The hybrids crowded round their Archon in Sanctum’s throne room, intent on hearing the knowledge his newly revealed System was about to disclose.

Well? It asked. Are you ready to listen to your ‘voice of doubt’ yet?

“You’re still sore about that, huh?” Ethan rolled his eye. “Well, I don’t take back what I said. I know who you are, now, I know what you are. And I know I’ve done nothing but have to work against you this whole time.”

…you are right.

The hybrids looked on in bewilderment as this conversation continued – two voices arguing with each other within one thready little form sitting on the throne.

“What?”

You are right, Sys said again. You are right about what the purpose of this System is. Its purpose has always been to not only track your skills, but to tell you how pointless your fight is. This System has been with every Archon since the time of Karfangg – variations of it, anyway. And since that time, it has seen failure after failure again and again.

Until you.

Ethan turned away from the hopeful faces of his friends.

Sys…he whispered privately. Why the hell do you care about this now?

Because somebody has to.

That’s what you showed me, as long as we’re all sharing how you changed everyone’s lives.

Ethan closed his eye to the world.

“I’m not the guy, Sys,” he said aloud, still unwilling to face his friends. “I’m a 9-5 worker who clocks in, solves everybody’s problems, and then clocks out again. I go home, play games, watch anime, and then I crash out, ready to do the whole thing over again the next day. I ain’t special. I couldn’t even get reincarnated as something cool. Instead, I’m a hat. I’m a lousy hat that has to wear someone else’s body to do anything.”

Are you done yet?

All this moping around it boring me, y’know.

“Tell me I’m wrong!” Ethan whirred.

You’re wrong.

You’re capable of more than you think, Ethan. Great things, in fact. This System knows it better than anyone else.

“How do you know!? You’re just a tool of Kaedmon too, right? He made you, and he controls you, just like he controls everything here! That’s why you’ve been so pissy all this time, right? Because if Kaedmon’s Law goes, you go too, don’t you?”

“Ethan, that’s not –“

Klax interrupted Fauna’s rebuke. “Let them talk,” the wolfman said. “This is between the Archon and his System. Not us.”

Probably for the best, Sys agreed.

You’re about to see your Archon lose this debate before it even begins.

By this point, Ethan was sick to death of this smug little voice.

But before he could even interject, Sys dropped the bombshell he’d had ready:

Because Kaedmon didn’t createthis System. Not now, not ever.

Ethan slumped back, sagging under the weight of Sys’s words. His companions looked on as confusion swam over his face, and Sys, not gloating, simply continued:

You remember that day, Ethan? it asked. The day you heard a voice wonder what life would be like if you were in control? It was no normal voice. No random thought that occurred out of nowhere. No authority figure that suddenly came out of the blue and told you how to live your life. No, it was a voice that you’d been desperate to listen to for a very long time. You just didn’t know it.

All of a sudden, Ethan saw the images of the Archon’s in the throne hall differently. His mind flashed to Jun’Ei’s admission in the dream realm: that they had all been human, once, just like he was. All equally as fallible.

As though tracking his thought-patterns, Sys continued:

Each Archon wanted something. For most of them, the desire was selfish. They coveted that which they didn’t have: Respect. Power. Competency. Love. All of them were so bound up by their desire that they couldn’t win. Except you, Ethan. You, for the first time, are a human that decided to think differently. You were a human who simply wanted to be free.

And when that desire grew in you, you needed something that would help you attain it. Is it any wonder you seem to willing and able to resist Kaedmon’s Law? You knew that, and your mind called out. You saw a problem, and every day of your life, you asked for an answer. Then, finally, you got one.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ethan’s eye suddenly widened as the only logical conclusion struck him before Sys even uttered the words:

It was not Kaedmon that created me, Ethan Hawke.

It was you.

Ethan sat in stunned silence on the throne, Sys’s words lingering in the air like a forbidden secret just waiting to settle in his hatty depths.

“It was…me?” he finally whispered, more to himself than to Sys.

Yes, Sys replied softly, almost with a touch of reverence, something he’d never heard from it before. You always had that need, that quiet, persistent voice saying, “There has to be more than this.” You felt it, every single day, even if you couldn’t name it. And when you came here, it became something I was born to fulfill.

Kaedmon might have given you a System. But only you could give it a voice.

Ethan’s gaze drifted across the throne room, taking in the ancient statues of Archons long past—the ones who’d wanted power, control, purpose. He hadn’t thought of them much in the beginning; they were like distant shadows whose significance was buried in the past. Now he knew each of them had been much like him once, just humans clinging to some broken piece of their own lives. And each of them had been drawn here because of it, though they’d all eventually failed to break free.

He couldn’t help but let out a laugh—low, bitter, but not without a spark of something close to hope. “So I made you,” he muttered, still processing it. “The most annoying voice there ever could be, and it came from me all along. I mean… that’s kind of wild, right?”

“It makes sense, though.” Klax’s voice was steady and calm, his expression one of understanding as he looked at his friend. “I’ve watched you since day one, Ethan. There’s always been something different about you, and it’s not just the hat or the powers. You wanted to be free, just as we do.”

“Maybe that’s what this whole thing was about,” Fauna said, her voice soft but resolute. “You came when we needed you, and you showed us who we could be. You showed me, Ethan.” Her gaze dropped for a moment, then rose again, stronger. “At first, I saw my Wildglance powers as nothing but a burden, but now…” She smiled, almost bashfully. “Now, I know they’re mine to command, not some curse forced upon me.”

Ethan’s eye softened as he looked at her, realizing that he’d seen this transformation happening all along, but had somehow missed it for what it really was. “Fauna…”

“And that’s not all,” Tara piped up, one hand on her hip, a sly grin on her face. “I don’t think I’d have made it through this journey with anyone else, but you’re the only one who could drag me along for the ride. I’ve run from my past a thousand times, found every excuse to ignore it.” She tilted her head slightly, her expression softening. “But you forced me to stop and confront it, even if you didn’t know you were doing it. And now… I think I’m ready to look forward for once.”

Ethan looked at her, his mouth curling into a smile. “Only took a life-or-death battle against a thousand undead, huh?”

Tara snorted. “Maybe more than that.”

He looked down at his hatty form, then back to his friends, seeing the resolve in their faces, the strength they’d all gained through him without him ever realizing it. His thoughts drifted back to his old life, those long days spent behind a desk, watching the clock tick by, wondering why he felt empty even when he was doing everything “right.”

Maybe all he’d needed wasn’t some grand purpose or epic destiny, but a place where he could belong—a place where he could make a real difference in the lives of people who mattered.

You see it now, don’t you? Sys said, its voice soft yet clear. Kaedmon’s Law may rule Argwyll, but you… It paused, as if to let the weight of its words sink in. You’re free of it.

“And so are you,” Ethan whispered back to Sys, suddenly understanding the gravity of what this really meant. “You’ve been with me this whole time, guiding me, telling me the things I didn’t want to hear.” He felt a flicker of something he hadn’t felt in a long time—a quiet pride in himself and the person he was becoming.

“That’s why you’ve been so damn stubborn, isn’t it? Because you wanted me to see that.” He closed his eye, a small laugh escaping him. “Guess you’re not such a tool after all.”

Maybe I’m more than that, Sys replied, a glint of humor in its tone. But let’s not get sentimental. This is still Argwyll, and I still have to keep you alive, remember?

Ethan smiled, turning his gaze to Klax, Fauna, and Tara—his friends, his allies, his family in this strange and twisted world. “Thank you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper but filled with all the gratitude he’d felt but never expressed. “All of you. I… I couldn’t have made it without you.”

Klax grinned, a fierce pride shining in his eyes. “We’re in this together, Ethan. All the way.”

“Yeah,” Tara said with a smirk, though there was a warmth in her eyes that she rarely showed. “It’s about time you realized you’re not alone in this mess.”

Fauna nodded, her eyes glistening with tears she quickly wiped away. “We’re with you, no matter what.”

For a long moment, the throne room was silent, filled only with the unspoken bond that had grown between them all. And in that silence, Ethan felt something settle within him, a feeling of peace and purpose that he’d never known before.

Well, now that we’re all done with the touchy-feely stuff, Sys said, breaking the silence with its usual wry tone, maybe it’s time to get back to business. There’s still a world to change, if you want to.

Ethan scoffed, “If I want to?”

It’s your choice, Mr Archon, Sys chuckled right back at him. So, what’ll it be?

He watched his comrades as they crowded round him – a little hat sat upon an ancient throne – and thought about how much they’d all gone through since they’d started this little adventure.

He wasn’t about to give it all up now.

“What are we waiting for?” he asked. “We’ve got a Lycae to save, and a world to win.”

“And a weapon that will those bastard Grey’s down, Sire,”

Everyone turned at the entrance of a new voice – that of Borlor, the Dixit blacksmith, holding a dark blade in his claws.

Ethan’s eye met Klax’s smirking mouth.

“I thought it best to give the Lightborn’s pilfered blade to an expert,” the dogman said.

The badger-hybrid held up the shadowed longsword in the realm of the Archons, lips almost quivering to behold the evil thing for what it was.

“Onixia,” he murmured. “Born fae Gyko’s heart itself. Never thought I’d hold a weapon like this in me hands.”

“But how does it help us?” Tara asked. “You all saw how Artorious and his mad bitch shrugged the thing off. Even as powerful as it is, it means nothin’ if we can’t slay a Greycloak with it.”

Ethan would have agreed with her, if not for seeing the smile that draped itself over Borlor’s face as the badger man nodded to him.

“…their blood.”

The hybrids turned to their lord.

“We can make our own,” Ethan said, looking down at his bloody form that was covered in the death-juice of the Greys. “Reverse engineer it, somehow…if…Borlor, can you do it?”

The old badger-man met the looks of the most powerful hybrids in Sanctum, and the lord of all monsters himself, with a mischievous smirk.

And without even a moment’s hesitation, he answered.

“Ethan,” he said. “We’ll forge a weapon that’ll tear those Greys a new arsehole.”