The first response did not come from the sky.
It came from within.
Inside the tower, several observer floors dimmed simultaneously. Not damaged. Not disrupted.
Denied.
The assistant's breath hitched. "My King… we've lost access to three conceptual layers."
Elowen's eyes widened. "They weren't attacked. They were… refused."
The Demon King's gaze sharpened.
"So it has limits," he said. "Good."
---
Across the world, something unprecedented happened.
Children born that hour did not register to divine systems.
Ancient curses failed to bind.
Prophecies stopped updating.
The future blurred.
Not broken—
Untrackable.
---
Far beyond reality, the observer reacted.
For the first time, it did not adjust parameters.
It issued a boundary.
INTERFERENCE THRESHOLD REACHED
FURTHER ESCALATION PROHIBITED
The message did not echo.
It pressed.
Elowen staggered as pressure rolled through the tower.
"That's not a warning," she whispered. "That's a line."
The assistant nodded grimly. "A limit even the observer does not want crossed."
The Demon King smiled faintly.
"Then that's where we stand."
---
The pressure intensified.
Reality groaned around the tower, bending inward. Not collapsing—testing.
The observer was not attacking.
It was daring him.
Step back, and be tolerated.
Step forward, and be erased.
Elowen grabbed his arm.
"If you cross it—" she began.
"I know," the Demon King replied.
He looked down at the world below the tower.
At cities that rebuilt without gods.
At people who chose to stand.
"At a world that survived because it refused to kneel."
He stepped forward.
The line broke.
Not shattered.
Overwritten.
The tower roared—not in violence, but declaration.
A new authority surged outward, carving a stable channel through the pressure.
INTERFERENCE ACKNOWLEDGED
COUNTER-AUTHORITY CONFIRMED
The observer froze.
Just for a moment.
That moment was enough.
---
Silence followed.
Not the calm kind.
The kind that follows something irreversible.
Elowen exhaled shakily. "You crossed it."
"Yes," the Demon King said.
The assistant bowed deeply.
"My King… from this point forward—"
"There is no tolerance," the Demon King finished.
He looked into the void beyond the tower.
"Only outcomes."
Far beyond reality, observation resumed.
But now—
It watched carefully.
Because the line that should not be crossed—
Had been crossed
from the other side.