The "Static" was silent. It didn't scream as it erased the sky of my era; it just hummed a low, grey note that tasted like ash. I, Zeddicus the Eternal, stood at the centre of the Last Spire, watching the mana-veins of the world flicker and die.
"So, this is how it ends," I whispered, my robes disintegrating into particles of light. "Not with a bang, but with a system error."
I closed my eyes, prepared for the void.
Clang.
The sound of a dropped silver tray shattered my peace. My eyes snapped open. I wasn't floating in the void. I was lying on a four-poster bed that smelled of mildew and expensive, dying perfume. My body felt heavy—not with power, but with lethargy.
"Lord Alaric! You're awake!" a panicked voice squeaked.
A young maid in a tattered uniform stood by the bed, trembling. In my mind, a familiar sensation flared—the feeling of mana—but it was trapped. Restricted.
Suddenly, a translucent, flickering screen appeared before my eyes.
[WARNING: System Integrity at 14%]
[User: Alaric von Ravenhall (D-Rank Noble)]
[Class: Mana-Deficient Noble]
[Level: 1]
[Current Status: Recovering from 'Boredom-Induced Fainting']
A "System"? I reached out, my fingers passing through the blue light. My Archmage's soul recoiled. This wasn't a gift from the gods. This felt like... a machine. A poorly maintained, ancient machine.
I focused my mind, looking past the "Status" window. I didn't see numbers; I saw the Source Code.
There. Behind the [Level: 1] tag, I saw the flickering ley-line scripts. It was a basic Mana-Limiter script, poorly written and looping infinitely.
"Who wrote this garbage?" I muttered, sitting up.
"My Lord?" the maid stammered. "The physician said your mana-veins were clogged, that you'd never reach C-Rank..."
"Clogged?" I let out a dry, raspy laugh. "Child, my veins aren't clogged. They've been throttled by a primitive terraforming script. Hand me that letter opener."
"Sir?"
"Now."
She handed it to me. I didn't use it to fight. I held it to my forearm and began to "carve"—not into my flesh, but into the air where the System window flickered. I used my finger to drag a line of blue light from the 'Level' box into the 'Mana' box.
[ERROR: Unauthorised Modification Detected!]
[Attempting to Quarantine—]
"Override," I commanded, my voice resonating with the authority of a man who once commanded dragons. "Admin bypass. Keyword: Aethelgard."
The blue screen turned blood red, then gold, then finally settled into a calm, deep violet.
[ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGES SEMI-RESTORED]
[Module Unlocked: 'Source Code Vision']
[Module Unlocked: 'The Archive' (Instance Dungeon Access)]
The maid gasped. The dim light in the room suddenly intensified as the ambient mana—previously stagnant—began to swirl around me in a violent vortex.
I looked out the window. Beyond the crumbling walls of Ravenhall, I saw it. At the edge of the horizon, a wall of grey mist was eating the forest. The Static.
"So," I said, feeling the first spark of real magic ignite in my chest. "The world is still dying. And the people here are trying to fight a fire with spoons because they can't read the manual."
I stood up, my new, frail body protesting, but my soul burning bright.
"Pack your things," I told the maid. "The 'D-Rank' Lord is about to perform a hotfix on reality."