SOVEREIGN OF BLOOD: The Emperor's Debt System

THE LOAN SHARK’S BLOOD INTEREST

"Hey! Calm down! You’re going to kill yourself!"

Kirana’s voice shrieked through the sound of cracking concrete and the hiss of thermal steam rising from Satria’s body. Ignoring the fear that nearly paralyzed her nerves, the medical student lunged forward. She threw her arms around Satria as he writhed on the floor, attempting to act as an anchor for his consciousness as it was tossed about by a storm of agony.

The touch of Kirana’s cold, trembling hands provided a small spark of light in the darkness swallowing Satria. His breath came in ragged gasps, every lungful of air felt like inhaling shards of glass. Inside his throbbing skull, the raspy baritone of the War Emperor echoed once more, drowning out the sound of Kirana’s sobbing.

"Debt cannot be paid with tears, boy. The universe knows no mercy, it only knows equivalent exchange," the ancient heart chuckled, a sound like the grinding of gravestones. "Pay your interest on time, or I shall make you the main course at my banquet table."

Satria began to grasp the cruel mechanics of the system now dwelling within his soul. A transparent interface flickered before his eyes, pulsing with a steady, cautionary red light.

[SOUL BALANCE: 0]

[OUTSTANDING INTEREST: 10 SOULS / HOUR]

[PENALTY STATUS: STAGE 1 COMPLETE (BONE MARROW PURGING)]

[WARNING: NEXT PAYMENT DUE IN 15 MINUTES. FAILURE TO COMPLY: EXECUTION OF STAGE 2 PENALTY – OPTIC NERVE GRINDING.]

"I... I have to kill," Satria whispered. His voice was hoarse, as if his vocal cords had been scorched.

Kirana released her hold, staring at him with undisguised horror. "What are you saying? You just cheated death! You need to rest. I just closed your wounds!"

"If I don’t kill them, something inside me will eat me alive." Satria turned, looking at the girl with eyes that were beginning to return to their original color, yet were now filled with a darkness deeper than any night Jakarta had ever seen. "The world you knew is over. There are no more patients, no more doctors. No more medical laws. There are only predators... and cattle waiting to be harvested."

Satria tried to stand. His legs, having just undergone the "marrow purging," felt like unstable jelly. He had to lean against the warped edge of the operating table to support his weight. A moral crisis struck him for a fleeting moment. He was a courier, an ordinary man who used to hesitate before killing a cockroach in his apartment. Now, he was being forced by a parasitic system to become a grim reaper.

If he stayed in this clinic, he would simply wait for an agonizing death as the system executed the second stage penalty, permanent blindness. And if that happened, he wouldn't be able to protect anyone, let alone avenge his family. But if he went out, he had to embrace a new identity as a monster hunting for lives.

He limped toward a cracked mirror hanging on the damp clinic wall. Satria froze at his own reflection. His face was gaunt, his jawline sharper, and his skin held an unhealthy, pallid hue. But what stood out most was his gaze, the eyes of a man who had seen hell and dragged a piece of it back to the surface.

"I must become a monster," he muttered, more to himself than to Kirana. "To kill a devil, you cannot remain human."

He bent down and retrieved a sharp piece of iron pipe from the wreckage of the destroyed operating table. It was heavy and rigid, strong enough to pierce armor if driven with the system’s strength. Satria wrapped a remnant of his shirt around the handle of the pipe to keep it from slipping once it became slick with blood.

"Listen to me," Satria turned, staring at the student with an intensity that made Kirana catch her breath. "Stay here. Don’t turn the lights any brighter than this. Don’t open this door for anyone, no matter how hard they plead or how much they sound like someone you know. Understood?"

Kirana could only nod slowly, tears streaming down her cheeks again. She felt as though she were watching someone she knew walk voluntarily into purgatory.

Just as Satria’s trembling hand touched the rusted handle of the clinic's iron door, a sound from the other side made his heart and the parasitic heart within him thrum in unison.

It wasn't a human voice. Nor was it the sound of a celestial trumpet.

It was the sound of a heavy, wet breath, thick with the foul stench of ozone. It was followed by the sound of sharp metallic claws scraping against the surface of the iron door.

Sreeeet... Sreeeet...

Grrr... Hrr...

"Something is outside," Satria whispered, gesturing for Kirana to retreat into the deepest part of the clinic.

Satria could feel it through the system’s sensors, which had suddenly flared to life. Behind that door stood a Hound of Light, a hunting beast of the celestial host. The creature had no fur, its skin was a manifestation of solidified light that looked like transparent, silvery, glowing muscle. It was the size of a full grown bull, with jaws capable of crushing concrete and eyes that were pure laser lenses.

The hound had tracked the scent of Satria’s "alien blood", blood contaminated by the war emperor's energy, which was considered pollution to the purity of the angels.

[TARGET DETECTED: HOUND OF LIGHT (LOW LEVEL)]

[SOUL VALUE: 5 UNITS]

[ADVICE: USE PHYSICAL ATTACKS TO CONSERVE ENERGY BALANCE]

"Only five souls?" Satria snorted cynically, gripping his iron pipe tighter. "That means I need two of these just to pay one hour's interest."

The iron door in front of him began to glow red, then melt. The Hound of Light was using the heat from its eyes to bore through their barrier. Kirana let out a muffled scream, covering her mouth with both hands in the corner of the room.

"Don’t blink," Satria said without looking back. "Because from this moment on, you’re going to see how this world treats those in debt."

With a powerful kick, Satria slammed the melting door, sending it flying outward, straight into the face of the monster behind it.

A roar of pain that sounded like distorted radio frequency broke out in the dark underground corridor.

Satria charged out into the darkness, his iron pipe raised high. In his vision, the system screen was counting down.

[08:42 MINUTES UNTIL STAGE 2 PENALTY]

The race against death had begun. Satria was no longer fighting for justice or humanity. He was fighting as a debtor pursued by the most ruthless debt collector in the universe. And tonight, the underground tunnels of Jakarta would bear witness to just how expensive the interest was for such power.

Cring!

The hunting dog's laser eyes ignited in the darkness, scorching the corridor walls and narrowly missing Satria’s head. Satria rolled across the filthy floor, feeling a cold rush of adrenaline pump through his heart.

"One hour," Satria shouted as he lunged toward the creature’s gaping maw. "I only need ten of you to buy me another hour!"

The iron pipe slammed into the creature's teeth of light, throwing off sparks that momentarily illuminated the hall. In that darkness, Satria realized he was starting to enjoy the sensation. The sensation of being a predator in the midst of an ongoing apocalypse. Behind his ribs, the Heart of the War Emperor pulsed with satisfaction. The banquet of blood interest had just begun.