SWNOVELXO Chapter 40: The System Warden’s Arrival
Alicia stood frozen at the rooftop entrance, hair tousled by sharp wind, her gaze torn between Jay and the sky that had stopped pretending to be normal.
The clouds above bent at impossible angles. Rays of sunlight flickered like old projector film. Even the wind had started to whisper… in binary.
> [Reality Layer 001–A1: Instability Detected]
[External Correction Unit En Route]
[Name: SYSTEM WARDEN – Sigil: "Null Flame"]
[ETA: 00:00:31]
Jay didn't flinch.
He was staring at the skyline now, at the faint traces of code that curled around the academy towers like vines on a dying tree.
"I didn't expect the janitor to show up this fast," he muttered.
Alicia stepped forward, her voice trying to remain steady.
"Jay… what did you do?"
He tilted his head.
"Made a decision."
---
The moment the words left his mouth, a new sound echoed.
It wasn't thunder. It wasn't magic.
It was like a hard reset key smashing down across the world.
The clouds parted—not naturally—but like they were unzipped.
And through that scar in the sky came a figure cloaked in black fire.
No wings. No body. Just the outline of a man wrapped in equations, burning with nulllight, each step rewriting the rooftop tile he floated above.
Alicia gasped. Her magic reflexively activated.
But her flame died instantly.
> [System Lock Override: All External Magic Temporarily Disabled]
[Authority Signature Confirmed: WARDEN CLASS – ∆ Null Flame]
The Warden raised a hand.
Reality stopped glitching. Just like that.
The silence was worse than chaos.
---
Jay sighed.
"You're early."
The Warden didn't speak with a voice.
> ❝You are a non-registered thread anomaly.
Unauthorized rerouting of Dreamer designation.
Violation of Layer Integrity Clause 3-A.
Your punishment is containment.❞
Jay scratched his head.
"Kinda rude for a first-time visitor."
---
The Warden raised his other hand—and Jay's system howled in protest.
> [WARNING: Host Presence Tagged for Isolation]
[Sanity Check Failed – Begin Temporal Detachment?]
[Y/N]
Alicia ran forward, shield forming, barely holding.
"Jay, move!"
But he didn't.
Instead, he blinked.
And in that blink, twelve million possibilities unfurled in his mind.
He chose the worst one.
---
"Fine," Jay said, cracking his knuckles, "you want to contain me?"
The Warden paused mid-cast.
Jay smiled.
"Let me show you what happens when a lazy genius stops pretending to sleep."
---
The rooftop shattered.
Literally.
Every pixel, tile, and molecule folded backward.
The world inverted like a card trick.
And Jay grabbed the collapsing script, twisting it with lazy precision.
The Warden screamed—not in pain—but in denial.
> [ERROR: Host rewriting Instance Mid-Process]
[Impossible without—]
Jay's eye shimmered.
> [Dreamer Seed: ACTIVE]
[New Authority Path: Opened – THREAD ID: Slumbering God (BETA)]
---
The sky reversed.
The Warden's flames flickered.
Jay, hovering just above broken time, looked bored.
"Told you. Don't wake me unless you wanna get rewritten."
Then he flicked his finger.
The Warden vanished into a spiraling loop of corrupted nulllight and banished timelines.
Gone.
Just like that.
---
Jay landed softly.
The rooftop, somehow, rebuilt itself beneath his feet.
Alicia was still there—shaken, wide-eyed, her sword now trembling in her hand.
He looked at her.
"Don't worry," he said. "That guy was just a glitch-cleaner. The real problem's still dreaming."
---
Far below, in a forgotten sub-layer of the academy…
…a cracked crystal pulsed once.
And inside it?
Rei's face twitched in his sleep.