SOVEREIGN OF BLOOD: The Emperor's Debt System

THREE MINUTES AS A SLAUGHTERING GOD

The golden light that usually symbolized sanctity, hope, and divine protection now felt like a nauseating visual mockery in Satria’s eyes. The Jakarta sky, typically choked by pollution, was now clear yet, it was adorned by thousands of "holy" beings who had just turned the city into a slaughterhouse. Satria stood rigid amidst the scorched asphalt. The tremors radiating beneath his feet did not come from an aftershock, but from a thick crimson aura exploding out of every pore of his skin.

The gravitational pressure within a five-meter radius around Satria suddenly intensified unnaturally. The asphalt cracked deeper, forming a small crater beneath his feet, while concrete debris and glass shards nearby were crushed into a fine powder by the overwhelming energy pressure. Satria was no longer human, he was an anomaly forced into existence by the Blood Debt System.

The Lesser Heavenly Vanguard that had just impaled Satria stood stunned. The creature, which had shown no emotion from the start, now tilted its head. It tried to retract its spear of light, but the weapon was held fast. Satria gripped the shaft with hands that had now mutated. His skin split, replaced by jet, black, shimmering scales, a manifestation of primordial blood hardening into biological armor.

"You... you harvested my family’s souls as if they were nothing but cattle," Satria’s voice emerged from his throat, sounding like the grinding of heavy metal plates at the bottom of hell. "Now, I will harvest you."

Crack!

With a single jerk of his left hand, Satria snapped the spear of light as if it were a dry twig. The angel let out an agonizing ultrasonic shriek, a high frequency sound capable of making a normal human's head explode. But Satria was no longer normal.

In a single leap that shattered the ground beneath him, Satria launched. His speed surpassed the limits of visual perception. Before the angel could even flap its wings to take flight, Satria was right in front of that expressionless face. Satria used no blades.  He used his bare hands to seize the angel’s armored neck, and with raw strength, he slammed the creature’s head into a concrete pillar that still stood firm amidst the ruins.

BOOM!

The pillar disintegrated into fragments. Satria felt an unbearable heat surging through his veins. This wasn't just physical strength, it was dark cosmic energy forcibly pumping his cells beyond their biological limits. In the corner of his vision, the system screen flickered with a threatening blood red hue.

[ENERGY OUTPUT: 400% — STATUS: OVERLOAD]

[WARNING: MUSCLE AND NERVE TISSUE DAMAGE REACHING 60%!]

[REMAINING LOAN DURATION: 02:15]

Satria didn't care. The physical pain was utterly eclipsed by the burning vengeance in his soul. He laughed, a dry, raspy, and terrifying sound. With one hand still crushing the angel's neck, his other hand reached for the wings of light on the creature’s back. With a roar of fury that shook the air, Satria wrenched the wings until they were torn from their roots.

A thick, golden liquid, celestial blood, sprayed violently, drenching Satria’s face and black armor. The blood smelled strange. Sweet as honey, yet sharp as ozone.

"Doesn't taste as holy as it looks," Satria hissed. He began to tear the creature’s armor and flesh apart with pure brutality. There was no technique, only destruction. The War Emperor’s soul within the ancient heart seemed to whisper in his ear, a gravelly voice that worshipped every drop of spilled blood, urging him to keep slaughtering.

Other angels around Bundaran HI began to notice the presence of this new "predator." Five Heavenly Vanguards immediately dove from the sky, forming a star formation to encircle Satria. They brandished long light-swords that radiated thousands of degrees of heat.

"Good," Satria muttered, his glowing red eyes fixed on the gathering angels. "Come to me. I need a hundred lives to pay the interest on this debt."

Satria moved like a crimson shadow. Every step left a trail of black fire on the asphalt. He lunged at the first angel, dodging a light, sword sweep with an impossible movement, then countered with a punch that punched straight through the enemy's armored chest and out the back. He ripped out the creature’s heart of light and crushed it to dust.

[SOULS HARVESTED: 2/100]

[SOULS HARVESTED: 7/100]

[SOULS HARVESTED: 15/100]

In less than a minute, the area around Bundaran HI turned into an angelic killing field. Satria was a black storm in a golden sea. He used fragments of the angels' own wings as blades, slicing necks, snapping spines, and tearing through their essence of light. His brutality was so extreme that the angels, beings who usually knew no fear, began to show hesitation in their attacks.

However, his human body began to issue its final warning. Satria’s skin started to crack across his shoulders and arms, emitting red-hot steam. His heart pounded so loudly it sounded like war drums in his own ears. He felt as though molten lead was being pumped into his bloodstream.

[CRITICAL WARNING: 00:30 SECONDS REMAINING!]

[TOTAL SOULS HARVESTED: 89/100]

[DEFICIT: 11 SOULS. IF QUOTA IS NOT MET, INTEREST WILL BE EXTRACTED FROM VITAL ORGANS!]

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" Satria roared. He saw a group of angels attempting to evacuate into the sky. With the last of his strength. Strength that shattered the bones in his own legs, Satria leaped twenty meters into the air. Mid-flight, he unleashed a burst of energy from his palms, a "loaned" ability that drained his remaining stamina completely.

The blast struck the group of angels, knocking them down like birds with scorched wings. Satria landed on the falling bodies, crushing their heads one by one with his heels.

[TOTAL SOULS HARVESTED: 100/100]

[TARGET MET. LOAN CONCLUDED.]

Exactly as the 180th second ticked away, the crimson light enveloping Satria’s body vanished instantly. His black-scaled armor crumbled, disintegrating into dust that was swept away by the Jakarta night wind. A sudden silence fell, leaving only the sound of fire crawling up the nearby buildings.

Then, reality hit him.

[DURATION EXPIRED.]

[DEBT COLLECTION COMMENCING.]

[PHYSICAL COMPENSATION: OVERDRIVE USAGE.]

"Cough!" Satria collapsed, spitting up a thick, blackened glob of blood. The pain he had suppressed for three minutes with cosmic adrenaline now struck him a thousand times harder.

It felt as if every inch of nerve in his body was being burned alive. The veins in his arms burst simultaneously, turning his skin a deep, bruised purple. He felt his lungs shrink, turning stiff and making every breath of oxygen a struggle. His heart stopped beating for a few agonizing seconds before starting again with a dangerously weak rhythm.

"Damn it... so this... is the price..." Satria muttered, his consciousness beginning to waver.

He could hear the fluttering of wings in the distance. More angels were heading toward his position. If he was caught now, he wouldn't even have the strength to lift a finger. With the remnants of his survival instinct, Satria crawled away from the open area of Bundaran HI, which was now illuminated by the enemies' search-lights.

He dragged his broken body over the rubble, leaving a long trail of blood. Satria managed to reach a dark alley behind the ruins of a half-collapsed shopping mall, an area filled with piles of trash and deep shadows.

There, in the darkness of a dying Jakarta, Satria collapsed. His eyes stared at the sky, which remained split open, watching the thousands of golden lights that he now hated more than anything in the universe. Before his consciousness faded completely, he heard the giant heartbeat again inside his head, chuckling as if savoring his agony.

“Sleep, little debtor... this was only the first interest payment.”

Satria lost consciousness, his body growing cold in the heart of the dark alley, while above him, the hunt for humanity continued without end.