[System Priority Message: User must evacuate.]

  The voice in his head was sharper now, urgent — but something was wrong. The tone was different.

  "You're not my System," Je said, narrowing his eyes.

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  The reply came too quickly.

  [Incorrect. I am your System.]

  The world around him began to rewrite itself. The shards melted into obsidian pillars, each one etched with screaming faces that twisted in silent agony. He felt an instinct — primal and certain — that one of those faces was his future self.

  The masked figure stood atop the tallest pillar.

  > "And now," it said, "the test begins."

  [System Override Confirmed.]

  [User Consciousness Bound to Trial of the Black Sun.]

  The sky inverted. Darkness became light, and light became a predator.