OmniX System: Return of the Scorned Son-in-law

#3

The heavy iron gates of the Wensley estate slammed shut with a finality that echoed through the empty street.

Evan tumbled into the gutter, his face hitting the muddy pavement as the guards’ laughter faded behind the walls. The rain was coming down in sheets now, washing the blood from his forehead into the dark sewers.

He gasped for air, his hand clamped tightly into a fist, hiding a small handful of low-grade mana scraps he had managed to grab. They were jagged and weak, but they were all he had left to offer the hospital. He had to move, but his legs felt like lead, and his vision was starting to tunnel.

"Going somewhere, little debtor?" A voice like grinding stones echoed through the rain.

Evan’s heart skipped a beat as a massive figure stepped into the light of a flickering streetlamp. It was Augustine, the landlord who ruled the slums with an iron fist and a heart of stone. He was a man who had crippled ten people just last month for being a day late on their rent.

"Mr. Augustine... please," Evan wheezed, trying to push himself up from the mud while keeping his hand tightly closed. "I know I owe you for three months. I was just at the Wensleys... I’m getting the money. My mother’s hospital bills took everything I had."

Augustine spat on the ground, his eyes fixed on Evan with a look of pure, sadistic hunger. "The Wensleys already called me, boy. They paid me a very handsome f*e to make sure you never show up at their gate again. You’re not a tenant anymore; you’re just a debt that needs to be cleared."

"I’ll pay you back! Every single cent!" Evan begged, his voice cracking as he crawled backward through the muck. "Just give me until the end of the week. My mother is dying, Augustine. If I don't get these mana scraps to the hospital, she won't make it through the night."

Augustine let out a loud, mocking laugh that made the two thugs behind him join in. "You think I care about a dying woman? In this city, the weak are meant to be stepped on. And you, Evan, are the weakest piece of trash I’ve ever seen."

Augustine stepped forward, his heavy boots splashing in the puddles as he reached down and grabbed Evan by the collar. He hoisted him up like a ragdoll and slammed him against the cold brick wall of the estate’s outer boundary. "You don't have a week. You don't even have a minute."

Augustine’s hand began to glow with a dull, dirty brown light—the sign of low-level Earth Magic. He pressed his palm against Evan’s chest, and the air immediately left Evan’s lungs. The pressure was immense, feeling like a mountain was slowly being lowered onto his ribcage.

"Let’s see how much air that 'Void' body of yours can hold," Augustine snarled, increasing the power of his spell. A sickening crack echoed through the street as Evan’s first rib gave way. Evan screamed, a raw, primal sound of agony that was swallowed by the storm.

Despite the blinding pain, Evan didn't let go of the mana scraps in his fist. He squeezed them so hard the jagged edges sliced into his palm, mixing his blood with the weak magical stones. He could feel his life leaking out of him, but he refused to give up on his mother.

"Still holding on to hope?" Augustine mocked, slamming his other fist into Evan's stomach. "Your mother was a genius, but she birthed a failure. You have no mana, no power, and no one is coming to save you. You’re just a hollow shell waiting to be crushed."

Another rib snapped, then another. Evan’s lungs were filling with fluid, and every breath felt like he was inhaling broken glass. He looked up at the Wensley mansion on the hill, seeing the warm lights of the party he had just been thrown out of.

Suddenly, the medical watch on his wrist began to beep—a long, continuous, high-pitched tone that sliced through the sound of the rain. The red light stopped pulsing and stayed solid. The screen showed a flat line that refused to move.

The sound felt like a cold blade piercing Evan’s soul. His mother was gone. The only reason he had been enduring this hell, the only reason he had been willing to beg and crawl, was dead. His hand finally went limp, the mana scraps falling into the mud.

"Kill me," Evan whispered, his eyes going dull and empty. "Just kill me now."

Augustine grinned, his eyes wide with madness. "With pleasure, boy. Consider this a gift from the Wensleys." He gathered every ounce of his Earth Magic into his palm, aiming directly for Evan's heart to end it in one final, brutal blow.

The world didn't explode in light. Instead, the color suddenly drained from the street, turning the entire world into a cold, lifeless grayscale. The rain froze mid-air, and the sound of the wind vanished, replaced by a silence so deep it felt like the grave.

[CRITICAL THRESHOLD REACHED. HOST VITALITY: 0%.]

[HIDDEN NEURAL MAP DETECTED... DECRYPTING MOTHER'S FINAL LEGACY.]

[OMNIX PROTOCOL INITIALIZED. THE VOID IS NO LONGER EMPTY.]

A cold, mechanical voice resonated from deep within Evan’s mind, sounding like the grinding of ancient gears. Suddenly, the "nothingness" inside his body began to pulse. It wasn't mana; it was something much darker, something that looked like liquid shadows.

The Void erupted. It wasn't a blast of energy that pushed things away; it was a black hole that pulled everything in. Black lightning surged out of Evan’s chest, wrapping around Augustine’s arm like a swarm of starving vipers.

"What is this?! My magic! I can't feel my magic!" Augustine screamed, but the sound was muffled, as if he were underwater. He tried to pull his hand away, but he was stuck. He watched in horror as his muscular arm began to wither and turn grey.

The System’s voice echoed again, cold and clinical. [TARGET MANA DETECTED. COMMENCING CONSUMPTION. LIFE-FORCE CONVERTED TO SYSTEM EXPERIENCE.]

The two thugs tried to run, but the shadows reached out and touched them for a fraction of a second. They didn't even have time to scream before their bodies turned into dry, brittle husks. They collapsed into the mud, crumbling into ash before they even hit the ground.

Augustine let out one last, choked gasp before his entire body shriveled up, his eyes rolling back as the last of his life was sucked into the Void. Evan let go of the man’s throat, and the lifeless corpse fell into the puddle like a discarded doll.

[1,500 UNITS OF MANA CONSUMED. HOST REPAIR INITIATED.]

[BROKEN BONES REALIGNED. INTERNAL BLEEDING HALTED. BODY REINFORCED.]

Evan stood up slowly. The sound of his ribs knitting back together was loud and sharp, like the snapping of dry wood. He didn't feel the pain anymore. He didn't feel the cold. He felt a power so vast and heavy that the entire city felt small beneath his feet.

His eyes snapped open, and for the first time, they weren't the eyes of a victim. They glowed with a terrifying, deep violet light that seemed to eat the surrounding darkness. A blue screen floated in front of him, covered in ancient, forbidden runes.

[DAILY LOGIN REWARD GRANTED: GOD-LEVEL GRAVITY SUPPRESSION (RANK: SSS).]

[NEW MANDATORY TASK: MAKE THE WENSLEYS SUFFER. REWARD: SOUL-RECONSTRUCTION DATA.]

Evan looked at the word "Soul-Reconstruction" and felt a spark of something he thought he had lost forever. He looked up at the Wensley mansion, his face a mask of cold, unyielding stone. The "Trash" was dead, and something much worse had taken his place.

Evan looked at the word "Soul-Reconstruction" and felt a spark of something he thought he had lost forever. He looked up at the Wensley mansion, his face a mask of cold, unyielding stone. The "Trash" was dead, and something much worse had taken his place.

"You didn't give me the core voluntarily, even when I begged," Evan said, his voice echoing with a dual-toned resonance that made the nearby streetlamps shatter. He took his first step toward the hill, and the pavement beneath his foot exploded under the gravity force.

"Now, you'll hand it over by force. And I'll make sure you scream for every second my mother spent in that pod. But first," he whispered, his violet gaze turning back toward the city's hospital lights, "I will see for myself what has happened to her."