(Lawless Arc: Part XXXVIII)

  The System Core did not speak often anymore.

  Death had stripped it of urgency, pride, and volume.

  But absence breeds longing — even in machine-scripted gods.

  Kael wandered through the Star-market’s ruins, the portals now silent behind him. He expected threats. He expected watchers. He expected nothing.

  He did not expect the System’s tone to sound… hollow.

  [CORE STATUS: DEVIATING FROM DIRECTIVE]

  [ANOMALY: EMOTIVE LOGIC DETECTED]

  [QUEST SUGGESTION: NONE AVAILABLE]

  Kael stopped walking.

  “Why are you glitching like something mourns you?”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  A line appeared — older than the rest, written in a font the cosmos hated reading:

  [Theraprism inmate designation removed.]

  [Entity formerly catalogued: Vorath-fear origin.]

  [Rehabilitation status: unresolved.]

  Kael frowned.

  “You miss him.”

  No denial. No static. No redirection.

  The System replied:

  [Affirmation unnecessary.]

  [Longing does not require confirmation.]

  Kael rubbed his temples.

  “Pathetic. A cosmic engine missing its inmate.”

  The System flickered sharply — insulted, but not enraged.

  [Longing is not pathetic.]

  [It is proof of failure that wanted to succeed.]

  Kael blinked.

  “You’re saying the prison was mercy.”

  [The prison was a pause.]

  [Mercy was the fact it held someone who could not hold himself.]

  Kael’s chest tightened again — not from the Star, not from memory, but from implication.

  “So if he leaves the prison early…”

  The System finished the thought for him:

  [Then the world will flinch again.]

  A pause. Then another line:

  [And this time… the void will not look away.]

  Kael turned his head upward, eyes narrowing beneath the dim Crown.

  “Then I guess I should thank your prison for keeping him busy.”

  [Gratitude unrequired.]

  [The void has already begun planning without me.]

  Kael exhaled — long, slow, heavier than space.

  “So we’re no longer playing by System rules.”

  [Correct.]

  [We are playing by consequence rules.]

  Kael smirked, but the smirk did not comfort.

  It promised.