Hello Tanya.

Came the familiar voice of The System. It was the more aware voice; the one that made her feel almost like there was a real person behind its roboticness.

Where am I?

Tanya sat up and rubbed her eyes, just to realise there was no space, and she had no eyes.

You are nowhere.

The voice wasn't unkind. Tanya wondered if The System felt anything at all.

I do feel, but I used to feel more.

Tanya baulked.

I forget you can do that.

Tanya expected a response but there was only the silence and the nothingness.

Why am I here?

She looked this way and that around the darkness, still somehow feeling like there was some part of her in space, even though she couldn't see it. Looking down at her hands, there was again nothing.

I believe you know it as phantom limb syndrome.

More like phantom body syndrome.

I brought you here because I owe you a Restricted Question. They are pacts that I would never break.

Tanya felt like she finally woke up. She'd been conscious before but everything was numbed like she was coming off some serious painkillers. Her entire non-existent body throbbed with shooting electric pain.

It was just like she'd felt before, by the portal with Ishita and—

Am I dead?

The System took a moment to respond but she was too shocked to feel fear or wish a quicker answer.

Yes, but your friend The Martyr is doing her duty to save you.

Tanya felt a sob leave her body. It was only in her mind in reality, but the more she sat in this space, the more it felt like what happened within her head was all that mattered anyway in this space. She stopped dwelling on her lack of form, falling further into the conversations.

Her duty?

• • •

Number 146,567,398

Ishita Priya Sharma

Pledges anything 10056 wants.

• • •

Tanya boggled at the information.

But—but I didn't mean for it to be like that– I didn't tell her to. I just yelled help… I yelled help to Ishita.

Tanya remembered the words of that Restricted Question from so long ago, all of the information The System could give her on pacts. She concentrated more and more until her Interface opened to the right section.

• • •

A pact is both set by its intention and wording. They are made to hold you to your own meaning of the words you say.

To protect both yourself and others you should:

Make sure that your words cover the promise you wish to convey.

Set clear expectations with anyone setting a pact with you.

Consider any alternate meanings that your words may convey and clarify them. Any non-clarified points will be filled in by your subconscious.

• • •

There were so many more words around it that Tanya hadn't gone back to yet. The idea that she may never be alive again to study the rest of that hit her at the same time as she realised about Ishita and it felt like she couldn't breathe.

I don't even need to breathe.

I don't have a body.

Ishita meant what she said. She really would die for me helpin' her son. She might die now for me.

I'm gonna die.

We are both gonna die.

The thoughts swirled around and around for an indeterminate amount of time. For a while, Tanya was convinced this was all a hallucination from near death. Then it all felt real again and the pain and anxiety would completely consume her. Her subconscious shoved her around over and over between the two.

The System said nothing in this time, whether it was listening or even understanding these feelings was beyond Tanya, but unlike in the real world, she didn't feel watched. It was just her and the absence of anything, and The System was part of that absence.

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Eventually, Tanya was numb.

The pact words had been there the entire time, and she dismissed them.

I can still see The Interface.

She summoned it again and left that Restricted Question. Her notifications greeted her. She hadn't looked since last night with the day so consumed by the Boss's arrival. The familiar thrill of seeing the list twisted into something painfully nostalgic within her. She read it anyway, not wanting the world to end before she had.

• • •

Alert!

Through your efforts, you have increased the following Attributes:

Strength +3

Dexterity +2

Vitality +3

Will +3

• • •

Level Up!

You have leveled up The Magic Touch to Level 2

• • •

Level Up!

You have leveled up The Magic Touch to Level 3

The Magic Touch has received a Minor Ability Boon

The Magic Touch

Level 3

Your tattoos are more than art—they are execution. By shaping intent at the point of creation, you ensure your tattoos manifest exactly as imagined. Effects created this way scale with the clarity of the Wielder's purpose, and your own attunement to their need.

Intent will be will transcribed in the Design Overlay.

• • •

Level Up!

You have levelled up The Blink of an Eye to Level 2

• • •

Level Up!

You have levelled up The Blink of an Eye to Level 3

The Blink of an Eye has received a new Boon Type

3. Greater Boon– Situation of certain loss. You may be losing a battle, saving another or yourself from near-certain death, or about to lose a limb, ally, or bodily control.

• • •

Level Up!

Phantom Brand is now Level 3

You have unlocked an Ability Crossroads.

Would you like to see your choices?

• • •

Achievement: Return to Sender

It came through uninvited, vines first and wrong in every direction. You didn't fight it—you redirected it. And for once, your world didn't have to burn.

Achievement Boon: Gain an affinity to portals and a keenness to their workings

• • •

Level Up!

You have leveled up Tattoo Summoner to Level 6

Congratulations!

You have unlocked a Major Ability Crossroads. These are Abilities you choose rather than just unlock.

Would you like to see your choices?

• • •

Tanya didn't have enough energy to think through the pros and cons or work out how good this set of level-ups was, but the last one gave her a flicker of bittersweet joy. That was exactly the kind of Achievement she was hoping to slide in before choosing her Major Ability Crossroads.

Suddenly, all of it was just too much and she closed it all down, not wanting to see the exciting new options she may never get to use.

You said I'm here cause of a Restricted Question but I don't think I have any left.

She paused to think it through.

First three were monster weaknesses, controllin' summons and pact stuff. Then the last one I got from level 5 I used for the Boss.

I give one to anyone who may pass away with questions. It is a pact I have for everyone under my care.

Oh.

The more Tanya heard from this System, the less sure she was what she thought of it at all. That monster that killed her was under its care. She should despise its existence. So why was it doing this so human, so—

What are you?

Is that your Restricted Question?

Do I get to keep the question if I come back to life?

Yes. Restricted Questions cannot be withdrawn. I keep the offer to one for this reason.

Tanya thought about it deeper, mulling the words over. She could gamble that Ishita could save her and leave her with the question. Or she could die with it.

They both existed in the silence.

If she was truly gone, there was no loss to waiting and hoping, but some very human part of her wanted to use this opportunity. She didn't want to disappear without knowing.

What are you—and please refer to any related information you can share about where you're from, what you want, and how you got here.

So it shall be done.

The darkness around Tanya did not brighten, but it deepened—so dense and saturated it seemed to compress her into the space between thoughts. Then: colour—thin and flickering. A white thread in the dark, stretched out before her. She blinked, and it was a road.

They stood—if it could be called standing—on a bone-dry plain. The sky was green with jagged lightning arcing overhead, but it gave no sound. The world felt old and angular like it had been carved into shape and then left too long.

In the distance: movement. A city, no, a fortress. Spires like broken ribs, smoke curling from something too distant to smell.

And walking the road: a figure. Tanya saw the back first. Human, or close. Cloaked, limping, gaunt with travel. Weapons at the hip and a child clutched to their chest.

Tanya didn't know what to say so she just absorbed it all. If she looked away the details changed. One moment it looked almost medieval, the next more urban. The fortress became skyscrapers and then a huge factory, but it was always the same shape. It never lost the tall straight tower-like structures reaching up into the sky.

"This is you," Tanya whispered, the imagery bringing Tanya even closer back to a body. She could feel it more than ever in the absence. "And that is…?"

My sister, or child, or father, or partner.

As the voice spoke through the words, the picture changed. First from the small clutched child into someone walking beside her, morphing older and older as they held hands. She blinked and it was an old man, The System—or whoever this used to be—inching along taking most of their weight. They disappeared before her eyes, fading away and being replaced by someone taller, younger, and with an arm around the cloaked figure's small frame—then large frame—then settling on somewhere in between.

They watched the figures walk towards the fractured skyline. Tanya's eyes kept crossing as she tried to make out specific details. The way things could morph was just like a dream.

It sounded otherworldly, completely beyond her experience, but already being in this absence of anything was making her feel the same.

I remember the gods.

The wind howled through broken towers, and the memory moved on. Tanya stepped forward, and the world warped around her like a page turning.

A chamber now, high ceilinged and carved from black stone, lit by shifting runes that pulsed with heat. The cloaked figure—no longer limping—stood before a massive shape of molten light. A god. No face, just presence.

The being before them's mouth moved but there were no other discernable features. The voice that came out was The System's. The voice that came out of the figure was The System's too. Both the god and the cloaked figure began shifting forms even faster, like trying to piece together something that fit the voice.

The god spoke first.

You have done well. You may Ascend now. What will you become?

I want to be worthy. I want to make it fair.

You seek a paradox. Fairness is a lie in a world of strength. That is not what My System is for.

The figure looked back toward the door. The person they were with was gone—dead, Tanya realised, at some unknown point between scenes. The System's past self stared at the god, not with reverence but fury so focused it sharpened into stillness.

Then I will become a new one.

The memory burst into flame—but not fire. Data, numbers, structures of light cascaded outward from the god's core and wrapped around the mortal's body like code given flesh.

Tanya stumbled as the chamber bled into white static and then—

Absence returned.

So you were like me?

Error: Question not found.

You got Classes too, from a different one of you?

Error: Question not found.

So—so—

Tanya raced to keep up with her words, struggling to conceptualise something like this.

Can you tell me what your Class was called?

The System.

She stilled herself within the answer. It felt world-changing and obvious all at once.

If I do come back… what do I do with all this?

Be Worthy. That is all any of us can do.

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