Rise of The Virel Absolute Revenge Cultivation

Blood on the judge's table

A suffocating silence blanketed the altar hall, so quiet that the sound of blood dripping from the tip of Arka’s sword sounded like heavy thuds against the marble floor. The Leader of the Night Shadow Sect remained standing calmly, his back turned to the altar where Elara and Mia were being held. The aura radiating from him no longer felt like physical pressure, but rather a void capable of sucking the very light from its surroundings.

"Sit down, Arka. You look exhausted," the Sect Leader’s voice sounded soft, almost like a father welcoming his son home. "The restructuring of your body is at a critical point. You might die before you even manage to touch my robe."

Arka spat to the side, a thick red liquid staining the floor already littered with the corpses of guards. "I don’t need your hospitality. Release my wife and daughter, now."

"Always about family," the Sect Leader turned slowly, revealing a face that looked far younger than his years, yet his eyes radiated the fatigue of centuries. "Don’t you realize? Your hatred brought you here, but your emotions will be what kill you. You hold the power of a god with the mentality of a slave."

"This power is my tool to destroy all of you," Arka growled, even though his knees were trembling violently.

The Sect Leader laughed softly, a sound that resembled the grinding of tombstones. "Your tool? You think the Absolute Cultivation System was a gift from the universe for your naive sense of justice?"

Arka narrowed his eyes. System, provide an analysis of the target's power.

Warning: Scan failed. Target possesses an energy frequency identical to the System Core.

"You won’t be able to scan me, Arka," the Sect Leader continued, as if he could read Arka’s thoughts. "That System inside your soul... I was the one who planted it there. Not directly, of course. The Tomb of Traitors is our natural laboratory. We cast those with the greatest despair into it, hoping one of them could awaken that primordial seed."

Arka froze. His heart hammered against his ribs, triggering an excruciating pain in his chest. This System... came from them?

"You are our most successful experiment," the Sect Leader walked closer, his footsteps silent. "That System wasn't created for justice. It is the breath of a primordial entity that I am about to resurrect. You and the god that will be born from your daughter’s body are two parts of the same whole. You are the sword, and she is the soul."

"Liar!" Arka screamed, swinging his sword even though his hands were cracking. "This System helped me take revenge on Kael and Volkov! It gave me strength when I had nothing!"

"And in exchange, it consumed your humanity, didn't it?" The Sect Leader stopped right in front of Arka, ignoring the sword's tip just inches from his neck. "It took your happy memories. It corrupted your emotions. It turned you into a predator. You have been a part of us since the first day you accepted that contract at the bottom of the abyss."

Arka remembered the moment he traded the memory of Mia’s first smile for power. A wave of nausea hit him harder than any physical pain.

"Look at yourself now," the Sect Leader pointed toward a large mirror mounted on the hall wall. Arka saw a figure with glowing red eyes, skin that was cracking to leak a dark purple light, and an aura no different from the monsters he used to hunt. "The outside world calls you the Shadow Hunter, but here, you are a brother. Join me, Arka. With the power of your system and my control over this ritual, we can erase all betrayal from this world. We can become the law itself."

"Erase betrayal by sacrificing my own child?" Arka hissed, his voice hoarse with rage.

"Mia will not die. She will simply transcend her mortal human form. She will become eternal. You, Elara, and Mia... you can rule this world forever. There will be no more Kaels to betray you. No more Volkovs to trap you. There will only be us, the absolute rulers."

Arka lowered his head, letting his hair cover his bloodshot eyes. For a moment, the hall fell silent. Visions of an eternal life without the fear of betrayal flashed through his mind. The temptation felt so real, so sweet to a soul as shattered as his.

"You offer peace," Arka muttered.

"The ultimate peace," the Sect Leader replied with open arms.

"But your peace reeks of blood," Arka lifted his head, and for the first time, the red light in his eyes dimmed, replaced by a human gaze full of grief yet unwavering. "I chose to become a monster to protect my family, not to rule alongside a devil like you. If this system is indeed a part of you, then I will use it to destroy its creator."

The smile on the Sect Leader’s face vanished, replaced by a cold expression that froze the very air in the hall. "A pity. You would rather be fertilizer for history than its author."

"My power is not for oppression," Arka mustered every ounce of his remaining strength, triggering an Overload that made his entire body glow brilliantly. "And I am no slave to this system. I am Arka Virel!"

"Arka, no!" Elara screamed from the altar, her face full of terror as she saw her husband’s body begin to emit sparks of black fire.

The Sect Leader sighed softly, as if merely annoyed by a small insect. "You speak of choice, yet you cannot even stand without the help of my energy."

He raised his right hand, his pale fingers poised to snap. "Let us see how long your human will can hold out against the primordial will."

"System! Break the limits! I don't care if my soul burns!" Arka lunged forward, his sword blazing with a black flame capable of rending dimensions.

The Sect Leader snapped his fingers. Click.

Instantly, the space around Arka distorted. The floor of the hall seemed to melt into a sea of shadows, and gravity reversed, hurling Arka toward the ceiling before he finally slammed back into the floor with a force that shattered his shoulder bone.

"This performance has become boring," the Sect Leader said coldly. Behind him, the purple energy surrounding Mia began to pulse wildly, syncing with the sect leader’s own heartbeat. "This ritual cannot be stopped by the rage of a failing father."

Arka crawled, his fingers clawing at the marble floor until his fingernails tore off. He saw Mia begin to float, her small eyes open but showing only a colorless void.

"Mia..." Arka whispered, blood dripping from his mouth.

The Sect Leader hovered low, approaching the sprawled Arka. "I will let you stay alive to witness the moment your soul truly breaks, Arka. Watch as your daughter becomes the god that will erase your very existence."

With another wave of his hand, dozens of shadow spears materialized from the air, piercing Arka’s limbs and pinning him to the floor. Arka screamed in agony, but his eyes remained fixed on the altar.

The light in the hall suddenly died out, replaced by a purple glow emanating from Mia’s body. The ritual bell tolled once more, this time with a pitch so low it could tear the consciousness of anyone who heard it.

Warning: Host consciousness is at the limit. Initiating forced transfer protocol.

No... not now! Arka’s mind rebelled. He could feel his soul being pulled out of his physical body, toward a dark vacuum. But at the same time, he saw the Sect Leader begin to chant the final incantation.

"Rise, O Eternal One!" the Sect Leader shouted.

Mia’s body exploded with a wave of energy that toppled the hall’s pillars. Arka closed his eyes, bracing for total darkness, when he felt a warm, incredibly familiar touch within his subconscious. A tiny voice called to him from a distance, holding his soul back from falling deeper into the darkness of the system.

"Daddy... wake up..."

Arka’s eyes snapped open. They were no longer red, no longer black. His eyes now glowed with a pure white light that neither the sy.stem nor the Sect Leader had ever seen before.