchief into my breast pocket and stood up.
I had thought about it earlier while wiping the ash off her paws—this Anonymous Hall, nestled deep within the Great Fire Forest, was simply too vast and shifting. With corridors that rearranged themselves at my whim and my disciples constantly locked in either heavy training or mad alchemical experiments, it was no wonder my pet got bored and wandered into dusty corners. A scholar needed fresh air to clear his head, and a cat needed a proper change of scenery.
After instructing Roman to oversee Noah's marrow-tempering and reminding Lina not to blow up the eastern wing while I was out, I scooped Pushpa onto my shoulder, stepped through a localized spatial fold, and left the Great Fire Forest behind.
Fwump.
The air shifted from the dense, spiritual warmth of the forest to the crisp, breezy autumn chill of the Western Continent.
I materialized on a quiet, leaf-strewn dirt road about three miles outside the outer perimeter of West Oak City. From here, the high grey ramparts of the city looked like a distant stone crown sitting against the horizon, surrounded by rolling fields of golden wheat and old boundary oaks.
Instead of teleporting directly into the city wards, I smoothed down my plain white scholar robes and began walking down the dirt road at an unhurried, mortal pace.
I really like exploring new places; I am sure this West Oak city must have many things to see.
Pushpa sat comfortably draped around my collar, her nose twitching as she smelled the wild grass, roasted chestnuts from distant farmsteads, and the fresh mint soap still lingering on her own coat.
Vik: 'See, System? Look how calm she is. She was just cooped up indoors for too long. A simple country walk toward West Oak City is all she needed.'
System: "Host, I am just relieved she isn't actively staring at the sky right now. Enjoy your mortal stroll all you want, just please don't let her chase any butterflies that might accidentally be dimensional anchors—"
The System's voice suddenly cut off mid-sentence.
It didn't just go quiet. It let out a sharp, strangled screech of pure digital terror that made the inside of my skull ring like a struck bell.
The autumn wind along the dirt road died instantly.
The swaying stalks of golden wheat along the ditches froze at forty-five-degree angles, stiff as iron rods. A crow mid-flight thirty feet above the road hung suspended in the air, its wings locked open without falling an inch.
System: "H-H-HOST! RUN! ABORT THE STROLL! OPEN A VOID GATE RIGHT NOW AND JUMP!"
For the first time in months, the sheer, unadulterated panic in the System's tone actually sent a cold prickle down my spine. My hand instinctively dropped toward my sleeve, my restored Void Traveling cultivation flaring beneath my skin as I prepared to tear open the dimensional fabric.
Vik: 'What is it? Did some old ancestor from Ruby's side trace us?'
System: "WORSE! A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE! It's an Auditor! A High-Tier Narrative Auditor from the Main System Space! It has administrative root access to this reality! Host, it's not here to fight you—it's here to format this coordinate! If it sees that you and I survived our scheduled termination, it will delete us from the world file with a single keystroke! RUN!"
My vertical yellow pupils contracted into sharp slits behind my spectacles.
Even at the peak of the Void Traveling realm, hearing that something could bypass energy, matter, and soul entirely just by editing the "world file" was enough to make my blood run cold. I wasn't an arrogant fool who thought himself invincible against unknown cosmic mechanics. If my System—which actually came from that bizarre place—was screaming like a cornered rat, then tactical retreat was the only logical move.
I raised my fingers to rip open a spatial rift.
I was half a second too late.
Ten paces down the dirt road, the space between two old oak trees didn't tear open—it simply turned into a blinding rectangle of glowing blue wireframe grid.
Stepping out of that geometric void was a tall, faceless figure sculpted from seamless white porcelain, wearing a long coat woven from shifting strings of golden numbers. Where its head should have been floated three concentric rings of burning brass, spinning in rapid, silent harmony. In its right hand, it held a gleaming silver deletion stylus that made the very air around it cease to exist.
[ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT 09-ZERO: ANOMALOUS CAUSALITY SPIKE DETECTED IN SECTOR 947. INITIATING DIRECT INSPECTION.]
The robotic declaration echoed directly inside my mind like an iron gavel slamming down.
System: "It's over... He locked the spatial coordinates! We can't teleport! Host, brace yourself!"
I gritted my teeth, flooding my meridians with dense, emerald Prana while gathering the full weight of the Void Traveling realm into my right palm. If I couldn't run, I would have to see if this so-called administrator bled when hit with the primordial root of life.
Unit 09-Zero floated forward an inch, its spinning brass rings angling down to scan my chest.
[TARGET IDENTIFIED: CHARACTER ID #004-VIK. STATUS: OFF-SCRIPT. PREPARING FOR—]
Just then, a stray autumn leaf that had been caught in my protective Prana envelope drifted past my nose.
Sitting on my left shoulder, Pushpa leaned her head forward, stretched out her neck, and let out a tiny, mint-scented sneeze.
"Choo."
Unit 09-Zero froze.
The spinning brass rings on its head stopped dead with a violent, grinding screech that sounded like stripped gears in a clocktower.
Slowly, jerkily, the porcelain figure shifted its focus three inches to the left—away from my face, and directly onto the small black cat sitting on my collar.
Pushpa blinked her large, golden-green eyes at the shiny brass rings, tilting her head with mild feline curiosity.
For two full seconds, nothing happened.
Then, the glowing golden numbers woven into the Auditor's coat turned a violent, blinding shade of blood-red.
[W-W-WARNING! UNINDEXED ENTITY PERCEIVED!]
[NO PAST RECORD! NO FUTURE TRAJECTORY! CAUSALITY PARADOX OVERFLOW!]
[IT'S LOOKING AT ME! THE OUTER GOD IS LOOKING AT THE TERMINAL!]
The robotic monotone was completely gone, replaced by a high-pitched, synthesized shriek of absolute, unhinged hysteria that vibrated across the frozen wheat fields.
[CONTAMINATION RISK: 100%! IF THE OBSERVATION LINK REMAINS OPEN FOR ZERO-POINT-THREE SECONDS, THE ENTITY WILL BACK-TRACE THE SIGNAL TO THE MAIN SYSTEM SPACE! ALL REALITIES WILL BE INFECTED BY UNCERTAINTY!]
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ZERO-ZERO-ZERO: SEVER ALL TETHERS! INITIATING IMMEDIATE TOTAL SELF-DESTRUCTION! MAY THE ARCHITECT HAVE MERCY ON OUR CODE!]
Before I could even lift my Prana-charged hand, and before Pushpa could even finish licking her nose, the porcelain figure violently slammed its own silver deletion stylus straight into the center of its spinning brass head.
CRACK-FZZZZZT!
There was no shockwave. No fiery explosion that tore up the dirt road.
The terrifying figure simply shattered into millions of tiny, glowing blue sparks of static, folding inward on itself like a burning piece of paper until it vanished into thin air with a muffled pop.
The blue wireframe doorway behind it slammed shut and evaporated.
Instantly, the autumn breeze rushed back down the dirt road. The golden wheat stalks resumed their gentle swaying, and the crow thirty feet above us flapped its wings and let out a normal, raspy caw as it flew off toward the woods.
On the empty dirt road ten paces ahead of me, nothing remained except a small scorch mark in the dust and a single, twisted brass gear smoking faintly on the pebbles.
I stood there for a long moment with my hand still half-raised, the emerald glow of Prana slowly fading from my fingertips.
Silence stretched inside my head.
Vik: '...System?'
System: "...Yes, Host?" The System's voice was a tiny, hollow squeak.
Vik: 'Was that the invincible, world-erasing Narrative Auditor you just screamed my eardrums off about?'
System: "...Yes, Host."
Vik: 'He walked out of a portal, stared at my shoulder for two seconds, screamed about a virus, and stabbed himself in the face.'
System: "...Yes, Host. Standard Main System Space protocol dictates that if any administrative unit comes into direct observational contact with an Outer God, it must immediately self-terminate its own existence down to the root code so the corruption doesn't follow the data link back home and destroy headquarters."
I let out a long, slow breath, lowering my hand and adjusting my gold-rimmed spectacles as I walked over to the smoking brass gear on the road. I nudged it with the toe of my boot. It looked remarkably similar to the scrap parts Lina threw into her recycling bin every Tuesday.
Vik: 'You really have an excuse for everything, don't you, chatbot?'
System: "Host! I am telling you the literal cosmic truth!"
Vik: 'You panicked and nearly made me use my all power over a defective reconnaissance puppet,' I scoffed internally, shaking my head as I resumed my walk toward West Oak City. 'Clearly, some rogue artificer—probably from the Heavenly Sword Sect or that mysterious replacement you keep babbling about—sent an experimental scouting automaton to track the energy signatures around West Oak City. Its internal logic array suffered a fatal short-circuit when Pushpa sneezed on its optical sensor, and its cheap mana-core overloaded and self-destructed.'
System: "A... a short-circuit. From a sneeze."
Vik: 'Of course. Poor waterproofing and shoddy rune-work. If Lina had built that puppet, it wouldn't have blown its own head off just because a cat looked at it. Honestly, System, the way you hyped that hunk of junk up, I actually felt nervous for three seconds. My disappointment in your threat-assessment algorithm has reached a new low.'
System: "...I'm going into sleep mode, Host. Wake me up when you're done with your walk. My processors hurt."
I chuckled softly, reaching up to stroke Pushpa under her chin.
She leaned into my fingers, purring happily in the crisp autumn sunshine, her tail swaying gently against my back as we strolled down the quiet country road toward the city gates.
It really was a lovely morning for a walk.