2026-04-12 23:56:48At first, Adam thought it had all been a dream. The wine was still on his suit. The smell of the alley was the same.
"It was just a hallucination," he whispered, wiping water from his face. "I hit my head. I’m going crazy."
But then, he looked at his hand. In his vision, floating just above his skin, were numbers.
[Health: 15/100 (Critical)]
[Stamina: 5/100 (Exhausted)][Mana: ERROR / NULL]Adam blinked. The numbers stayed there. He turned his head, and his vision adjusted like a camera lens. He looked at a wooden crate nearby.
[Object: Rotten Wood Crate]
[Quality: Trash]He looked at the puddle of water at his feet.
[Object: Rainwater Mixed with Mud]
[Status: Contaminated]"It's real," Adam breathed. "It's actually real."
He stood up, his legs feeling like jelly. Every muscle in his body ached, but beneath the pain, there was a new sensation. It was a cold, humming energy sitting right behind his navel. It felt like a tiny, frozen sun.
He walked out of the alleyway and back toward the main road. The Academy was a city within a city. It sat on a hill, its white stone towers reaching toward the dark clouds. Usually, Adam looked at those towers with a feeling of being small. Now, he looked at them with a feeling of fear—and a strange, new hunger.
He had 72 hours.
As he walked, he noticed something else. The world wasn't just physical anymore. He could see colors floating in the air. Around a street lamp, there was a faint yellow mist.
"Is that mana?" he wondered.
He looked at a passing carriage. The horse had a faint green glow around its legs—an enhancement spell to make it run longer.
The System was showing him the truth of the world. He could see the magic that everyone else took for granted. He could see the "threads" that Julian and the others used to bully him.
He reached the gates of the Academy. The guards recognized him. They laughed as he walked past, still soaked and smelling of wine.
"Hey, Null! Did you enjoy the mud?" one of them shouted.
Adam didn't answer. He didn't even look at them. He focused on the HUD in his vision. He needed to find the faculty tower. He needed to find Catherine.
As he entered the inner courtyard, he stopped.
The Academy was vast, but one tower stood taller than the rest. It was made of dark, blue-black stone. Even from a distance, Adam could see that the air around that tower was different. The rain didn't fall there; it turned into snow before it hit the roof.
Adam stared at the tower. His new eyes zoomed in, and his heart nearly stopped.
A massive aura was radiating from the top of that tower. It wasn't like the yellow mist of the lamps or the green glow of the horse. This was a storm of jagged, icy blue light. It was so bright it hurt to look at. It felt sharp, like thousands of tiny needles pressing against his eyeballs.
[Warning: High-Level Mana Source Detected.]
[Subject: Catherine Cook.][Power Level: Calamity Class.][Danger Level: Fatal.]In the middle of that blue storm, Adam saw something else. Deep inside the blue light, there were streaks of ugly, pitch-black energy. They looked like cracks in a mirror. They were pulsing, eating away at the blue light from the inside.
"What is that black stuff?" Adam whispered.
[System Analysis: The target is suffering from 'Soul-Frost Corruption'] the voice echoed in his head. [Her own power is turning against her. She is dying, Sovereign. And she is in more pain than you have ever known.]
Adam looked at the "Ice Witch's" tower. He thought about the woman everyone feared. The woman who was supposed to be a goddess among mages.
She wasn't just cold. She was rotting from her own magic.
He took a step forward, his feet crunching on the wet gravel. He was a Null. He had nothing. He was a boy who had been thrown out of a party like a piece of trash. And now, he was walking toward a "Calamity Class" mage who was dying of a magical curse.
"How do I even get inside?" Adam asked.
[Find a way, or die] the System replied coldly.
Adam looked down at the timer in the corner of his vision.
[Time Remaining: 71 Hours, 42 Minutes, 10 Seconds.]
The countdown was ticking. Every second was a step closer to his heart stopping. Adam gripped his tattered suit jacket and began to walk toward the tower of ice.
He didn't know how he would do it. He didn't know what he would say. But for the first time in his life, Adam Cook wasn't just a victim. He was a hunter.
And his first target was the most dangerous woman in the world.
As he approached the base of the tower, the temperature dropped. His breath began to come out in white puffs. The ground was covered in a thin layer of frost.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over him. He looked up.
Standing at the entrance of the tower was a tall woman with hair as white as a blizzard. She wore long, flowing robes of deep indigo. Her eyes were a piercing, unnatural blue, and they were fixed directly on him.
It was Catherine Cook.
"A Null?" she said. Her voice was like the sound of glass breaking on a stone floor. "How did a piece of dust like you wander into my garden?"
Adam felt the air in his lungs start to freeze. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak.
[Warning: Extreme Pressure Detected!]
[Favorable Impression: -90 (Hostile)]The mission had begun. And if Adam didn't speak in the next five seconds, he was going to become a human popsicle.
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Chapter 62
Adam’s soul finally cracked. It did not crack from damage. It did not break because it was weak. It cracked the way a dragon's egg cracks right before the beast comes out. It was not a break of destruction. It was a break of release.A bright, glowing purple screen flashed across Adam’s vision.[Criteria Met.][Extreme Magical Energy Directed at Host.][Soul Architecture Expanded.][Second Gate Unlocked: The Gate of Hunger.]The message disappeared. As the Blade of the Dawn came within one inch of Adam’s neck, Adam triggered his new power.[Skill Activated: Mana Devourer Aura.]Instantly, the entire room plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness. It was not just the absence of light. It was the murder of light.The candles in the hallway outside instantly went out. The glowing golden spears held by the knights turned completely dark. The bright, holy light shining from Malphas’s heavy armor died in a single second.The only thing visible in the room was Julian’s glowing crystal swor
Chapter 61
High Inquisitor Malphas was still standing there. But the proud, dangerous Inquisitor looked completely different.The Devourer Aura had touched Malphas too. The glowing white magic that usually surrounded the Inquisitor’s heavy armor was gone. The magic in his silver broadsword had been completely sucked dry, turning the beautiful weapon into a dull, heavy piece of gray iron.Malphas dropped the heavy iron sword. It hit the floor with a dull clank.The ten Holy Knights in the hallway behind him also dropped their weapons. Their glowing spears were nothing but dead wooden sticks now. The aura had eaten the magic out of every weapon in the room.Malphas slowly raised his hands in the air. He did not bow, but he surrendered. He realized that if he tried to fight, Adam would just eat his soul exactly like he had eaten the angel fragment."You..." Malphas whispered, his voice trembling. "What are you?""I am the answer to your prayers," Adam said softly.Adam took a step forward.CRACK.
Chapter 60
High Inquisitor Malphas was still standing there. But the proud, dangerous Inquisitor looked completely different.The Devourer Aura had touched Malphas too. The glowing white magic that usually surrounded the Inquisitor’s heavy armor was gone. The magic in his silver broadsword had been completely sucked dry, turning the beautiful weapon into a dull, heavy piece of gray iron.Malphas dropped the heavy iron sword. It hit the floor with a dull clank.The ten Holy Knights in the hallway behind him also dropped their weapons. Their glowing spears were nothing but dead wooden sticks now. The aura had eaten the magic out of every weapon in the room.Malphas slowly raised his hands in the air. He did not bow, but he surrendered. He realized that if he tried to fight, Adam would just eat his soul exactly like he had eaten the angel fragment."You..." Malphas whispered, his voice trembling. "What are you?""I am the answer to your prayers," Adam said softly.Adam took a step forward.CRACK.
Chapter 59
Adam’s soul finally cracked. It did not crack from damage. It did not break because it was weak. It cracked the way a dragon's egg cracks right before the beast comes out. It was not a break of destruction. It was a break of release.A bright, glowing purple screen flashed across Adam’s vision.[Criteria Met.][Extreme Magical Energy Directed at Host.][Soul Architecture Expanded.][Second Gate Unlocked: The Gate of Hunger.]The message disappeared. As the Blade of the Dawn came within one inch of Adam’s neck, Adam triggered his new power.[Skill Activated: Mana Devourer Aura.]Instantly, the entire room plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness. It was not just the absence of light. It was the murder of light.The candles in the hallway outside instantly went out. The glowing golden spears held by the knights turned completely dark. The bright, holy light shining from Malphas’s heavy armor died in a single second.The only thing visible in the room was Julian’s glowing crystal swor
Chapter 58
The broken pieces of the heavy wooden door lay on the cold stone floor. The medical ward was completely silent.High Inquisitor Malphas stood in the ruined doorway. He was a man who had fought in a hundred magical wars. He had killed rogue mages, dark witches, and giant beasts. He wore the thickest, strongest holy armor in the entire kingdom. But right now, his hands were shaking.Malphas looked at the boy sitting on the edge of the broken bed. Adam Cook did not have a weapon. He was not wearing armor. He was bare-chested, wearing only simple dark pants.Yet, Malphas felt a terrible, crushing weight pressing down on his chest. It was not a spell. Adam was not doing anything. The heavy pressure was just coming from Adam’s simple presence."I think," Adam whispered again, his voice echoing inside Malphas’s brain, "you are going to have to fix the door."Malphas opened his mouth to speak, but his throat was perfectly dry. He wanted to raise his heavy silver broadsword. He wanted to sho
Chapter 57
The purple screen flickered. A new message appeared in bright red letters.[Query Acknowledged.][To expand the Soul Architecture, the current walls must be completely destroyed.][Action Required: Open the Second Gate of the Void.]Adam read the words. He understood perfectly.To build a bigger castle, you have to tear down the old one. He had to destroy his own soul's shape to let the Void expand naturally. But there was a catch. The System immediately showed another red warning.[WARNING!][Opening the Second Gate will instantly shatter the current Soul Walls.][If the Host cannot control the raw energy without walls, the Host’s physical body will instantly vaporize in the real world.][Survival Rate: 0.01%.]Adam smiled. It was a cold, dark, fearless smile. "I survived the mud," Adam said softly. "I survived the Ice Witch. I survived the Bone Dragon. I survived the Holy Seraph. Do you really think I care about a decimal point?"Adam raised both of his hands. He looked at the thick
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