Lord Of A Thousand Systems

CHAPTER 3: Wrath Of The S Rank

Forty eight hours had passed since Kai joined Zenith. He stood in the middle of a B rank dungeon, chest heaving, monster blood dripping off his knuckles. The rest of the crew was a few feet back, catching their breath. Ripley leaned on her cracked shield. Baylor wiped singed fabric off his staff. Marcus pressed a cloth to a shallow cut on his forearm while Mina healed the gash.

Kai did not move to help. He only stared at the pile of mana cores at his feet, counting their value in his head. The payout would cover Kim's upcoming school fees, the new math workbook she had mentioned, and a new uniform to replace the one she had outgrown. He felt a faint flicker of something when he thought of her smile, but it faded before he could hold onto it.

A blue glow lit up the edge of his vision.

[LEVEL UP: LEVEL 5]

[NEW SYSTEM UNLOCKED: COPY SYSTEM]

[ABILITY: COPY APPEARANCE OR SKILL OF TARGET FOR LIMITED DURATION. DURATION SCALES WITH LEVEL. CURRENT MAX: 10 MINUTES]

[EMOTION LEVEL: 85%]

[DECAY RATE INCREASED]

Kai blinked. He turned to Niko, who was cleaning his daggers a few feet away. The assassin had not broken a sweat the entire dungeon run.

Kai focused on him, pulling on the new system.

[COPY ACTIVATED: TARGET NIKO. SKILL COPIED: SHADOW STEP. DURATION: 30 SECONDS]

Kai stepped forward and vanished into the shadow of a nearby cave wall. He reappeared right behind Niko, hand raised to tap his shoulder.

Niko did not flinch. He did not even turn around.

"Nice trick," he said, sliding his dagger back into its sheath. "Does not work on me for long, though. Neutral system and all that."

Kai's copy faded ten seconds early. He stepped back, frowning. The system had never cut an ability short before.

They walked out of the dungeon an hour later, cores packed into their bags. The sun was setting when they reached Zenith headquarters. The lobby was busy, hunters turning in reports, receptionists typing at their desks. Kai followed the crew to the elevator, already thinking about the next dungeon run. He needed to climb faster. S rank felt a million miles away.

The elevator doors opened on the fortieth floor.

The building shook.

It was not a small shake. The lights in the hallway burst in their sockets. Glass from the office windows rained down the hallway. Hunters screamed and dropped to their knees, clutching their chests like an invisible weight was pressing down on them.

Kai grunted, his knees buckling. The pressure was unbearable, thick and hot, like standing inside a furnace. He forced himself to stand, teeth gritted. The system flared in his chest, pushing back against the weight.

Only two people in the hallway stayed on their feet.

Niko stood a few feet away, his face blank, completely unaffected by the pressure.

And a man stood in the middle of the broken window frame, wind whipping his black hair around his face. He wore a tailored black suit, no weapon visible. His aura burned gold, so bright it hurt to look at directly.

Kai knew who he was before the man spoke. He had seen the face on hunter news feeds a hundred times. Togo. S rank. Tomas's older brother.

Togo stepped into the hallway. The floor cracked under his shoes. He did not look at the hunters writhing on the ground. He did not look at Ripley or Baylor or Mina. His eyes locked straight onto Kai.

"Kai Jogo," he said. His voice was low, calm, no anger in it at all. That was scarier than if he had yelled. "You killed my brother."

Ripley pushed herself up, hefting her shield. She stepped in front of Kai, her aura flaring to meet Togo's.

"Get back," she said. "You are not allowed in here."

Togo did not even glance at her. He flicked his wrist once.

Ripley flew backward, slamming into the elevator doors hard enough to dent the steel. Her shield clattered to the floor, split clean down the middle. She did not get up.

Baylor raised his staff, lightning crackling at the tip. He cast a bolt straight at Togo's chest.

Togo caught the lightning out of the air with his bare hand. He crushed it into nothing, the sparks fizzling out between his fingers. He took another step toward Kai.

Kai raised his hands, pulling on the core of the Thousand Systems. He had learned the trick the night before, how to wrap his power around another hunter's muscles and freeze them in place. It had worked on three B rank hunters in the dungeon that morning.

[CONTROL INITIATED: TARGET TOGO]

[CONTROL FAILED]

[REASON: TARGET CARRIES MINOR VOID ARTIFACT. THOUSAND SYSTEMS CANNOT OVERRIDE VOID ENERGY]

Kai's eyes went wide. It was the first time the control ability had ever failed.

Togo smiled. It was not a nice smile.

"Little tricks," he said. "That is all you have, isn't it? You killed Tomas with cheap tricks and luck."

He moved.

Kai did not see him cross the hallway. One second Togo was by the window, the next he was right in front of Kai, fist pulled back.

[TIME REWIND ACTIVATED: 8 SECONDS]

Time snapped back. Kai dove to the left just as Togo's fist crashed into the wall where his head had been a second before. The concrete shattered, dust filling the air.

Kai scrambled back, putting distance between them. He used Time Rewind twice more in the next minute, each jump draining his mana faster and faster. Togo was toying with him. He could have killed Kai ten times over already. He was just waiting for him to run out of tricks.

"Is that all?" Togo asked, dodging a strike from Kai without even looking. "The great D rank who killed an A rank. Pathetic."

He landed a punch to Kai's side. Kai felt his ribs shatter. He flew into a row of desks, wood splintering around him. He tried to push himself up, his vision blurring.

Togo walked over slowly. He grabbed Kai's left wrist, his grip like iron.

"Let's see how many tricks you have left without this," he said.

He pulled.

Pain exploded through Kai's entire body. His left arm tore clean off at the shoulder. Blood sprayed across the floor. Kai screamed, his voice raw. He hit the floor again, the world going dark at the edges.

He was going to die here. Kim would be alone. He would never find the Eternal Stone. He would never bring his parents back.

The system roared to life, so loud it drowned out every other sound.

[CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED]

[HOST LIFE SIGNALS FAILING]

[EMERGENCY OVERDRIVE INITIATED: COPY SYSTEM]

[COPY TARGET: TOGO. S RANK AURA. POTENCY: 10%. DURATION: 5 MINUTES]

Power flooded Kai's body. It was not his power, hot and wild and burning, but it filled every empty space inside him. His shoulder stopped bleeding. Bone and muscle and skin knitted themselves back together, a new arm growing in seconds. He pushed himself off the floor, gold aura wrapping around his body, matching Togo's.

Togo took a step back, his eyes widening for the first time.

"What is this," he said.

Kai did not answer. He moved faster than he ever had before, his fist slamming into Togo's face before the S rank could block.

Togo's head snapped to the side. A thin cut opened on his cheek, blood beading on his skin.

Silence filled the hallway.

No one had ever drawn blood on Togo. Not in a hundred dungeon runs. Not in a dozen fights against other S ranks.

Togo touched the cut on his face. He stared at the blood on his fingers. His face went cold, all the amusement gone.

He raised his hand to strike again.

A dagger pressed against the side of his throat.

Niko stood behind him, completely silent, no one had seen him move. His dagger was sharp enough to cut through Togo's aura like it was not there.

"Leave," Niko said. His voice was quiet, but everyone in the hallway heard it. "Or I will cut your head off before you can move."

Togo did not move. He knew who Niko was. Every high rank hunter knew the stories of the neutral system assassin who had never lost a fight.

"Fine," Togo said. He lowered his hand slowly. "But this is not over, Kai Jogo."

He turned to look at Kai, his eyes cold.

"I am going to find your little sister first," he said. "I am going to make her beg for her life. Then I will kill her slow. Then I will come back for you."

He stepped back through the broken window. The pressure vanished a second later. The hunters on the floor gasped for air, coughing.

Kai stood in the middle of the hallway, his borrowed aura fading. He stared at the spot where Togo had stood. He waited for the fear to hit him, the cold terror he always felt when someone threatened Kim.

It did not come.

He only felt a cold, sharp calculation. Togo was a problem. He needed to be strong enough to kill him before Togo got to Kim. He needed to be S rank. Now.

A blue ping flickered in his vision.

[EMOTION LEVEL: 78%]

[WARNING: EMOTION LEVEL BELOW 70% WILL RESULT IN PERMANENT LOSS OF EMPATHY AND ATTACHMENT]

Kai ignored the warning. He walked over to Ripley, checking her pulse. She was alive, just unconscious. Mina was already crawling toward her, pulling her healing supplies out of her bag.

"We are changing plans," Kai said. The crew looked up at him, their faces pale. "No more breaks. We run B rank dungeons back to back until we are strong enough for A rank. Then we run those until I hit S rank."

Baylor opened his mouth to argue, then shut it. He had seen Kai fight Togo. He was not going to say no.

A soft voice spoke from the shadows by the broken window.

"I can get you to S rank in ninety days."

Everyone turned. A man stepped out of the dark, wearing black leather, a mask covering the lower half of his face. He twirled a throwing knife between his fingers, moving so smoothly he looked like part of the shadow itself.

Kai had never seen him before. The system tried to scan him, then failed again.

[SCAN FAILED: TARGET CARRIES VOID TRACE. THOUSAND SYSTEMS CANNOT READ]

"Who are you," Kai said.

"Nix," the man said. He slipped the knife back into his belt. "I know how to clear dungeons fast. I know all the hidden paths, all the weak points of every boss above A rank. I can get you strong enough to kill Togo and walk into Paradis before the end of the year."

"What do you want in return," Kai said.

Nix's eyes went hard.

"The void cult that killed my family is hiding in the high rank void dungeons," he said. "When you are strong enough, you help me wipe them out. Every last one of them."

Kai stared at him. He thought of the Eternal Stone. He thought of his parents, waiting for him to bring them back. He thought of Kim, and Togo hunting her.

He did not have a choice.

"Deal," he said.

Nix nodded. He tossed a folded piece of paper across the room. Kai caught it. It was a list of dungeon locations, all B rank and higher, marked with times and entry points.

"We leave at dawn," Nix said. "Be ready. If you are late, I go without you."

He vanished back into the shadows before anyone could say another word.

Kai looked down at the list in his hand. The crew was watching him, waiting.

He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

"Go home and pack," he said. "No one sleeps in tomorrow. We have work to do."