Erend returned to his house as the day settled into a quiet stillness that should have brought him some sense of rest, yet his mind remained tense and alert from everything that had happened.
The familiar space around him felt unchanged. The walls and air carried the same calm presence as always, but that calm did not reach him as he closed the door behind him and stepped further inside while his senses sharpened on instinct alone.
He had barely taken another step when the System in front of his vision flickered unnaturally. Its usual clean and structured interface breaking apart into distorted fragments that twisted and overlapped as something else forced its way through.
Something that did not belong within it but had learned how to intrude regardless.
The presence behind it was unmistakable.
It was the Void Architect.
The warped prompt formed unevenly as if the System itself resisted the intrusion while still being unable to stop it completely.
"Have you found it?"
