Recap:
Kael Vire has gone through Sovereign Evolution and unlocked the Proto-Tyrant Form, pushing past the System's limits. Now, he's marked for deletion under Protocol 17-Black, waiting for the Audit to arrive—an execution not carried out by armies, but by reality-bending mechanisms designed to dismantle Sovereigns from the inside out.
---
The air shattered like glass.
Kael stood atop the Hollow Spire, his shadow elongated by the unsettling red light seeping from the sky.
[System Audit Initiated]
[Target: Kael Vire – Sovereign Class: Rogue Ascendant]
[Threat Level: Cataclysmic]
[Executor Rank Deployed: Auditor Prime - Identity Obscured]
Sel tightened her grip on her blade. "The Audit doesn't come with armies."
"No," Kael replied.
"It sends... *judges*."
---
The first sign was silence.
Complete silence.
No birds.
No wind.
Not even the faintest hum of domain resonance.
Then, the sky shattered like a mirror.
A lone figure descended, faceless, wrapped in chains that seemed to loop endlessly.
**Auditor Prime.**
Its voice didn't echo. It *replaced* all sound.
> "Kael Vire. You are a contradiction. A Sovereign born from abandonment. You were never meant to exist.
The System will rectify this."
Kael stepped forward, the Proto-Tyrant Form glowing softly at his shoulders.
"You audited me the moment you left me to rot."
"Now you'll face the *consequences*."
---
[Combat Zone Established: Audit Chamber]
**All Sovereign Traits Disabled**
**Edicts Temporarily Nullified**
**You may only fight using core identity strength and Echo contracts.**
Joran grunted.
"They're stripping your power."
Kael smirked, a glint of mischief in his eyes. "Good.
Let's see what's left when I burn everything else away."
---
The battle erupted without a hint of warning.
The Auditor moved like a shadow—appearing at Kael's side, behind him, above him—everywhere and nowhere at once.
Its chains didn't just strike; they *rewrote* the very fabric of space.
Sel shouted, panic lacing his voice.
"You can't dodge that!"
But Kael didn't dodge.
He stood firm.
Each strike left symbols burned into his skin, a painful reminder of the assault.
Every movement aimed to reduce him to mere *code*.
But he wasn't just code.
He was *refusal* made flesh.
---
[Echo Contract Triggered: Ashmaw the Crownless]
Kael merged with Ashmaw, unleashing a torrent of fire and black stone.
The ground erupted in ancestral fury.
Even the Auditor faltered for a moment.
Then Kael struck.
A fist wreathed in sovereign flame shattered one of the Auditor's halos.
> *Error. Pattern deviation... unacceptable.*
The Auditor flickered with emergency light.
> *Triggering Reset.*
---
Kael's crown dimmed, a wave of pain shooting through his spine.
Yet his voice remained steady.
"You want to rewrite me?"
He raised both arms defiantly.
"Then read me properly."
---
[Domain Override Triggered]
*Echo Maw: Core Activated.*
*Protocol Breach Accepted.*
*Kael Vire acknowledged as Sovereign Host of Tier-Null Chaos.*
A new light flooded the sky.
Not Sovereign.
Not System.
Something **older**.
---
The Auditor screamed silently, then turned to flee.
---
Kael dropped to one knee, steam rising from his skin.
Sel rushed to his side, breathless. "You won…"
Kael shook his head, a somber look in his eyes.
"No."
"I *survived*."
---
Far away, in a temple orbiting a shattered sun, the Chainbreaker laughed.
"The Audit failed," it declared.
"And now the game begins."
---
End of Chapter 13