I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 1271: Worry

The presence answered almost the moment Erend reached out.

"Erend? Why are you contacting me now?" Eccar’s voice slid through the link, light and teasing. "Did you miss me, or is there another problem already?"

A low chuckle followed, familiar and faintly sarcastic.

Erend let out a quiet laugh, the tension in his shoulders loosening just a little.

"I wish it was only that," he said, then allowed his tone to settle. "I need to talk about something serious. Are you still in the Elf Palace?"

"Yes. Saeldir and I are working on sharpening my time power," Eccar replied. "Why?"

Erend’s expression darkened. "Has your time power been acting strangely lately?"

There was a brief pause in the connection, like a breath being taken.

"Yes," Eccar said. "It’s been giving me visions."

Erend’s jaw tightened. "Visions of monsters and ruin?"

"Yes," Eccar answered without hesitation. He did not sound surprised. "If I can see them, then you and Aesa would eventually see them too."

"Right..." Erend muttered. He hesitated, then spoke again. "I was contacted by the Void Architect."

The reaction surged through the link instantly. Erend felt shock, sharp and unfiltered, from Eccar.

"...How?" Eccar asked.

"Through my power," Erend said. "Through the System."

Heavy and deliberate silence stretched for a few seconds.

"This is not a coincidence," Eccar finally said. "First the visions. Now the Void Architect contacted you. Something is moving again. Be careful, Erend."

"I will," Erend replied. "But it said it would give me direction to a world where its missing creation resides." He paused. "What do you think we should do?"

The silence returned, longer this time.

"We need to gather first," Eccar said at last. "The three of us."

Erend nodded to himself. "I was thinking the same."

They spoke a little longer, exchanging fragments of caution, concern, and quiet resolve, before ending the connection and returning to their own preparations.

When the link faded, Erend closed his eyes and settled into meditation.

He reached inward, searching for the trace the Void Architect had left behind.

However, there was nothing. No residue or echo. As if the presence had never existed at all.

Erend opened his eyes slowly and let out a long breath, a quiet sigh filling the empty room.

The uncertainty lingered. Erend knew it could spiral into something far worse, yet there was nothing he could grasp, no clear thread to pull. For now, it remained beyond his control.

He had thought again about Veyrun and dismissed it just as quickly. Reaching out still felt unsafe. If the Void Architect had truly touched his power through the System, then any direct contact with an admin of the real system could be exactly what it wanted. He refused to risk becoming a doorway.

His thoughts drifted to another possibility. If he were to contact Veyrun, perhaps it would have to be somewhere isolated from the main System layers.

The Dungeon World surfaced in his mind, a place where interference was thinner and rules bent more easily because it was the place created by the system itself.

But even that felt uncertain.

"Too many unknowns," he admitted silently.

With no immediate answers, his focus shifted to what he could control. His time power.

Eccar’s words echoed in his thoughts. They were now starting to see visions, movement, something awakening.

If the time power was responding to them, then ignoring it would only leave him behind.

Erend adjusted his posture on the bed and drew a slow breath, sinking deeper into meditation.

He did not call the System. He did not ask for reinforcement. He reached inward instead, toward the strange, elusive current that had begun to flow through him ever since Krono had given this power to him, Eccar, and Aesa.

The sensation came immediately. It feels disorienting.

Every time he touched it, it felt as though his awareness slipped sideways rather than forward. He was not traveling between those moments yet but just brushing against the moments that were not his own.

His surroundings blurred. Fragments flickered behind his closed eyes. A sky fractured by unfamiliar constellations. A battlefield frozen mid-collapse. A shadow moving, etc. None of it stayed long enough for him to understand it.

The feeling was unsettling, like standing in a corridor with countless doors opening and closing at random.

"Am I seeing the past... or the future?" he wondered. "Or something that is trapped in between?"

The power did not answer.

Erend steadied his breathing and endured the sensation, letting the strange flow wash over him without resistance.

He did not chase the visions or try to define them. He simply remained there, suspended between moments, allowing his body and mind to adapt.

Hours slipped by unnoticed.

By the time the night neared its end, the visions faded back into nothingness, leaving only a dull ache behind his eyes.

He slowly opened his eyes as the faint light of morning filtered into the room. The transition felt smoother than before. The lingering distortion in his senses had faded, replaced by a subtle clarity he had not felt the last few times he touched the time power.

It was not mastery—not even close—but it was adaptation, and for now it was good enough.

He breathed out, calm and steady.

He could feel it. The time power no longer felt entirely foreign, no longer like something that rejected his presence. It still resisted him, still slipped through his grasp, but it no longer tore at his awareness.

That alone felt like progress.

A small, tired smile tugged at his lips.

Despite spending the entire night in deep meditation he didn’t feel exhaustion settled in. His Dragonborn body endured effortlessly, vitality flowing through him. His muscles felt relaxed, his mind was still clear enough to function.

He knew he only needed a short rest before the day truly began.

Erend lay back and allowed himself that brief pause, letting his thoughts quiet.

—

Far away, beneath the Elf Palace, Eccar descended once more into the underground chambers.

The air there felt dense with ancient and layered Magic energy, reinforced by runes carved into walls by Saeldir.

He rolled his shoulders as he entered the familiar space, eyes sharp and focused. He would train his time power again.

Without hesitation, Eccar stepped into the center of the chamber and drew upon the same power that had haunted his visions. The time power answered him quietly, coiling around his presence.

—