POV: WORLD / SYSTEM OBSERVATION
The Supernova System pulsed beneath reality—an invisible framework governing lanes, ranks, sigils, and limits.
For most of history, it was enough.
But not everything belonged to it.
Once every few decades, an event surfaced that the System could not fully regulate, suppress, or predict.
The Tournament of God.
It was not created by nations.
Not enforced by Enforcers.
And not bound by sigils, rank ceilings, or civilian protections.
Victory meant ascension.
Defeat meant survival—if you were lucky.
Each arena was alive. Not metaphorically—consciously.
They reshaped terrain, rejected weak contenders, and escalated danger based on combat intensity.
Cities folded.
Moons fractured.
Reality bent because it was required to.
And somewhere within the System's endless calculations, something flickered.
> Warning: External variables detected.
Classification: Unregistered.
Status: Unable to bind.
---
POV: DIOKA & GUAKULIA
A collapsing skyscraper drifted sideways through the air, frozen mid-fall.
Dioka stood on its edge, arms spread, grinning like this was a theme park ride.
> "So," she said, peering down, "this thing's supposed to decide who becomes gods, right?"
Guakulia sat cross-legged nearby, scrolling through a floating holo-feed of faction alerts.
> "That's the rumor. Supreme-tier only. Sigil-locked. Heavy System oversight."
Dioka snorted.
She flicked a shard of glass downward.
It passed through three System barriers, clipped a patrol drone, and embedded itself neatly into the street—without triggering a response.
> "System's already lying," she said cheerfully.
Guakulia glanced up, finally serious.
> "…Yeah. It really is."
---
MINOR INCIDENT — OBSERVED BUT UNRECORDED
A Hero Supernova erected a defensive sigil barrier—standardized, reinforced, logged.
Dioka snapped her fingers.
The sigil destabilized, unraveling like bad code. No backlash. No energy surge. Just… gone.
The Hero staggered back.
> "That's not possible—my sigil is—"
> "Registered?" Dioka finished. "Yeah. That's cute."
Guakulia exhaled slowly.
> "Stop doing that in public."
> "Why?" Dioka shrugged. "The System can't write incident reports if it can't define us."
Above them, unseen, System processes looped endlessly.
> Error. Error. Error.
---
REACTIONS — FRACTURED WHISPERS
Across factions, the same unease spread.
Heroes noticed barriers failing without counter-force.
Villains noticed abilities misfiring without suppression.
Civilians noticed something worse—
Nothing reacted the way it should.
> "They didn't overpower the sigil… it just stopped existing."
"Are they Supreme-tier?"
"No. Supremes still register."
One word began circulating again.
Anomalies.
---
POV: DIOKA & GUAKULIA — QUIET BEFORE ESCALATION
They hovered above the city, watching emergency lights flare below.
> "You think they'll invite us?" Dioka asked.
Guakulia tilted her head.
> "The Tournament only invites what the System can measure."
A pause.
> "So… no invite?"
Dioka smiled wider.
> "Cool. That means we crash it."
Far above, the Tournament's arena shimmered into partial existence—vast, alien, unfinished.
The System trembled.
> Untraceable entities detected.
Recommendation: Avoid engagement.
Authority: Insufficient.
Dioka laughed, the sound echoing strangely through the air.
> "Yeah," she said. "This is gonna be fun."
---
ENDING BEAT
The world prepared for a war it thought it understood.
The System prepared safeguards it believed were absolute.
And the anomalies?
They waited.
Because the Tournament of God was coming.
And for the first time—
The game was being played by pieces that didn't belong on the board.