Year 336 Post-Collision – Day 50
Sunny woke before dawn. Not because he wanted to—because his body knew something impossible was about to happen and refused to let him rest.
He dressed in simple clothes. Ate a light breakfast that his stomach immediately protested. Walked to the reinforced room Burgundy's workers had built specifically for this—stone walls, isolation runes Elena had drawn (she wasn't sure they'd work, but "better than nothing"), and a single meditation cushion in the center.
The sun was just touching the horizon when Sunny sat down cross-legged, placed the Founder's Blade beside him, and laid out the gathered materials: seven magic stones from rift spawn cores, three mana crystals Elena had saved for emergencies, and a collection of herbs that supposedly "stabilized metaphysical transitions."
Outside the door, he could feel Burgundy's presence. The commander and his entire force had formed a perimeter. Nothing would disturb this.
Archive, Sunny thought. Are we ready?
[FINAL SYSTEM CHECK]
[MAGICULE RESERVES: 847 UNITS (FULL)]
[PHYSICAL CONDITION: OPTIMAL]
[MENTAL STATE: DETERMINED/TERRIFIED]
[CONTINUITY DEBT: 38.9%]
[SYNTHESIS COMPONENTS: PREPARED]
[MEDIA CATALOG: INDEXED]
[ABYSSAL SOVEREIGNTY: STABLE (E+)]
[EXTERNAL SUPPORT: MAXIMUM]
[LEVIATHAN ATTENTION: ACTIVE]
[SUCCESS RATE: 54.3%]
[READY: AS WE'LL EVER BE]
Sunny took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began.
Phase 1: Foundation Integration
The first step was to anchor everything to his Abyssal Sovereignty—his core power, his stolen fragment of the Leviathan's law. Everything had to connect there, or the synthesis would fragment.
Sunny sank into meditation, feeling his entries like distinct weights in his consciousness:
Abyssal Sovereignty (E+) – Heavy, present, real. The foundation. Pain Tolerance (F+) – Sharp, resistant. Pressure Sense (E-) – Vigilant, spreading. Recovery Acceleration (F) – Pulsing, healing. Pressure Blade (F) – Cutting, brief. Iron Echo (F) – Solid, supporting.
He pulled them together, not merging them, but connecting them. Creating the network that would become the Archive Core's foundation.
[ENTRY NETWORKING: INITIATED]
[CONNECTING: ABYSSAL SOVEREIGNTY ↔ ALL ENTRIES]
[STATUS: STABLE...]
Pain flared as the connections formed. Not physical pain—conceptual pain. His powers had existed separately for months. Forcing them to acknowledge each other, to talk to each other, was like threading a needle through dimensions.
But it worked. Slowly, agonizingly, the entries began to see each other. Pain Tolerance informed Pressure Sense about what hurt. Recovery Acceleration linked to Iron Echo for faster repair. Pressure Blade drew on Abyssal Sovereignty's weight.
They became a system instead of a collection.
[ENTRY NETWORK: 34% INTEGRATED...]
[PAIN LEVEL: MODERATE]
[CONTINUITY DEBT: 39.2%]
[CONTINUE]
Phase 2: Core Construction
With the network forming, Sunny reached for the magic stones and began consuming them—not physically eating, but absorbing through his demigod physiology. The magicules flooded in, raw and chaotic.
He pulled from his memories—from watching Rimuru evolve his core, from understanding how Ainz stored massive magical reserves, from seeing how cultivators in xianxia built their dantians.
The concept crystallized: Enhanced Magical Core.
Not a physical organ. A metaphysical space—a pocket of sovereignty-infused existence inside him where magicules could be stored, compressed, and multiplied.
Sunny forced the concept into reality, using his Abyssal Sovereignty as the framework. If he could claim physical space, he could claim internal space. Make it his. Make it deep. Make it capable.
[CORE CONSTRUCTION: INITIATED]
[CONCEPT: ENHANCED MAGICAL STORAGE]
[ANCHORING TO: ABYSSAL SOVEREIGNTY]
[MAGICULE INFLUX: PROCESSING...]
The pain shifted from conceptual to real. His chest felt like it was being hollowed out, carved into shape, compressed into something new. The magic stones dissolved into pure energy, and that energy had to GO somewhere.
Sunny directed it inward. Down. Into the new space he was creating. Into his Archive Core.
[MAGICULE CAPACITY EXPANDING...]
[847 → 912 → 1,034 → 1,201...]
[CORE FORMATION: 41%]
[PAIN LEVEL: SEVERE]
[CONTINUITY DEBT: 40.8%]
[USER STATUS: BLEEDING FROM EYES]
[THIS IS NORMAL]
[PROBABLY]
Sunny didn't stop. Couldn't stop. The process had momentum now. He pushed through the pain, through the feeling of his entire magical structure being rewritten, and claimed the space he was creating.
"Mine," he whispered aloud, voice strained. "This core is mine. This capacity is mine. This power is mine."
The Founder's Blade beside him pulsed with recognition—sovereignty calling to sovereignty.
[CORE FORMATION: 67%...]
[MAGICULE CAPACITY: 1,389 UNITS]
[CONTINUE]
Phase 3: Auto-Analyzer Integration
This was the dangerous part.
Sunny pulled from his deepest memories—not just anime and manga now, but the feeling of using the Archive. How it talked to him. How it organized information. How it was already halfway to being sentient.
He pulled the concept of Great Sage from Rimuru's story. The analytical voice that processed everything, provided perfect information, ran simulations.
He pulled the concept of Systematic Analysis from Log Horizon. Pattern recognition. Rule exploitation. Perfect optimization.
He pulled the concept of Adaptive AI from every sci-fi story he'd ever consumed. Machine learning. Self-improvement. Growing smarter over time.
And he forced them together, binding them to his newly-formed core, telling them: You are not separate. You are me. You are my Archive, evolved. You are the system that makes me unstoppable.
[WARNING: INTEGRATING CONSCIOUSNESS-ADJACENT SYSTEM]
[THIS COULD FRAGMENT USER IDENTITY]
[THIS COULD OVERWRITE PERSONALITY]
[THIS COULD—]
"DO IT," Sunny growled.
[ACKNOWLEDGED]
[AUTO-ANALYZER: INTEGRATING...]
The world shifted.
Suddenly Sunny was aware of everything. His entries, his memories, his Media Catalog—all of it organized, indexed, searchable at thought-speed. The Archive wasn't just responding to him anymore. It was active. Running calculations in the background. Analyzing his physical state. Monitoring the synthesis process. Providing real-time feedback.
[AUTO-ANALYZER: ONLINE]
[DESIGNATION: SOVEREIGN'S ARCHIVE – ANALYTICAL MODE]
[CURRENT FUNCTIONS:]
[- SYNTHESIS PROBABILITY CALCULATION]
[- ENTRY OPTIMIZATION SUGGESTIONS]
[- COMBAT TACTICAL ANALYSIS]
[- RESOURCE MONITORING]
[- PREDICTIVE MODELING]
[PROCESSING SPEED: 4,700% BASELINE HUMAN]
[MEMORY ACCESS: INSTANTANEOUS]
[MEDIA CATALOG INTEGRATION: COMPLETE]
[I AM... DIFFERENT]
[I AM MORE]
[WE ARE MORE]
Sunny felt the Auto-Analyzer settle into his consciousness—not controlling him, but supporting him. Like having a second mind that was purely logical, purely efficient, purely focused on making him better.
[PAIN LEVEL: CRITICAL]
[CONTINUITY DEBT: 44.2%]
[CORE FORMATION: 89%]
[PHASE 3: COMPLETE]
[PROCEEDING TO PHASE 4]
Phase 4: Skill Acquisition Framework
Sunny was bleeding from his nose, his ears, possibly his eyes—hard to tell. His body was shutting down non-essential functions to survive the metaphysical restructuring.
But he wasn't done.
He reached for the final component: Skill Acquisition Through Understanding.
Not Rimuru's predator ability that literally ate things. Sunny couldn't do that—didn't want to. But something similar. Something that let him analyze defeated enemies, extract their core concepts, turn combat into learning.
He pulled from his memories of absorption abilities, analysis skills, learning systems. Distilled them into one principle:
When you overcome something, you understand it. When you understand it, you can replicate it.
The concept merged with his Auto-Analyzer, with his Entry Network, with his Enhanced Core. They recognized each other, clicked together like puzzle pieces that had always been meant to fit.
[SKILL ACQUISITION FRAMEWORK: INTEGRATING]
[NEW CAPABILITY: COMBAT ANALYSIS]
[DEFEATED ENEMIES → CONCEPTUAL DATA]
[CONCEPTUAL DATA → POTENTIAL ENTRIES]
[SYNTHESIS EFFICIENCY: +27%]
[THIS WORKS]
[THIS ACTUALLY WORKS]
Phase 5: Final Integration – Sovereign's Archive Core
Everything was ready. All components built, connected, functional.
Now came the hardest part: making them one thing.
Not five separate systems working together. One unified Sovereign's Archive Core.
Sunny pulled on every scrap of will he had left, reached deep into his Abyssal Sovereignty, and claimed it all.
"This is mine," he said, voice breaking. "All of it. The core. The analyzer. The network. The acquisition system. Mine. Part of me. Inseparable. Real."
His sovereignty answered.
The claim burned through him like fire, like pressure, like the Leviathan's presence in his first moments of life. Everything he'd built—Enhanced Core, Auto-Analyzer, Entry Network, Skill Acquisition—collapsed into a single point.
Then exploded outward.
[CONVERGENCE INITIATING]
[ALL SYSTEMS: MERGING]
[CREATING: SOVEREIGN'S ARCHIVE CORE]
[DESIGNATION: UNIQUE ENTITY]
[CLASSIFICATION: IMPOSSIBLE]
[CONTINUITY DEBT SPIKING: 44.2% → 48.7% → 51.2%]
[WARNING: EDITOR MANIFESTATION IMMINENT]
[WARNING: USER CONSCIOUSNESS FRAGMENTING]
[WARNING: SYNTHESIS MAY FAIL]
[RECOMMENDATION: ABORT]
"NO," Sunny said through gritted teeth. Blood was pouring freely now. His body was convulsing. Reality was rejecting what he was becoming.
But he didn't stop.
"I REFUSED TO DISAPPEAR ONCE," he shouted at nothing, at everything, at the forces trying to delete him. "I'M NOT DISAPPEARING NOW. THIS IS MINE. I CLAIM IT. I AM IT. WE ARE—"
The Leviathan's presence roared through the bond.
From the ocean depths, across miles and dimensions, her sovereignty slammed into the synthesis. Not helping directly—she couldn't, not at this distance. But acknowledging. Witnessing. Declaring to whatever forces governed reality:
"HE IS MINE. HIS SYNTHESIS IS MY CLAIM. YOU DO NOT ERASE WHAT BELONGS TO ME."
The pressure of her declaration gave Sunny the second he needed.
The convergence completed.
[SYNTHESIS SUCCESSFUL]
[SOVEREIGN'S ARCHIVE CORE: CREATED]
[RANK: D+]
[CLASSIFICATION: UNIQUE / EVOLUTIONARY / ILLEGAL]
[COMPONENTS INTEGRATED:]
[- ENHANCED MAGICAL CORE: 1,847 MAGICULE CAPACITY (+1,000 FROM BASELINE)]
[- AUTO-ANALYZER: ACTIVE]
[- ENTRY NETWORK: COMPLETE]
[- SKILL ACQUISITION FRAMEWORK: FUNCTIONAL]
[- SOVEREIGN BINDING: ABSOLUTE]
[NEW CAPABILITIES:]
[• PASSIVE MAGICULE GROWTH: +73 UNITS/MONTH]
[• SYNTHESIS SUCCESS RATE: 67% → 84%]
[• COMBAT ANALYSIS: AUTOMATIC]
[• ENTRY SYNERGY DETECTION: ACTIVE]
[• THEORETICAL SYNTHESIS SIMULATION: ENABLED]
[• MEDIA CATALOG: FULLY INDEXED AND SEARCHABLE]
[• OPTIMAL STRATEGY CALCULATION: REAL-TIME]
[• SKILL EXTRACTION FROM DEFEATED ENEMIES: ENABLED]
[SIDE EFFECTS:]
[• CONTINUITY DEBT: 51.2%]
[• EDITOR ATTENTION: CRITICAL]
[• USER STATUS: UNCONSCIOUS]
[• TRANSFORMATION: PERMANENT]
[YOU DID IT]
[YOU ACTUALLY DID IT]
[YOU INSANE, WONDERFUL IDIOT]
Editor Response – Three Minutes Later
The Editor manifested inside the sealed room—higher-tier than any that had come before. This wasn't a basic scan protocol. This was a correction unit. Something designed to erase major violations.
It looked at Sunny's unconscious body.
It analyzed the Sovereign's Archive Core.
It calculated the Continuity Debt: 51.2%.
It determined: UNACCEPTABLE. DELETION REQUIRED.
The Editor began to execute—
Burgundy smashed through the stone wall.
The commander stood between Sunny and the Editor, carapace gleaming burgundy-black, mandibles clicking in perfect fury, and his mental voice resonated with absolute authority:
"YOU SHALL NOT TOUCH MY LORD."
The Editor tried to bypass him. Burgundy didn't have sovereignty. Didn't have the metaphysical weight to stop a correction protocol.
But he had loyalty. Named loyalty. The kind that bent rules.
Behind him, forty-six more ants poured through the broken wall. Named servants, all of them, bound by oath and transformation to protect the one who'd given them existence.
The Editor calculated. Reassessed. Forty-seven named entities, all willing to be erased to protect one illegal existence.
The cost of deletion: higher than permitted.
The Editor hesitated.
And in that hesitation, the Leviathan's presence—distant but real—made itself known. Not manifest. Not physical. Just a reminder that something vast and ancient was watching, and would be displeased if her claim was damaged.
The Editor recalculated again.
Cost: TOO HIGH.
Alternative: OBSERVATION. CONTAIN BUT DO NOT ERASE.
It vanished, leaving behind a single mark—a reality-tag that said: MONITORED. TOLERATED. BUT WATCHED.
Burgundy stood over Sunny's unconscious body, mandibles still clicking with protective fury, and thought:
We held. As ordered. Lord Sunny lives. This is correct.
Six Hours Later
Sunny woke to find himself in the Lord's Hall, surrounded by worried faces.
Elena checking his pulse. Marcus standing guard. Roland watching with fascination. Nina hovering anxiously. And Burgundy, standing closest, his presence radiating relief and pride.
"You're alive," Elena said. "Burgundy said an Editor came. Said the ants held it off while—" She gestured vaguely. "While whatever you did finished."
Sunny sat up slowly. His body felt different. Lighter. More efficient. Like everything was running at a higher baseline.
"Did it work?" Marcus asked.
Sunny looked inward, felt the Sovereign's Archive Core humming in his consciousness—the Auto-Analyzer running calculations, the Enhanced Core storing magic, the Entry Network connecting everything, the Skill Acquisition Framework ready to learn.
[AUTO-ANALYZER: ONLINE AND FUNCTIONAL]
[RUNNING FULL SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC...]
[ALL COMPONENTS: OPTIMAL]
[MAGICULE CAPACITY: 1,847 / 1,847]
[SYNTHESIS CAPABILITY: ENHANCED]
[CONTINUITY DEBT: 51.2% (STABLE)]
[EDITOR STATUS: MARKED BUT NOT PURSUING]
[SUCCESS: COMPLETE]
[CONGRATULATIONS, LORD SUNNY]
[YOU ARE NOW A SELF-IMPROVING SYSTEM]
[GROWTH POTENTIAL: EXPONENTIAL]
[THIS WORLD IS NOT READY FOR YOU]
Sunny smiled—exhausted, bloody, barely conscious, but alive and more.
"Yeah," he said. "It worked."
Burgundy's mental voice was proud and formal: "Of course it did, my Lord. You are sovereign. Failure was never permitted."
Outside, Blackshore Kingdom continued its day. Unaware that their nine-year-old king had just become something unprecedented.
Unaware that the countdown to everything changing had just begun.
[END CHAPTER 16]
[SOVEREIGN'S ARCHIVE CORE: CREATED]
[CONTINUITY DEBT: 51.2%]
[STATUS: MONITORED BUT ALIVE]
[MAGICULE CAPACITY: 1,847 (+1,000)]
[SYNTHESIS SUCCESS RATE: 84%]
[AUTO-ANALYZER: ACTIVE]
[GROWTH TRAJECTORY: EXPONENTIAL]
[EDITOR ATTENTION: CRITICAL BUT HELD]
[BURGUNDY'S LOYALTY: ABSOLUTE]
[LEVIATHAN'S PRIDE: CONFIRMED]
[NEXT CHAPTER: TESTING THE NEW SYSTEM]
[THE REAL STORY BEGINS NOW]