THE SYSTEM GAVE ME EVERY VILLAIN'S POWER

Chapter 5

Kian pressed his back into the damp, cold brick until the mortar bit into his spine. He looked at the woman’s red heel, then up the length of her sleek, tailored trousers to the sharp, glowing tip of a spear that was suddenly hovering inches from his bridge of his nose.

"Who are you?" Kian stammered, his voice jumping an octave. "I’m just... I was in a crash. I'm literally nobody."

"A nobody who just triggered a high-priority anomaly alert in three different sectors?" Mei Ling tilted her head, her dark hair catching a sliver of neon from the street above. "Try again. You have about five seconds before I decide your presence down here is an active threat to the public."

"I told you! I'm Kian!" he yelled, his hands held up in a defensive posture. "The convenience store... it was a mistake! The system wouldn't let me pay!"

"Your system ID flagged you as 'unassigned,' yet your mana signature is bleeding psycho-residue like a cracked battery," Mei Ling said, her voice dropping into a dangerous, clinical tone. "Where is he?"

"Where is who? I don't have a partner!"

"The one who gave you that core," she said, her grip tightening on the shaft of her spear. "The arsonist. The man who burned through an entire Vanguard sub-team three hours ago. You didn’t just stumble into his signature, kid. You’re wearing it like a second skin."

"He's dead!" Kian shouted. "I saw him die! I mean... it was self-defense! I didn't mean to take anything!"

"Self-defense?" Mei Ling took a step closer, the tip of the spear glowing a brighter, more violent shade of electric blue. "A Level 0 hospital casualty took down a Tier-1 Lesser Offender with a fire-specialization core? Do you really expect me to believe that you aren't his apprentice? His courier?"

"Apprentice?" Kian let out a sharp, hysterical laugh. "I didn't even know what a point-balance was until six hours ago! I'm trying to tell you, it was an accident!"

"People like you don't have accidents," she said. "You have transactions."

"It’s not a transaction when your head feels like it’s being eaten by a swarm of angry bees!" Kian groaned, doubling over as a fresh wave of heat surged through his chest. "Wait... back off. Something's happening. I can't... I can't hold it."

"Don't you dare try to cast in front of me," Mei Ling warned, her stance shifting into a low, aggressive lunge. "I will pin you to that wall before you even finish the gesture."

"I'm not trying to cast!" Kian shrieked. "It's the... the voice! He’s pushing!"

"Who's pushing?"

Kian’s jaw suddenly snapped shut. His eyes, usually a frantic, watery brown, glazed over with a dull, pulsating orange light. His spine straightened with a sickening crack, and the terror on his face dissolved into a twisted, jagged grin that didn't belong to him.

"You smell like expensive perfume and hubris, Hero," Kian said. His voice was no longer high and shaky; it was a low, rasping growl that sounded like embers popping in a drafty chimney. "Are you going to poke me with that toothpick, or are we going to see how long it takes for those pretty silk clothes to melt into your skin?"

Mei Ling’s eyes widened. She instinctively backpedaled two steps, her spear held in a high guard. "I knew it. You're body-snatching."

"Kian... help... no..." Kian’s own voice flickered through for a split second, his face contorting in agony. "Don't listen to him! I'm trying to—"

"Shut up, boy," the 'Embers' voice spat through Kian’s mouth. "We were talking to the lady. You’ve got the same eyes as the last ones, girlie. The ones who screamed when the oxygen in the room turned to liquid gold."

"You monster," Mei Ling hissed. "That was my brother's team you were with. You're the one. The energy signature... it’s identical."

"Is it?" Kian’s hand flew up, not in a defensive block, but in a predatory claw. Tiny, violent sparks of white-hot mana hissed between his fingers. "He tasted like ash and cheap bravery. I bet you taste much, much better."

"Drop the vessel!" Mei Ling barked. "Release the boy and maybe I’ll only incinerate your core instead of your entire soul!"

"Make me, Vanguard princess," Kian snarled, his feet beginning to smoke as they touched the wet asphalt.

"Fine," Mei Ling said, her voice turning into a cold, flat line. "I gave you the option. Level 1 or not, I’m putting an end to this infection right now."

"Kian, inside!" Kian’s conscious mind screamed, though his vocal chords remained locked in the arsonist's control. "I can't move my arms! I'm not doing this!"

"Stop fighting it, Kian," the inner voice chuckled inside his skull. "Look at her. She’s terrified. Don't you love the way she trembles? Don't you want to see the pretty blue light in her spear vanish in a real fire?"

"I don't want to kill anyone!"

Mei Ling didn't wait for the internal monologue to conclude. She lunged with the speed of a striking cobra. The blue spear whistled through the air, aimed directly at Kian’s shoulder—a disabling strike intended to pin him down.

"Too slow!" the arsonist shrieked through Kian’s throat.

Kian’s body moved with a fluid, unnatural agility, sliding under the thrust. He lashed out with a palm full of concentrated, orange mana. The heat was so intense it turned the falling drizzle into a thick cloud of steam instantly.

Mei Ling spun her spear, creating a shimmering blue barrier that absorbed the impact. The sound was like a hammer hitting an anvil. "You’re sloppy! The integration is incomplete! You can barely hold your own form!"

"I have enough!" the voice roared. "More than enough to see you burn!"

"You're nothing but a residual echo," Mei Ling said, her heels clicking rhythmically as she danced around his erratic, fiery strikes. "You’re a parasite in a host that doesn't even want you!"

"He wants the power!" the voice shouted, Kian’s arm trembling as he gathered a massive ball of orange flame. "Don't you, Kian? Don't you want to be more than a zero-point casualty?"

"No!" Kian managed to force the word out of his own lips, his left eye twitching as he regained a shred of control. "Stop! Just... stop it!"

The fireball in his hand flickered and died, turning into a cloud of foul-smelling black soot.

Mei Ling saw her opening. She stepped in, the butt of her spear slamming into Kian’s solar plexus to knock the wind out of him, followed immediately by the razor-sharp tip swinging around to rest against the hollow of his throat.

"End of the line, Anomaly 88," she said, her chest heaving slightly. "If you breathe, if you spark, if you even think about that core again, I’m ending this."

Kian slumped against the wall, his own eyes finally returning, though they were bloodshot and brimming with tears of pure exhaustion. "Please... I... I'm not him."

"The mana sensors say otherwise," Mei Ling replied, her spear-tip pressing slightly harder against his skin. "I can see it swirling in your veins. You’re a ticking mana-bomb, kid. You’re exactly the kind of mess the Vanguard exists to sweep up."

"I don't... know how to make it go away," Kian whispered. "I just wanted to go home."

"You don't have a home anymore," she said. "Not with a signature this corrupted. You're going into deep-containment until we find out exactly how much of the madman is left inside you."

"Wait..." Kian said, his head snapping to the side. "Do you hear that?"

Mei Ling didn't move her spear. "Don't try the 'look behind you' trick. It’s beneath us both."

"No!" Kian gasped, his face turning pale. "The air... look at the blue screen! It’s going red!"

Mei Ling glanced down at the edge of her own peripheral vision. A notification was flashing with a speed she had never seen before.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: REGIONAL STABILITY FAILURE]

[ALERT: LEVEL 5 RIFT TREMOR DETECTED]

[DISTANCE: 0.2 KM]

The ground beneath them didn't just shake; it lurched.

A thunderous, metallic groan echoed through the alleyway, as if the very foundations of the city were being twisted by a giant's hand. Mei Ling lost her footing as a massive crack opened in the asphalt between her and Kian.

"What is that?" Kian screamed, grabbing a pipe on the wall to keep from falling into the dark fissure.

"A Rift tremor!" Mei Ling shouted over the sudden, ear-piercing roar of sirens across the city. "Stay down! Don't move!"

The air in the middle of the alley began to tear open, revealing a swirling, violet void that hummed with a sound like a million dying stars. The spear in Mei Ling’s hand began to glow white-hot, reacting to the raw mana pouring out of the gap.

Mei Ling looked from the Rift to Kian, her face a mask of conflict. The spear-tip was an inch from his throat, but the world around them was literally coming apart at the seams.