Ethan felt the lingering distortion settle back into place, as if reality had sighed and pretended nothing had happened. But he knew better.
He had touched something beyond the system's constraints.
Vance paced a few steps away, arms crossed. "You're playing with fire, kid."
Ethan smirked. "Good thing I don't burn easily."
Vance gave him a long look before shaking his head. "Alright, fine. You want to mess with the system? Then let's see how far you can push it."
Ethan inhaled deeply, centering himself. If he could trigger that flicker of instability again, he needed to understand what he was breaking.
He focused on the sensation—the pull of something unseen. He let his mind wander, remembering the moment when the world had tried to erase him. The Mark had pushed back. Resisted.
He reached for that resistance—
And pulled.
The world stuttered.
For an instant, the forest around him lagged. Leaves hung frozen in midair. The rustling of the wind became a stretched-out hum, unnatural and wrong. Even Vance seemed momentarily out of sync, his movements sluggish.
Ethan's pulse hammered.
[System Discrepancy Detected.]
[Processing…]
Then the world snapped back into place.
Vance stumbled, his body lurching as if he had been momentarily disconnected from reality. "Okay," he gasped. "That was definitely not normal."
Ethan steadied himself, his head spinning. He could feel it now—a fracture in the rules.
"I think..." Ethan's voice was quiet. "I think I can manipulate time."
Vance stared at him, then burst out laughing. "Kid, if that's true, then we're both dead men walking."
Ethan's fingers tingled. He wasn't so sure they were the ones in danger.
If the system had rules…
Then he was going to break every single one.