I Awakened The Most Powerful System

Chapter 2

Two

(Tiger Guild Headquarters, The Upside)

Rhys sat hunched forward, arms wrapped tightly around himself, his body trembling in a way he could not control. It was not just the cold that made him shake. His emotions were tangled, raw, and spiraling faster than his thoughts could keep up with.

The explosion had drawn emergency responders within minutes. Fire trucks had flooded the street, lights flashing through the smoke, while paramedics and police secured the area. Shortly after them came members of the Tiger Guild, the same guild his sister belonged to.

No one allowed Rhys anywhere near the remains of the apartment.

Firefighters moved through the building methodically, stepping over debris, searching every corner for survivors or remains. Room by room, floor by floor, they combed through the wreckage. The fire had been intense, and much of the structure had collapsed inward.

They found no sign of Violet.

No living body.

No corpse.

For better or worse, the absence of a body meant only one thing. Violet Yadav was officially declared missing.

The Ascenders from the Tiger Guild conducted their own investigation alongside the emergency teams. These were people Rhys recognized from news broadcasts and guild announcements. Some were Violet’s teammates. Others were juniors she had trained personally. A few were seniors she answered to.

They searched for traces of forced entry, signs of struggle, or lingering energy signatures. Detection spells were cast repeatedly. Advanced tower devices scanned the ruins from multiple angles. Nothing conclusive surfaced.

The explosion had burned everything to ash.

If there had been any clues left behind by whoever had taken Violet, they had been erased by the fire.

Among the Ascenders present, there was one man Rhys knew well. Everyone called him Uncle Joe. He was the second in command of Violet’s raid party and one of the few people she trusted without reservation. Joe stayed close to Rhys throughout the chaos, placing a steady hand on his shoulder while Rhys struggled to process what he was seeing.

It was to Joe that Rhys told everything. The phone call. Violet’s sudden fear. The sounds he heard before the explosion.

Joe listened without interrupting.

Afterward, he insisted on taking Rhys away from the site for his own safety.

Rhys protested, arguing that he needed to stay, that he wanted to search for his sister himself. Joe refused outright. With a firm grip and a voice that allowed no argument, he escorted Rhys to the Tiger Guild headquarters.

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(The Guildmaster’s Office)

The ride to the Upside passed in a blur.

Rhys sat silently, staring out the window as towering walls and security checkpoints marked their entry into the fortified district. His hands trembled constantly, his thoughts circling back to Violet no matter how hard he tried to focus on anything else.

He rarely said it out loud, but his sister meant everything to him.

Their parents had been ordinary people. Neither of them had been chosen by the Tower. Their father worked as a financial consultant. Their mother was an orthopedic doctor. The Yadav family had lived a comfortable, middle class life, close and content.

Two years ago, everything shattered.

Just a day or two after Violet turned eighteen, their parents died in a sudden car accident. One moment they were a family of four. The next, Rhys and Violet were alone.

It was on the very day Violet received the news of their deaths that she awakened as a Ascender.

From that moment on, their lives changed completely.

Violet took responsibility for everything. She handled finances, school fees, housing, and daily expenses without complaint. At the same time, she rose rapidly as a rookie Ascender, earning recognition and fame through talent and relentless effort.

She was a prodigy. A rising star. Someone who dragged their family name from obscurity into the upper echelons of society in record time.

For Rhys, she was not just his sister. She was his guardian, his protector, and the only family he had left.

He would have done anything to save her.

But this situation was beyond him. Whatever had happened to Violet involved forces tied to the Tower, and Rhys had not even been chosen yet.

Outside the office, voices drifted through the closed door.

“Man, Joe, I told Violet to move into the Upside. We already had an apartment prepared for her here.”

Rhys recognized the speaker as one of Violet’s senior teammates.

“It would have been safer. Way safer. But she kept refusing just because she did not want her little brother stressed out from changing high schools.”

There was a sharp exhale. “Damn it.”

“Keep your voice down,” Joe warned quietly. “That kid is inside the guildmaster’s office. He might hear you.”

Rhys lowered his head.

He and Violet had lived on the forty second floor of a luxury apartment complex. The district was clean, wealthy, and tightly regulated. Crime was rare, and most residents had significant influence over local administration.

Even so, it was nothing compared to the Upside.

The Upside was a fortress disguised as a residential area. A private township where only the wealthiest individuals and the most important Ascenders lived. Buying property there required far more than money. It required status.

Rhys had always dreamed of living there someday after becoming a Ascender himself.

He had never known that Violet had already been offered an apartment there.

The fact that she turned it down just so he would not have to change schools made his chest ache.

The office door suddenly flew open.

A tall man stepped inside, his expression grim. His presence alone seemed to press down on the room, heavy and overwhelming.

Rhys did not need to look closely to recognize him.

Ren.

Guildmaster of the Tiger Guild. One of the three strongest Ascenders alive. A Ranker who had reached the fifty first floor of the Tower and crossed the boundary of ordinary humanity.

Wherever Ren went, attention followed.

He took a seat across from Rhys and studied him silently for a moment before letting out a slow breath. Then he extended his hand.

Rhys hesitated, caught off guard by the gesture, before finally shaking it.

The moment their hands touched, warmth spread through Rhys’s body. His shaking eased. His racing thoughts slowed. For the first time since the explosion, he felt steady.

“Rhys Yadav,” Ren said, his voice low and controlled. “On behalf of the Tiger Guild, I offer my sincere apologies. We were responsible for your sister’s protection, and we failed.”

Ren did not soften his words.

“I will be direct. It appears that agents affiliated with the Olympian gods have abducted your sister.”

The room spun.

Rhys’s heart slammed against his ribs as his vision blurred. His legs gave out, and he slid off the chair, crashing onto the floor as his body began to convulse.

“Emma,” Ren shouted. “Get the healer here immediately. The boy is undergoing an awakening.”

Rhys barely heard the rest.

Darkness swallowed his vision as his consciousness slipped away.