Chapter 419: My Soul In Your System
She turned around. The city lights behind her outlined her body in the too-small nightie, and I forced my eyes to her face instead. "We matter to you?"
"More than I should let you."
Emi wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "So all of this has been a ga. We’ve been pieces on a board."
"No." The word ca out harder than I intended. "You’ve been real people I lied to about what was happening while I did it. There’s a difference."
Natalia stood up, the frost spreading further. "Walk
through it. From the beginning."
I told them. About waking up as Kaelen Leone in a dead boy’s body, about the System demanding I seduce my stepsister or suffer consequences, about every quest and every reward and every ti I chose power over honesty.
I told them about the Gacha pulls that gave
abilities I used to seem special, about traits that made my touch addictive, about skills that made my lies harder to detect.
I told them about the night I almost walked away from Emi because taking her felt too much like crossing a line I couldn’t uncross.
About how Skylar’s kiss on the balcony had been a quest objective before it beca sothing else.
About how Natalia’s first surrender had completed a mission while simultaneously destroying sothing in
I hadn’t known existed.
I told them about Cel, about the Black Gate, about the mont in the cave when I could have used my abilities to seal the deal but chose to just hold her instead.
When I finished, my voice was raw. The room felt smaller, the air heavier.
"Show us the rest," Natalia said. "All of it."
I hesitated, but Nel whispered that transparency ant everything or nothing. I pulled up my hidden stats.
Strength: 6,250 | Endurance: 6,250
Dexterity: 6,250[ 150] | Magic: 6,250
Agility: 6,250
Celeste’s hands gripped my shoulders. "These are... you’re A-Rank. High A-Rank."
"You’ve been lying to the entire academy," Akari observed. "Including us."
"Yes."
Emi looked like she might be sick. "Is any of it real? What we have?"
I reached for her hand, but she pulled back.
"The enhancent is real. The Nectar is real. The System bonds are real." I t her eyes. "What I feel when you laugh at my stupid jokes, when you bandage my burns, when you look at
like I’m worth saving even though I’m not? That’s real too. I just don’t know where the line is anymore."
Skylar returned to the circle, sitting down cross-legged. "Let
get this straight. You’ve got magic heroin in your saliva, a stat sheet that would make you S-Rank material in a year, and a bunch of gods forcing you to play dating sim chanics with our feelings."
"That about covers it."
"And you chose the Impossible difficulty on tonight’s quest."
"Seed appropriate."
She laughed, sharp and bitter. "You really are a scumbag."
"I warned you."
Natalia was pacing now, frost trailing her footsteps across the floor. "The Covenant. What does it actually an?"
I pulled up her full profile.
NATALIA KUZMINA
Bond Rank: 10 [Covenant]
System Symbiosis [Active]
Imbuent Slots: 3 [Unlocked to Mythical]
Daily SP Generation: 3x Base Rate
She read it in silence, her face going carefully blank in that way that ant she was processing sothing that hurt.
"My soul is bound to yours."
"Yes."
"Permanently."
"Yes."
"When did that happen?"
"In the cathedral. When you refused to let
die and your power broke reality to stop the death beam." I stood up, carefully setting Celeste aside. "I didn’t ask for it. You just... reached Rank 10 through your own choice to save , and the System locked it in."
Natalia turned to face , and her eyes were wet. "So I have no choice now."
"You have every choice. The Covenant doesn’t control your will or your feelings. It just ans our souls recognize each other on a level that transcends normal connection."
"That’s poetic bullshit."
"It’s the truth."
She crossed the space between us and grabbed my shirt, pulling
down until we were nose to nose. "I should hate you for this."
"You should."
"I don’t."
"I know."
She kissed
hard, her mouth cold from the frost still clinging to her skin. When she pulled back, her eyes were blazing. "If you ever lie to
about this again, I will kill you and wear your corpse as a warning to others."
"Fair."
Emi’s voice was small. "Can I ask sothing?"
I turned. "Anything."
"When we were together... was any of it you wanting ? Or was it all the quest?"
The question cut deeper than she probably ant it to. I crossed to where she sat and knelt in front of her, ignoring how my ribs protested the movent.
"You want honesty?" I looked up at her. "The first ti I helped you with archery, that was strategy. Building your confidence, making you need my validation. But sowhere between teaching you to shoot and watching you absolutely destroy that target while your face lit up with pride, it stopped being a mission."
"When?"
"The mont you brought
burnt eggs and cried because you thought I’d think you were useless."
Her lip trembled. "That’s such a stupid mont."
"Most real things are."
Emi touched my face, her fingers gentle against my jaw. "The Nectar thing. Can it be removed?"
"If I complete tonight’s quest the right way, yes. Aphrodite will replace the addiction with genuine choice. You’ll still feel what you feel, but it won’t be chemically enforced anymore."
"And if you fail?"
"You’ll hate , probably. Along with everyone else."
She leaned forward and kissed my forehead, a gesture so tender it made my chest ache. "I don’t want to hate you."
"Then help
not fail."
Celeste cleared her throat. "This Impossible quest. What are the actual objectives?"
I stood up, facing all five of them. "For us to play this truth or dare ga and whatever happens, happens."
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