From Zero Blood, I Became the Untouchable Solar Overlord!

Chapter 7

The Central Commerce Hall was packed with shouting merchants and city nobles.

Everyone had gathered for an emergency meeting called by the Energy Syndicate to tighten its grip on the city's heating supply.

On an elevated velvet platform, Young Master Garrick sat tapping his golden cane, his jaw clenched tight to hide his mounting panic.

Beside him, Cynthia sat in an embroidered white gown, shivering despite the hall's blazing coal braziers.

A sickening, burning ache clawed through her chest as the stolen Inverted Star Core rebelled violently against her blood.

"Stop shaking," Garrick hissed through a fake smile, pinching her arm until it bruised. "When this rogue merchant walks in, flare your solar flame and force him to his knees."

"Garrick, my meridians are on fire..." Cynthia whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "If I push the power, my chest will tear apart—"

"I don't care if you bleed out on this stage," Garrick snarled under his breath. "If we don't crush this supplier today, our family's stock crashes. Obey me, or I will throw your parents into the street tonight."

Cynthia bit her lip, swallowing the bitter tears rising in her throat as dread tightened around her heart.

The heavy iron doors at the entrance suddenly groaned open, cutting the noisy room into dead silence.

A lone figure stepped across the threshold, wrapped in a deep, midnight-black cloak that concealed his face from the crowd.

It was Ethan himself, walking forward with calm, steady strides, his cold aura making the temperature in the hall plunge into winter chill.

Beneath the shadow of his hood, his golden eyes locked straight onto Garrick and Cynthia.

[Cynthia's Deepening Dread Harvested: +1,200 Eclipse Points!]

[Garrick's Suppressed Panic Harvested: +1,500 Eclipse Points!]

Garrick forced an arrogant laugh and tossed a heavy velvet pouch down the marble stairs.

The pouch burst open, scattering silver coins across the floor with a loud, ringing clatter.

"So you're the peasant giving away free coal in my slums," Garrick announced loudly. "The Syndicate is generous. Take that silver, hand over your mining rights, and walk away a rich dog."

Ethan stopped twenty paces away, his hands folded inside his wide sleeves.

"Refuse," Garrick added, his voice turning vicious, "and my guards will ensure you never walk out of these doors alive."

A low, dry chuckle drifted out from beneath Ethan's dark hood.

"Silver?" Ethan spoke, his voice carrying an icy weight that chilled the hall. "Your northern warehouses are filled with rotten dirt, your bank credit is overdrawn by forty million gold, and you offer me pocket change?"

Gasps rippled through the gathered merchants.

"You are drowning in debt, Garrick," Ethan continued calmly. "Yet you bark like an emperor. Who gave a beggar permission to speak to me like a master?"

Garrick jumped to his feet, veins bulging against his forehead. "Insolent rat! Guards, cut him down!"

Twelve armored guards drew their steel blades, but Ethan did not flinch.

He raised his right hand, tossing a glowing crystal tablet into the air.

A massive golden projection flared above the hall, exposing the Syndicate's secret ledgers, fraud receipts, and warehouse records stamped with Garrick's personal wax seal.

"For three years, the Syndicate watered down city coal with thirty percent toxic sulfur," Ethan's voice boomed across the arches. "You charged noble prices for poisonous ash and ruined the lungs of thousands."

The entire room erupted into pure fury. Merchants and guild masters shouted curses, pointing their fingers at Garrick in disgust.

Desperate and humiliated, Garrick grabbed Cynthia by her arm and shoved her down the stairs.

"Shut them up!" Garrick screamed crazily. "Summon your solar fire and burn this imposter to ashes!"

Cynthia stumbled down the marble steps, raising her trembling hand to conjure a flame.

But as she stepped within three feet of Ethan, the stolen core inside her chest suddenly thrummed like a struck bell.

Her golden fire vanished instantly, refusing to harm its true creator.

Losing her balance, Cynthia fell forward, her bare hand brushing against Ethan's dark sleeve.

A warm, gentle spark danced between their skin, sending a wave of soothing energy through her scorched veins that instantly washed away her agony.

Cynthia froze, her breath catching in her throat.

She tilted her head up into the shadow of the hood, looking directly into the face of the man beneath the cloth.

Two piercing black eyes flecked with brilliant gold looked straight down at her—eyes she had known every single day for five long years.

It was Ethan. It was truly Ethan standing right in front of her in the flesh.

There was no warmth in his eyes, no tenderness, and no forgiveness—only the freezing, pitiless emptiness of a stranger looking at dirt.

"E... Ethan...?" Cynthia sobbed, her entire body trembling as the horrifying truth struck her soul.

The boy she had robbed, mocked, and thrown into the snow to die had returned as an untouchable god.

Ethan pulled his arm back with cold disgust, refusing to let her dirty hands touch him for another second.

[Cynthia's Soul-Shattering Guilt & Despair Harvested: +5,000 Eclipse Points!]

[Target's Emotional Core Fractured.]

Cynthia collapsed onto her knees on the cold marble, weeping uncontrollably as the crushing weight of her betrayal broke her spirit.

Garrick saw her fall and backed away toward his elite bodyguards, his face twisted in venomous madness.

"Do you think exposing a few ledgers can destroy me, you bastard?!" Garrick yelled, his voice cracking with desperate spite. "The Energy Syndicate answers to the Grand Patriarch and the High City Council!"

Garrick slammed his fist against the railing, his bloodshot eyes glaring down at Ethan.

"In five days, the Winter Solstice ritual begins! When my grandfather activates the Great Furnace, this entire city will bow to us, and I will personally feed your broken bones to the dogs!"

Ethan looked up at Garrick with a flat, deadly gaze.

"Let your grandfather prepare a coffin for you both," Ethan replied, his voice cutting through the noise like an executioner's bell.

"Kill him! Why are you standing there?!" Garrick shrieked at his guards. "Cut his throat right now!"

The guards stepped forward, raising their blades, but the moment they entered Ethan's perimeter, a suffocating, golden solar aura flared beneath his dark cloak.

The pressure dropped over the hall like a falling mountain of pure dread, crushing the air straight out of their lungs.

The guards began to tremble uncontrollably, their knees knocking together in sheer terror as their weapons slipped from numb fingers, clattering uselessly against the stone.

Paralyzed by the terrifying majesty of a living predator, the elite enforcers fell flat onto their knees, too terrified to take a single breath.

Ethan turned his back on them and walked out through the parting crowd, his footsteps silent as the heavy doors swung open before him.

Behind him, Cynthia remained curled on the cold floor, crying into her trembling hands while Garrick's frantic threats echoed through the ruined hall.