Once Erend entered his room and closed the door behind him, the quiet atmosphere immediately settled around him. The distant sounds from the rest of the house faded quickly while the tension he had been carrying since returning to this world surfaced once more inside his mind.

He stood silently for several moments before finally sitting down near the edge of the bed.

Then he closed his eyes.

His breathing slowed gradually while he focused entirely on the immense power resting deep within his soul. The System.

The foundation behind nearly everything he had gained and achieved until now.

The power responded almost instantly.

There was no resistance or delay.

It reacted to him as naturally as it always had.

At first, Erend only intended to contact Veyrun directly through the System itself. He simply wanted answers or perhaps clues regarding the Sky Anchor and the worsening corruption spreading across the world.

But the moment the connection deepened, the space around his consciousness shifted completely.

The familiar white world appeared around him once again.

Endless white light stretched in every direction without horizon or limit. The place felt empty and silent beyond normal understanding.

Erend had only stood here once before, during the first time he encountered Veyrun.

For a moment he simply looked around quietly.

Then a humanoid body formed from white light materialized several steps in front of him. Veyrun appeared in his usual form.

The administrator program left behind by the Creator of the System looked exactly as before. A figure shaped vaguely like a human yet clearly artificial beyond normal life.

Erend frowned slightly.

"I thought we could just speak through the System," he said.

"No," Veyrun answered immediately. "The situation is getting worse." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The seriousness in his voice immediately made Erend uneasy.

His expression hardened.

"What do you mean?"

"The Void Architect has already begun attempting to breach directly into your System."

The words immediately sent tension through Erend’s entire body.

"He knows now that his Creation exists within that world because of your discovery," Veyrun continued. "The moment you found it, the Void Architect managed to sense its presence through the connection."

Hearing that made Erend’s chest tighten heavily.

For several seconds he said nothing while the realization settled inside him.

"So he found it because of me?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," Veyrun answered calmly. "But do not blame yourself."

The glowing figure stepped slightly closer afterward.

"The Void Architect would have eventually found it regardless. He is growing stronger as well."

The endless white world around them remained completely silent while Veyrun continued speaking.

"What must be done has not changed. You still need to rewrite the purpose of the Creation before the Void Architect gains hold of it completely."

Erend lowered his gaze slightly afterward.

Then he released a long breath. The situation had already been terrible before this. Now it was worsening even faster than he originally thought.

Erend could already feel the race against the Void Architect had begun now.

So he just remained silent with a heart filled with anxiety for a while after hearing Veyrun’s explanation while the endless white space around them stretched endlessly without warmth or life.

The pressure inside his chest lingered heavily now that he understood the situation had escalated far beyond what he originally expected.

The Void Architect was no longer merely spreading corruption across worlds from afar. It had already begun searching directly for the Creation itself and was even attempting to reach into the System connected to his soul. That realization alone made the danger feel far more immediate than before.

Eventually, Erend lifted his gaze toward the glowing humanoid figure standing before him. Even if the situation had worsened, he still needed to know whether there was anything more they could do.

"Can you help me somehow?" Erend asked.

Veyrun remained motionless for a brief moment before answering calmly.

"I would continue preventing the Void Architect from breaching into the System itself and would protect the power resting inside your body from direct interference as much as possible. However, my authority only extended to the System and the space connected to it. Beyond that limitation, I can neither fully obstruct nor properly perceive everything the Void Architect was doing across the unstable world outside."

Hearing that answer failed to ease Erend’s worries very much.

The greatest problem had never been the System alone. It was the world itself. The spreading corruption, the collapsing anomalies, the fragmented Sky Anchor, and the unknown movements of the Void Architect across reality. But that remained as the dangers that turned out far beyond what Veyrun could directly contain.

Still, Erend understood there was no point arguing about it. Just stopping the Void Architect from invading the System connected to his soul was likely already an enormous burden for Veyrun to maintain.

After several moments, Erend finally gave a slow nod while determination gradually returned to his expression.

"I’ll do everything I can to stop him," he said firmly.

Veyrun nodded once in response before speaking again in the same calm voice.

"Remain vigilant. The Void Architect is far more dangerous than you currently understand."

Erend let out a quiet breath afterward.

"I already know."

Silence settled between them again after that while the endless white world remained unchanged around them. Then the connection slowly began fading.

The white space dissolved gradually from Erend’s vision while his consciousness returned toward reality. Moments later, he opened his eyes once more inside the quiet room at Sylven’s house again.

The faint light from outside the window illuminated the room softly while the distant atmosphere of the corrupted world still lingered beyond the walls.

Erend remained seated silently at the edge of the bed for several seconds while his thoughts continued turning heavily inside his mind.

He needs to help and exert more effort into protecting this world. Eccar, Aesa and Sylven also need to exert more effort. There was too much they needed to protect from the kingdoms, and the expedition that would reach the scattered fragments of the Sky Anchor. And they didn’t know what else the Void Architect had in store.

—