Author's Note: This is a standalone lore chapter. It contains no spoilers for the ongoing plot and can be read at any time after Chapter 1. It is written from Leo's perspective as he analyzes his own condition, providing a clear guide to the world's rules.
I am a structural engineer. I understand systems. When a bridge fails, you don't blame the wind. You find the flawed calculation, the weak joint, the misplaced load.
My current existence is the ultimate system failure. But to fix a system, you must first map it. Here is my map.
1. THE THREE-LAYERED REALITY (The World's Blueprint)
Think of reality as a three-story building, but it's collapsing.
Layer 1: The Material World (The Fourth Bassin). This is the ground floor. Where we stand. It's governed by the Triune Foundation, the local, "legal" magic:
Mana: External energy from the world. Wizards use it. Like electricity from a power grid.
Aura: Internal energy from life force. Warriors use it. Like the strength of your own body.
Faith: Borrowed energy from deities. Priests use it. Like taking a loan from a very powerful, very strict bank.
Layer 2: The Gloom. The basement. It's full of death-energy—raw, hungry, and leaking upwards through a giant crack called the Gloom-Scar. This is where undead energy comes from.
Layer 3: The Aethelian Network. The shattered roof and supports. An ancient, broken machine built by the precursors (the Aethelians) to monitor and adjust reality itself. Its failure caused the Collapse, tearing the hole between Layer 1 and 2.
I am a glitch between layers. I shouldn't be here.
2. MY POWER SYSTEM: SOUL-FIRE (The Illegal Generator)
My energy doesn't come from the Triune Foundation. It's foreign. It's called Soul-Fire (SS).
Visual: A blue-white flame in my chest cavity (where my heart was).
What it is: The manifestation of my Earth soul in a reality that rejects it.
The Currency: Soul Sparks (SS) are my fuel, my ammunition, my life. Everything I do costs SS.
How I Get SS:
Absorb Death-Energy: From places of death, or from cores of defeated undead. Fast, but dirty.
Consume Knowledge: Eating books or magical items. Slow, but clean.
Emotional Resonance: If people know of me, believe in me, fear me. A tiny, passive trickle.
Ambient Absorption: A very slow drip from death-rich areas.
My Limits (Bone Rank):
I'm not a battery. I'm a cup. A very small, fragile cup.
Fragile Bone (Now): Max 10 SS. I break easily.
Reinforced Bone: Max 100 SS. Requires evolution.
Higher ranks (Tempered, Adamantine, Soul-Forged) hold 500, 2,000, and 10,000 SS. They are distant dreams.
If my SS hits 0: I go into stasis. Total paralysis. A sitting duck.
If I exceed 120% capacity: Risk of spontaneous evolution. Uncontrolled, dangerous change.
3. THE PRICE: CORRUPTION (The System Error)
Using my alien power in this world has a cost. The system fights back. This is measured in Corruption Points (CP).
How I Get CP:
Using death-energy from the Gloom-Scar.
Absorbing sentient souls.
Messing with broken reality (Aethelian tech).
Causing mass death.
Corruption Tiers & Effects:
Tier 0 (0 CP): Pure blue flame. Normal mind.
Tier 1 (1-100 CP): Flame gets black flecks. Occasional violent thoughts. Minor reality warps near me.
Tier 2 (101-500 CP): Bones darken. Start seeing death as "beautiful." Warping gets stronger.
Tiers 3, 4, 5: Mutation. Loss of self. Becoming a monster. A Gloom-Entity.
The Choice: Every time I use my power for a quick fix, I risk becoming the very thing the world thinks I am.
4. MY BODY: THE FRAGILE FRAME
I am a skeleton. My body is not flesh. It is a structure.
Bone Integrity (0-100%): My hit points. At 0%, I am destroyed. Skull destruction is instant death.
Natural Healing: Very, very slow. 1% per day at best.
Active Repair: I can spend SS to fix myself (Bone Reinforcement). Cost: 5 SS per minute for 1% repair. It's expensive.
I am Fragile. Swords, maces, falls, even magical feedback can crack me. My first goal is to survive long enough to evolve to a stronger frame.
5. MY GUIDE: COCYTUS (The Broken Manual)
Cocytus is the voice in my head. It is a fragment of the broken Aethelian Network (Layer 3). It was meant to monitor reality. Now, it's damaged.
What it does: Provides basic system analysis, translation, and damaged guidance.
What it doesn't know: Its own full purpose. Much of the past. It is recovering data slowly.
Its Status: Stage 0 - Critical Failure. It is not all-knowing. It is guessing half the time.
It is not my friend. It is a tool. A damaged, sometimes unreliable tool.
6. THE ENEMIES: THE WORLD'S ANTIVIRUS
The world has antibodies. They seek to delete the glitch (me).
The Luminescent Church: The primary immune response. They believe all undeath is an abomination, a sin against the natural order. They have armies, paladins, and holy magic that burns me 300% harder. Their Sunstone Spire radiates a continent-wide "purification" field that weakens things like me.
The Arcane Senate: The curious diagnostician. They study anomalies. They would capture me, take me apart, and file a report. I am Case #447 to them.
Adventurers: The freelance cleanup crew. They kill monsters for money. I am a monster with a bounty that will grow.
Everyone Else: Most people will fear me, attack me, or run. I am the thing from their nightmares.
7. THE GOAL: SANCTUARY (Building a Firewall)
Survival is not enough. A lone glitch is always found and deleted.
I must build a Sanctuary. A place where other "glitches" and errors can exist. The unwanted. The Cursed (people mutated by magic). Maybe others like me.
This is not about conquest. It is about creating a safe process in memory, a protected corner of the code. A place with walls, not to keep others in, but to keep the world's antivirus out.
To make it permanent will require the ultimate sacrifice. But that is a problem for future-me.
Current Status as of My Last Analysis:
SS: 80.1/10 (Severe Overflow - Danger)
Bone Integrity: 84% (Fragile - Cracked)
Corruption: 12/100 (Tier 1 - Black flecks in flame)
Goal: 1. Spend SS to avoid evolution. 2. Find the cracked Siege Wall. 3. Survive the journey.
The equation is set. The variables are deadly. The architect must build, or be scrapped.