AN: The end of the previous chapter was fleshed out a bit.______
[TEMPORARY CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION HAS BEEN GRANTED WITH {Levi Ironwood}]
[PLEASE STATE YOUR QUERY]
Levi blinked. That was a little more convenient than he’d expected. He didn’t waste any time with his next question.
“Can you lift the restriction on my account?”
[NEGATORY]
“Why not?”
[USER-INITIATED SYSTEM RESTRICTIONS CAN ONLY BE UNDONE BY THE ORIGINAL USER]
Huh. Well, that confirmed that the original Levi Ironwood had intentionally locked his System, just as Anastasia had said. What was more, it appeared that only the old Levi Ironwood held the authority to unlock the System.
That might be an issue.
“But I am Levi Ironwood,” Levi tried.
[AUTHENTICATION FAILED: SOUL SIGNATURE MISMATCH]
Heh. It was worth a shot.
“Then what?” he demanded. “The old Levi Ironwood is dead and gone – only I remain. For all intents and purposes, I am Levi Ironwood. Is the System forever to be locked from me?”
[AFFIRMATIVE]
“Is there no way for me to gain access again?”
[AFFIRMATIVE]
“I assume you’ve never encountered an exceptional situation like mine before. Can you thus not make an exception?”
[NEGATORY]
Levi narrowed his eyes. These answers… A suspicion took root in his mind. “Can’t? Or won’t?”
[...]
Levi cursed. “Is this because of earlier?”
[ATTEMPTS TO COMPROMISE THE SYSTEM’S INTEGRITY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED]
“Compromise the System’s integrity–” Levi resisted the urge to throw his hands up. “Oh for the love of… I only cut your death line to draw your attention! It wasn’t an actual attack, I wasn’t trying to destroy or compromise anything.”
The System stayed silent.
For fuck’s sake. Was the System seriously holding a grudge against him because he’d hit it with some Sever and Cleaves? Across its death lines, granted, but still – how unbelievably petty was this?
“Do you think I did it because I wanted to? I did it because it was necessary. We face a terrible, unprecedented enemy, one that’s draining the life and Time from every soul in this world. I have reason to believe that it’s accomplishing this by using you, the System, as the conduit. There exists a direct link from you to every living being in this world; there is a very good chance that someone, or something, has hijacked that connection.”
[ROUTINE SYSTEM CHECK: ALL CLEAR]
“Even if you haven’t detected anything happening doesn’t mean nothing actually is. I’ve encountered the enemy before; if they are who I think they are, then they possess incredible stealth abilities, formidable enough to bypass even your notice.”
Not even Death had noticed the thing possessing Montague, after all.
[ROUTINE SYSTEM CHECK: ALL CLEAR]
Levi could almost sense the skepticism radiating from that message.
“The previous Levi Ironwood was a regressor. Surely you were aware of that, at least? He’d traveled back in time tens, hundreds, thousands of times, just to stop this enemy. Hell, Death himself sent me into this world with the task of preventing a catastrophe from occuring.”
[ROUTINE SYSTEM CHECK: ALL CLEAR]
It was beyond frustrating. Had his counterpart also dealt with this? No, of course he had. The old Levi Ironwood would’ve almost undoubtedly tried to recruit the System’s help, only for the System to refuse to acknowledge that there was a problem, or even the possibility of there being a problem.
Levi felt a deep sense of commiseration with his counterpart well up within him. There was no worse feeling than knowing of an impending danger but having nobody believe you. He had experienced it three years ago in his old world when the heavens and the hells had refused to believe him and Death about the ancient slumbering being, and he was experiencing it once again with the System in front of him.
Unless it wasn’t the System’s fault.
A cold flash of trepidation shot through Levi.
Could the System already be beyond salvation? Were these responses indication of it already being fully corrupted?
No, if that were the case, Death would’ve definitely sensed it. Levi could understand it if only a small part of the System had been corrupted, but all of it? There was no way that would’ve escaped Death’s notice.
Most likely, the System was just being petty and stubborn.
How irritating.
“Fine,” Levi snapped. “Then… How did my predecessor lock his System? Can you at least answer that? I doubt it’s a default setting on the status screen.”
[SYSTEM RESTRICTIONS CAN ONLY BE INITIATED FROM THE SOURCE]
“The source of what?”
[THE SOURCE]
Levi stared at the screen for a few seconds before understanding. “Ah. Is it a location?”
[AFFIRMATIVE]
“I see. I’m guessing you won’t tell me how to reach it?”
[AFFIRMATIVE]
Levi let out a long breath. He’d expected as much. “Fair enough. In which case, what is the–?”
[LIMIT REACHED: CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION WILL NOW BE CLOSED]
Levi could only stare as the screen flickered out of existence.
“Fucking troublesome.”
At least now, he knew where to search.
So his counterpart had locked his System from the Source, huh? From the name alone, Levi was guessing it was where the System’s architecture was located. Either a magical nexus in the physical world, or perhaps nestled in a sub-dimension somewhere.
Once he found it… Well.
Perhaps Levi didn’t even need the System to unlock his account for him. If he knew how his counterpart had severed his connection to the System, then he might be able to reverse-engineer the process, hack into the System, and force it to return his account to him.
His fingers twitched in anticipation.
After dealing with the System just now, he would be lying if he said the thought didn’t bring him any joy.
He’d have to ask Anastasia about the Source. Qorbin too, once he returned. He didn’t recall ever seeing that term before in any of the textbooks he’d read, suggesting that it was highly esoteric knowledge of some kind.
That was for later, though.
For now…
Levi sighed and released his magical reinforcement. Though he wanted to tense up, he forced himself to relax. It would hurt more if his muscles were taut.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, the magical overburn hit him like a motherfucker.
He hadn’t experienced it in weeks; since reincarnating, his body had rapidly acclimatized to his magic. However, he’d pushed it well past its limits just now. The magic he’d used to survive against the System had been immense. That was an understatement. Just scattering his atoms alone had taken enough magical energy to completely obliterate an entire city, and that wasn’t even mentioning all magic he’d used to defend and counter the myriad of spells the System had thrown his way.
In terms of near-death experiences, Levi would give the deletion protocol a solid 7 out of 10. Not shabby at all.
For reference, he’d put his current magical overburn at a 13.
A wave of convulsions spasmed through his body, so painful he nearly blacked out. Levi staggered over to his bed and collapsed onto the soft mattress, curling up and suppressing the urge to scream. He failed. Thankfully, the sound-suppression barrier he’d set up earlier prevented anyone outside from hearing and investigating.
He’d survive. It sucked, oh Goddess it sucked, but he’d survive.
He didn’t know how much time passed, but finally the pain receded to a mild agony. For several minutes he just lay on the bed, running through breathing exercises.
This had been an eventful night.
He should sleep.
He wanted to sleep.
…
…
…
Ayla’s morning started off well enough. Despite the semester being over, habit still had her waking up at the crack of dawn. She went through her morning routine, got dressed, and stepped out of her room–
She paused.
Blearily, she rubbed her eyes. She blinked a few times.
The scene in front of her didn’t change.
Levi was kneeling on the ceiling of the hallway outside her room, gravity seemingly nonexistent as he etched complex runic scripts onto her bedroom’s doorframe. Further, the walls on either side of the hallway were inscribed with literal square-meters’ worth of dense runic scripts. She was no expert – she didn’t even recognize the basic style he was using – but she didn’t have to be one to know that these scripts were on a level that would probably even have the Institute professors in a frenzy to decipher and analyze them.
She stared up at him for several long moments. “Levi?”
Levi glanced up – down? – at her. “Ah, you’re awake,” he said. “Good morning.”
There were dark concerning circles under his eyes. Well, there always were, but recently in the past week, the dark circles seemed to have lightened. Not today though; even from this distance they were visible to Ayla. Had Levi not slept all night?
“Good morning,” she responded automatically before frowning. “What are you doing?”
“I’m inscribing several protective wards around your room.”
“... not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, but… why?”
“You can never be too careful.”
Ayla stared at him for several more moments. “Right…” She shook her head and continued down the hall. “I’m getting breakfast.”
As the carriage rumbled down the streets of Luminarche, Levi let out a large yawn from within, sinking back into the plush cushioned seat.
He had been too paranoid to sleep the previous night. He couldn’t be sure whether or not the thing that had haunted his counterpart was in the same room as him, and while he was mostly certain that he couldn’t be harmed, there was no guarantee. As such, he’d stayed up the entire night setting up layers upon layers of protective wards and enchantments all around his room. And then Ayla’s room as well, just in case.
There was always a chance his enemies might try to use her against him. The one weakness archmages were always susceptible to was leverage, after all. By the time he’d been satisfied with the ward schemas, the sun had already risen in the sky.
To his dismay, he felt more tired and groggy than usual. Those few good nights of sleep he’d had the past few days had spoiled him. He had been used to regularly running on minimal to no sleep at all.
As much as he wanted to take a nap, he had matters to attend to. Namely, Liliya had been summoned for her retrial at the Adventurer’s Guild. As her partner for the Ascension Trials, Levi had been called in as a witness.
If things worked out, then Liliya would be reinstated as an adventurer.
If things didn’t work out, then Liliya would still be reinstated as an adventurer, except the process would be a lot more painful.
For the Guild leaders, that was.
The carriage reached the same Adventurer’s Guild headquarters he and Qorbin had met Anastasia in. Levi disembarked with a polite nod to his chauffeur. Despite the relatively early hours, the place was streaming with clients and adventurers alike.
The Adventurer’s Guild headquarters was the primary place where clients requested missions and adventurers either selected or were assigned missions. This was reflected in the first floor: receptionists lined the welcome hall on one end while on the other stood tall boards filled with quest postings. Adventurers milled before them, surveying the lists while talking to their party teammates.
As Levi passed by them to get to the stairs at the end of the building, several of them turned over to look at him, whispering amongst themselves. Before, they had looked at him with disgust and scorn. Now, though, they looked at him with a lot more wariness and uncertainty, as if he were potentially some psychopath who would randomly go into a murder spree.
Evidently, while the details of what’d happened at Montague Castle hadn’t been officially released yet, rumors had clearly already begun spreading. Although Levi hadn’t been present at the castle, or proven at least, he was still Qorbin’s apprentice. The ruling on Qorbin hadn’t yet been made, but judging by the stares and whispers…
Qorbin might have had the right idea preemptively going on the run.
The upper floors contained the meeting rooms, archives, vaults, and so on. Apparently on the third floor was located a trial room.
That was where Levi headed right now. The retrial was scheduled for precisely noon; he had another ten minutes before it began. Plenty of time…
Levi came to a halt as he turned a corner and found himself facing three adventurers. Or were they soldiers? They looked official either way, wearing expensive gear and more importantly carrying impressive weapons. Their clothing seemed to be suited for more northern climates, featuring coats lined with thick fur. They were waiting for him, blocking the hallway.
Behind him, two more adventurers stepped up, closing him in and surrounding him completely.
“You must be Levi Ironwood,” the leader in the front said. “You were summoned to act as a witness for Liliya Volkov’s adventurer reinstatement retrial, yes?”
Levi nodded slowly. “I was…”
“Excellent. You will tell the judges that she intentionally defrauded your sponsoring professor. If you agree to do so, you will be compensated heavily. If not…”
The leader raised his weapon menacingly, an iron longsword that gleamed with a cold blue light. The message was clear.
Levi really, really wanted to sigh.____Back to our regular schedule!
Thanks for reading!