"The last time House Vex smiled like that," Seraphina said, yanking open a hidden door, "three realities collapsed and Tuesday became Friday."
"That's bad?"
"Friday's were never meant to exist." She pulled me down spiral stairs. "They're an accident from the first war."
The stairs descended into darkness. My percentage hummed. *62.3%*
"What was the first war about?"
"What else? Power." Her laugh echoed wrong. "House Vex wanted to control the machine. House Lira said no. House Magnus chose sides."
"Which side?"
"Both. That's why they don't exist anymore."
The stairs ended at a metal door. Symbols crawled across its surface.
"The machine room's down here?"
"One of them." She pressed her hand to the door. "Each house has one. They're connected. Or were, before the split."
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Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 22
Reality crashed like a broken mirror, but I didn't.Everything else stopped existing. The house. The garden. Even Seraphina. But somehow, I stayed aware.My percentage felt wrong. Not higher or lower. Just... sideways. *64.θ%*In the nothing between realities, I wasn't alone.The beast floated there too. Not hunting anymore. Just... watching.It didn't look like geometry now. More like a thought having another thought."You're not what I expected," I said, though I didn't have a mouth to speak with.The beast's consciousness brushed against mine. Like static electricity, but made of memories.*Hunt/Protect/Test/Choose*The concepts hit me all at once. Images flooded my mind.I saw reality through its eyes. Not solid. Not fixed. A living thing, growing, changing, breaking, healing."You're not trying to kill me?"*Fix/Balance/Guard/Choose*More images. System beasts rising from reality's depths. Hunting broken things. Healing wounded spaces."Then why chase me?"*Different/Change/Evolv
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The sound of glass breaking echoed through the halls, followed by a string of creative curses that would've made even House Vex blush.Orion peered around the corner. To find Seraphina surrounded by shattered remnants of what used to be test tubes. Her usually pristine lab coat was splattered with something that glowed. An alarming shade of purple."Don't," she warned without looking up. "Don't even start.""I wasn't going to say anything," he said, failing to hide his grin. "Though I have to ask – is the purple stuff supposed to be eating through the floor?"She glanced down, swore again, and grabbed a neutralizing agent from her belt. "This is what happens when you try to stabilize quantum fluctuations with outdated equipment." The purple substance fizzled and turned clear as she sprayed it. "The machine keeps changing the rules on us.""The machine, or the beast?" Orion leaned against the doorframe, careful to avoid the slowly spreading puddle."Both. Neither." She ran a hand throu
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Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds Chapter 1
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