Reborn with the Devil's system
Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Chapter 50

The sky above Threadspace burned crimson.

Time had bent, fractured by the battle that ended the Last Protocol. And now, the echoes of Elias’s victory screamed across every system layer.

In cities governed by Monarchs, alarms rang like funeral bells.

> [ALERT: System Instability Detected]

Source: Infernal Monarch Elias Black

Threat Level: Omega-Class

Directive: TERMINATE IF POSSIBLE. REPORT IF NOT.

In less than two hours, ten system factions had declared Elias a rogue entity.

By hour three, four Monarchs began the hunt.

A towering man in obsidian armor stood at the edge of a crystalline cliff.

His name was Velric the Severed—Monarch of Chainlight, once a friend to Elias’s father.

Now? He was a tracker for the Elders.

"I told them the boy would fall," Velric muttered, staring at the vision of Elias holding the shattered core of the Last Protocol.

"But now... he’s something else."

His second-in-command, a pale woman named Lysia, stepped beside him. "Do we confront or kill?"

Velric’s blade shimmered.

"We test him first. If he bleeds—he’s mortal. If not..."

He didn’t finish the sentence.

---

Back to Elias – The Wanderer’s Burn

The sanctum was long behind him.

Elias walked now—through a desert of broken code and drifting AI husks, a realm called the Wanderer’s Burn. A place forgotten by both gods and systems.

He was injured.

The Crown had settled for now, but its whispers lingered like shadows at noon.

Every now and then, he’d hear the voice again.

More. You are not enough yet. Take. Kill. Consume.

He ignored it.

Mostly.

"System," he rasped aloud, voice hoarse.

> [Yes, Host?]

"How long until the next Architect fragment awakens?"

> [Unknown. The fragments shift between realms.]

Current Probability Map: 22% – Skyforge Sector

31% – Stygian Ruins

47% – Uncharted (Obscured by Voidlight)

"Of course," Elias muttered. "Voidlight again."

> [Warning: Your corruption has reached 66%. Your soul will not survive another Devour sequence unless stabilized.]

Elias stopped walking. The air around him buzzed.

He stared at his hand—flickering between flesh and code.

He was breaking.

But he still had time.

"I need allies," he said, then laughed bitterly. "Or a miracle."

The universe gave him neither.

What it gave him—was war.

Dust shifted.

Then cracked.

Then exploded.

Elias leapt backward just as a golden spear embedded itself in the dirt where he’d stood.

A blur of movement followed.

Four figures dropped around him, surrounding him like wolves.

> [WARNING: Combat Threat Detected]

Monarch Signatures:

– Velric (Chainlight)

– Lysia (Serrated Bloom)

– Korrak (Glass Rot)

– Zeerra (Flame of Balance)

Mission: "Trial of Endings"

Velric stepped forward.

No taunts. No long-winded speeches.

He simply said, "Don’t resist."

Elias smirked. "That’s a hard ask."

And then the ground exploded.

Lysia moved like mist—her dual blades spinning in a blur of green and red.

Elias parried three blows, took the fourth to the ribs, and countered with a pulse of shadow.

> [Ability Used: Abyssal Flashstep]

Cooldown: 4 seconds

He vanished—only to reappear behind Korrak and drive a spear through the Monarch’s shoulder.

Blood—silver and furious—splashed across the sand.

Velric came next.

His chainblade roared with power. One slash tore through the earth and nearly split Elias in half.

Elias caught it mid-air—barely—his hands bleeding from the force.

Then he released the Crownbreaker Echo.

> [Crownbreaker Echo – Level 2]

Deals fragmenting damage to Monarch-class beings. Requires partial Devour charge to activate.

The explosion sent two Monarchs flying.

Lysia shrieked.

Zeerra opened a flame portal and tried to pull Elias into it.

He grabbed her wrist and bit down.

Blood sprayed.

Zeerra screamed and warped out—missing her entire hand.

> [Devour Pulse: 12% Charged]

Soul Hunger: Rising

Elias dropped to his knees.

His vision blurred again.

But the enemies had retreated.

Velric stood across from him, chest heaving.

"You’re not a boy anymore," the older man said. "You’re a problem."

Elias spit blood.

"Try something original next time."

Then the darkness swallowed him whole.

He came to inside a cave—one that pulsed faintly with broken sigils.

The system buzzed.

> [Stabilizing... Critical Health: 29%

Crown Core Recovered: 87%

Soul Retention: 34%]

"You survived," a soft voice said.

Elias turned.

A girl—not older than seventeen—stood at the edge of the cave. White hair. Violet eyes. A scar across her cheek.

She wasn’t glowing.

She wasn’t armed.

But the air around her trembled.

"Who are you?" Elias whispered.

She smiled.

"Your only hope."

The cave was deathly quiet—except for the occasional pulse of sigils embedded in the walls. Faint lights, soft and bluish, shimmered across ancient carvings and broken data circuits that hadn’t been touched in millennia.

Elias sat up slowly, every inch of his body aching. His veins burned as if carrying fire instead of blood. The battle against the Monarchs had pushed him past limits he didn’t even know existed.

But it was the girl that held his attention.

She stood at the edge of the light, white-haired, violet-eyed, her frame small but not fragile. In her presence, the very air seemed... different. Reality around her pulsed as if she herself were syncing with a deeper rhythm.

"I’m not dead, am I?" Elias rasped.

The girl chuckled softly. "Not yet."

His eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she walked to a jagged console half-buried in stone and wiped away the dust. Runes lit up beneath her fingers, flickering to life as if obeying her touch alone.

"You may call me Ishael," she said. "I was born in the first Layer. Before there were Monarchs. Before there were Systems."

Elias blinked.

"No offense... but you don’t look older than seventeen."

Ishael smiled again—but this time, it was sad. "Time doesn’t pass for those who are cursed to remember."

> [SYSTEM ALERT]

Unknown Entity Detected: Origin-Class Level

Status: Neutral

Note: This being predates all known system parameters. Proceed with caution.

Elias stood shakily, gripping the wall.

"If you’re really from that far back... what are you doing here?"

"I was waiting," she said.

"For what?"

She met his gaze.

"For you."

They sat together on the edge of a stone platform, watching the sigils on the wall shift and glow.

Ishael waved a hand, and a projection appeared—ghostly fragments of war and chaos. Crumbling cities, system gods in flame, Monarchs falling like ash.

"I was part of the team that created the original interface code," she said. "The base layer of the Devil’s System."

Elias’s jaw clenched. "You helped make this?"

"No," she said quickly. "I helped stabilize it. We never meant for it to become what it is now."

She pointed to his chest—where the Crown of the Abyss slept beneath his ribs.

"That... is not part of the original design. That’s something far older. Something other."

Elias’s fingers brushed his sternum.

"It’s changing me," he said. "I feel it every time I fight. Every time I devour something."

Ishael nodded.

"It’s because the Crown doesn’t just grow from power. It feeds on identity. The more you use it... the less of you remains."

"So I’m just... doomed to become a monster?"

"Not necessarily," she said.

She stood, pressing her palm against the largest rune on the wall. It glowed blood red.

"There’s a way to anchor your soul."

Elias raised an eyebrow. "I’m listening."

"It’s called the Rite of Tethering," she explained. "An ancient ritual, long forbidden by the system gods. It binds your essence to a singular memory—something so powerful, so core to your identity, that it can resist corruption."

"A memory?" Elias echoed.

"Yes. But it has to be... real. Unfiltered. No edits. No avoidance. A true scar."

He looked away.

"There’s a lot of those."

"You only need one."

> [System Notification]

Rite of Tethering Available.

Risk: High.

Warning: Failure may result in soul rupture and permanent corruption.

Elias stared into the fire of the sigils.

There was one memory that always surfaced when he broke.

One that had never dulled. _{f.(r)eewe/bnov\ll.com}

The night he died.

The betrayal. The scream of his mother. The flash of cold steel. The face of Steve smirking over his bloodied body.

"I want to try."

Ishael nodded and motioned for him to lie on the altar stone.

"Close your eyes," she said. "Don’t resist what comes."

It wasn’t a vision.

It wasn’t even a dream.

Elias was there again.

Back in the crumbling orphanage laboratory where he’d been raised.

Where he was betrayed.

The air stank of bleach and copper. The sound of dripping water echoed off tiled walls. He could see himself—his younger self—chained to the gurney. Barely conscious.

Steve entered.

Same grey eyes. Same mocking tone.

"Poor Elias," the man cooed. "You were never meant to be anything but a vessel."

The syringe glinted. The pain returned. So did the helplessness.

Elias reached for his younger self—but his hands passed through the air like smoke.

"You’re not strong," Steve whispered. "You’re just a broken little boy pretending to matter."

Then Steve raised the knife.

No.

This time, Elias screamed.

The cave trembled.

He came to with a gasp.

Sweat drenched his body. His nails had cut into the stone. His jaw ached from clenching so hard.

But something was different.

He felt anchored.

Like the Crown was no longer floating untethered inside him—but bound.

To rage. To survival. To vengeance.

> [Tethering Successful]

Soul Integrity Stabilized: +12%

Humanity Retention: 51%

Crown Corruption Rate Slowed

He turned to Ishael.

"Thank you."

She nodded. "Now... you might just stand a chance."