Chapter 25: System Error P1
~25.1~
*****
The sound of steel clashing rang out through the courtyard in the castle grounds of New Tokyo. Kye and Alethea were watching as Sanae sparred with Yami, Zen, Kaylie, and Laila at the same time. Liliana and Aliana were busy preparing lunch for everyone inside Kye's palace while they practiced.
"How the hell are you so godsdamn strong after only a week of being alive here?" Zen yelled as he traded powerful blow after powerful blow with her, his sword and body coated in an aura of darkness mana.
Sanae smirked as she parried his every attack. "Experience." She wielded an odachi made from aethersteel. It took her only an afternoon to crafts the materials for it.
"Sanae is just that ridiculous," Kaylie said as she came in from the left with her staff. Sanae simply stepped back, allowing the staff to pass by in front of her face. She added a palm strike to Kaylie's back and sent her to the ground.
"Even Aneue was never this difficult to spar with," Yami said as she charged in with a powered overhead slash that she had built up over several seconds. Zen jumped out of the way, but Sanae took it head on... with her bare hands.
"Your dear Aneue and I may be two halves of the same original being, but it has been eons since we were one. We have our own personalities. As difficult as she is to all of you, she is actually quite lenient. I, on the other hand..."
"Am not lenient in the slightest," Kye said as she jumped into the sparring match with her own aethersteel odachi. "Let's give them a good show, eh?"
Sanae nodded and gripped her weapon. "You just want this for yourself."
"Well, yeah."
*****
Everything was great. That is, until the people heard an unusual, unexpected voice announce something to the entire world. On December 20th, I pulled the trigger on the full system activation after talking it over many times with, especially after Sanae was born. We decided months prior to prepare for it, but continued discussing it regardless.
"System Command: Change Mode received. System Mode: Full; Target: All Realms; initiated. Enabling system notifications for all users... complete. Adding basic console access authentication to all user accounts... complete. All users may now access the system menu. An optional tutorial is available from the main menu. Now pausing system command for thirty minutes to allow users to view the tutorial.
As expected, the world was in an uproar. The number of reports that nobility and royalty received bordered on insanity, and prayers came just as fast. The decision was made months ago, and the royalty slowly disseminated the impending decision down through the noble ranks until every noble in the empire knew and could prepare for the expected onslaught of confusion.
Thankfully, I was smart when I created the system, and added a function for it to take over automatically in times like this. It auto-responded to every single message with detailed and personalized answers that ultimately instructed them on how to access the system menu and view the tutorial.
Half an hour later, the system resumed the announcement.
"Now resuming system command. Enabling Attributes for all users in all realms... complete. Assigning base attribute stats to all users without base stats... complete. Applying appropriate attribute points to Strength, Agility, Defense, and Hit Points to all users based on physical capabilities... complete. Applying attribute points to Magic and Mana and additional attribute points to Defense to all users based on mana capabilities... complete. Attribute allocation is complete. To better understand attributes, see the tutorial."
"Analyzing mana affinities for all users... complete. Assigning passive skills to all users based on mana affinities: Fire Affinity, Water Affinity, Lightning Affinity, Earth Affinity, Wind Affinity, Ice Affinity, Space Affinity, Light Affinity, Neutral Affinity, Dark Affinity, and Pure Affinity... complete. Assigning various sub-affinities... complete. Assigning appropriate aether affinities... complete. Analyzing combat capabilities and assigning appropriate martial affinities, such as Sword Affinity, Katana Affinity, and Fist Affinity... complete. To better understand affinities, see the tutorial."
"Analyzing magical capabilities and populating user spellbooks with appropriate spells... complete. Analyzing all capabilities and populating user skillbooks with appropriate skills... complete. Compiling rune magic spells into a separate, restricted spellbook... complete. Applying basic access authentication for Rune Archive to users with knowledge of rune spells... complete. Applying full access authentication for Rune Archive to the user that developed rune magic... complete."
It's moving along quite nicely.
"Re-analyzing attributes, spells, and skills of all user accounts and fine tuning assignments... pass one complete... pass two complete... pass three complete... pass four complete... final pass complete. Analyzing all data and assigning experience points... canceled. System analysis indicates there is no purpose in enabling the User Level protocol. All users can now access their finalized account profile, which lists attributes, spells, skills, and more."
"Analyzing social structures of all ten realms... complete. Analyzing personal achievements of all users... complete. Generating system managed titles and hierarchies for each realm... complete. Applying appropriate titles to users... complete. Analyzing geographics of all realms... complete. Adding map data to users based on visited locations... complete. Notice: users will not possess map data of locations of which they have neither visited nor have knowledge."
"System command complete. Basic universal information is available in the help section of the main menu. User specific information is also available in the help section."
"...error."
What?
"Analyzing..."
Kye shared confused glances with Alethea and the others. They were present at the royal council just in case a problem arose and an emergency discussion was needed.
"Unauthorized users detected. Isolating unauthorized users..."
A silvery white barrier suddenly appeared around Kye. "Uh..."
"Unauthorized users successfully quarantined."
"Hey! What's going on?!" Alethea jumped up and tried to break the barrier around Kye, but it was too strong. She looked over at where Sanae was and found her trapped in an identical barrier.
"Now disconnecting unauthorized user and expelling soul from Elysium."
"Hey! Stop!" Kye shouted. "System, I'm not an unauthorized user!" She suddenly felt an intense pain that she had never experienced before and screamed. She flared her full power and used every skill she had to boost her power. Even with the Awakened State and Aether Drive active at the same time, plus Mana Burst, she couldn't even dent the barrier. Sanae was also screaming within her barrier, but she couldn't wield nearly as much power having her body for only ten days.
Liliana and Aliana were first to action, each immediately going full power. Liliana slash the barrier around Kye with her golden flame imbued katana at a blinding speed, but dealt no damage. At the same time, Aliana attacked the barrier around Sanae with her blade coated in void magic, but not even the erasing properties of her void slashes could scratch the barrier. Not even Allison releasing her Radiance at maximum output, with void magic and Seijin Shichi awakened, could do anything.
This pain is unbearable! Make it stop! I have to...
Despite the pain, she was able to pull up her system menu and frantically opened the command line she used to promote herself to operator before. She fell to her knees, clutching her head with her other hand and spitting up blood. She barely managed to input a command. Once she entered it, a hand scanner appeared, and she hurriedly channeled mana into it with her hand laid flat upon it. A moment later, the pain ended, and the barrier dispersed.
Just barely... any longer and I would've lost consciousness. Sanae... She looked over at where Sanae was, but she was unconscious. She passed out. Please be okay. I cut it off in time... I hope...
"Emergency system command received. Shutting down..." The voice didn't confirm.
Everyone's eyes widened. Some questioned the system, while others rushed to Kye and Sanae. Alethea was the first to her, followed by Layla. Hannah and Astraia tended to Sanae. Kye coughed up more blood as they tended to her. Layla and Hannah quickly used healing magic on the two. Evelyn, meanwhile, was frozen stiff, her eyes wide.
"Kye!" Alethea shouted, panicked. "Shi-chan, speak to me."
"Love." Kye could barely speak, but uttered that much to her. After a few minutes of healing, Layla had healed her enough that she could function. Hannah healed Sanae, and she soon woke up. They sat them down at the table and each slowly drank a cup of water. "That was... I... It hurt so much."
"What happened?" Allison asked. "Why did the system think you were an unauthorized user?"
*****
Revision: 2024-8-15