2025-12-29 08:11:23Jaxen’s "marital suite" was a windowless stone cell in the sub-basement of the Valerius Spire. It smelled of ozone and ancient dust. To the Valerius family, he wasn't a son-in-law; he was a piece of equipment, stored near the plumbing where he wouldn't offend the guests.
[System Notification: Environment Scanned.] [Mana Density: 400% higher than the Rust-Sinks. Passive absorption active.]
Jaxen sat on the thin cot, watching the violet veins of the Void Heart pulse beneath his skin. Most people would die from the "Mana Fever" in this room. To him, it felt like breathing pure oxygen after a lifetime underwater.
A sharp kick echoed against his iron door.
"Get up, trash. The family wants to see their new pet," a voice sneered.
The door swung open to reveal Caspian Valerius, Seraphina’s brother. He was dressed in high-collared silk, his fingers adorned with rings that glowed with offensive magic. Beside him stood two guards, laughing.
"Do I get a suit for the wedding dinner, or is the 'trash-can' look permanent?" Jaxen asked, standing slowly.
Caspian’s smile vanished. He stepped forward, his palm erupting with a localized gravity spell. The air around Jaxen grew heavy, designed to force him to his knees. "Watch your tongue, Null. You’re only here because my sister has a strange obsession with 'taming' you. To me, you’re just a parasite."
Jaxen didn't kneel. He stood perfectly upright, the Void Heart effortlessly swallowing the gravitational pressure. To Caspian, it looked like Jaxen was just stubborn. In reality, Jaxen was literally eating the spell.
[Siphoning Gravity Well... +2% Void Energy.]
"Is that all?" Jaxen asked.
Caspian’s eyes widened. He increased the output, his face flushing red, but Jaxen didn't even blink.
"Enough, Caspian," a cold voice rang out.
Seraphina stood in the doorway. She looked at Jaxen, her Golden Eye flickering. She was confused. By all logic, Jaxen should be gasping for air under Caspian’s spell. Instead, he looked bored.
"The dinner is starting," she said. "Move."
The Valerius dining hall was an arena of arrogance. Twenty high-ranking family members sat around a table made of solid mana-crystal. Jaxen was seated at the very end, his plate empty while the others feasted on rare, mana-infused delicacies.
"A toast!" Lord Valerius shouted, raising a golden chalice. "To the most expensive trash-can in the city! May he last at least a month before he bursts!"
The table erupted in cruel laughter.
"I heard he was the top of his class in theory," an aunt remarked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Perhaps he can explain the theory of how it feels to have no soul?"
Jaxen ignored the insults, his eyes fixed on the walls. He wasn't listening to them; he was reading the runic security arrays etched into the architecture. He was looking for the weak points in the Spire's "Heart."
"Jaxen," Seraphina said, leaning toward him. Her voice was low. "You haven't touched your water. Are you afraid we poisoned it?"
"Poison would be a mercy compared to this conversation," Jaxen replied.
The table went silent. Lord Valerius’s grip tightened on his chalice until the gold groaned. "You have a lot of spirit for a man whose father is currently working the midnight shift in the toxic vents. One word from me, and he doesn't come home."
Jaxen’s eyes turned pitch black for a split second. The temperature in the room seemed to drop by ten degrees.
"Dinner is over," Seraphina interrupted, sensing the shifting tension. "It’s time for the first session. Jaxen, with me."
They entered the Purification Chamber, a room lined with lead and obsidian. In the center was a single stone pillar with silver shackles.
"Strip to the waist and bind yourself," Seraphina commanded.
Jaxen obeyed, his lean, scarred physique exposed. Seraphina sat cross-legged on a raised dais opposite him.
"My magic is 'Solar-Grade,'" she explained, her voice losing its edge and becoming clinical. "It’s powerful, but it produces 'Scorched Residue' in my veins. If I don't purge it, I’ll burn from the inside out. Usually, we use expensive crystals to absorb the waste. But you... you’re a Void. You will take it all."
She closed her eyes. A blinding, golden aura erupted from her body. The heat was instantaneous, turning the room into a furnace.
"Prepare yourself," she warned. "This will feel like liquid fire."
She slammed her palms onto the floor. Two arcs of jagged, black-gold lightning shot across the room, slamming into Jaxen’s chest.
Jaxen’s head snapped back. His muscles spasmed.
To Seraphina, it looked like he was in agony. She felt the massive discharge of toxic energy leaving her body and pouring into his "empty" vessel. She expected him to scream, to beg her to stop.
But Jaxen was smiling.
Internally, the System was screaming with notifications.
[Warning: Toxic Solar Mana Detected!] [Void Heart filtering... 10%... 40%... 100%.] [Conversion Complete: High-Grade Void Essence Refined.] [Level Up! Level 23... 25... 28!]
The "waste" they despised was the purest form of energy he had ever tasted. It was like pouring jet fuel into a race car.
After an hour, the light faded. Seraphina slumped, sweating and exhausted, but her mana-veins were clear. She looked up, expecting to see a charred corpse or a dying man.
Jaxen stood there, unbinding his wrists. His skin wasn't burned. In fact, he looked healthier, his eyes brighter, his posture more dominant.
"Is that it?" Jaxen asked, his voice steady. "I was expecting more from a Valerius."
Seraphina stared at him, her Golden Eye spinning frantically. "Impossible. That was enough waste-energy to blow up a building. How are you still standing?"
"Maybe I'm just a very big trash-can," Jaxen said, walking toward the door.
He stopped at the threshold, looking back at her. "By the way, you should tell your father to check the Spire's Southern Stabilizers. I noticed a hairline fracture in the mana-flow while we were eating. If it blows, this whole Spire drops into the Sinks."
He walked out before she could respond.
Back in his cell, Jaxen closed his eyes.
[Current Void Storage: 15%.] [New Skill Unlocked: Void Vision (Phase 1).]
He activated the skill. The stone walls of his cell became transparent, revealing the glowing "nervous system" of the building. He tracked the golden veins of mana as they pumped through the floors, all leading down... deeper than the sub-basement.
He followed the lines with his eyes until they converged on a massive, pulsating red light deep in the bedrock.
The Blood-Core.
Jaxen’s heart raced. The Valerius family wasn't just using mana; they were siphoning the life-force of the city’s ancestors.
Suddenly, a notification flashed red in his vision.
[Warning: Unauthorized Soul-Trace Detected. You are being watched.]
Jaxen looked at the corner of his ceiling. A tiny, invisible magical eye was hovering there.
Someone knew he wasn't just a battery.
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Chapter 13
The repair shack in the Lower District shook with the vibrations of the celebratory stamping outside. Word of the "Rusty Miracle" had spread through the slums faster than a steam-leak. The odds on "Zane" had shifted from 500-to-1 to a modest 50-to-1.Inside the garage, however, there was no partying.Jaxen lay underneath the chassis of the Mark-I, sparks showering down around him as he welded a reinforced strut. He wasn't using a welding torch. He was using his index finger, channeling a concentrated beam of high-frequency friction."Zane, stop!" Mila paced back and forth, clutching a handful of greasy credits—their winnings from a side-bet she had placed at the last second. "We have money now! We can buy a real hydraulic pump. We can buy a targeting computer! Why are you melting down toaster ovens and welding them to the legs?"Jaxen slid out from under the mech, his face smeared with oil. "Because hydraulic pumps are loud, Mila. And targeting computers can be hacked. I’m building so
Chapter 12
The "Iron-Scrap" qualification hall was a cavernous warehouse that smelled of stale beer and engine grease. Hundreds of mechanics and pilots crowded the floor, surrounding massive registration desks. The air was filled with the deafening roar of engines being revved and the clanking of metal fists testing their hydraulics.Jaxen stood beside the Mark-I Loader, which Mila had affectionately named "Rusty." To the naked eye, it was an embarrassment—a humanoid shape made of mismatched plates, exposed wires, and a cockpit that looked like a welded coffin. It didn't gleam like the other mechs; it absorbed light, its surface dull and cold."Everyone is staring at us," Mila hissed, pulling her cap down low. "This was a mistake. Look at them, Zane. That’s a Titan-Class Excavator over there. And that one? That’s a military-grade Striker. We’re going to get laughed out of the building.""Let them laugh," Jaxen said, wiping his hands on a rag. "Laughter is distracting. Fear is focused."He patted
Chapter 11
The northern border of Xylos was marked by the Wall of Sighs, a massive barrier of jagged, soot-stained steel that separated the magic-rich spires from the industrial wasteland of the Iron Duchy. Here, the air didn't smell like ozone and lavender; it smelled of burning coal, hot grease, and the bitter tang of sulfur.Jaxen stood at the end of a long, miserable line of refugees and laborers, his face partially obscured by a hooded traveler’s cloak. He had suppressed his Void Heart to the point of near-extinction. To any scanner or mana-sensitive guard, he was exactly what his forged papers claimed: Zane, a Level 3 scrap-mechanic with a faulty mana-vein and zero prospects.[System Notification: Stealth Mode Active.] [Void Presence: 0.001% (Undetectable).] [Warning: Local environment is saturated with Kinetic and Thermal energy. Siphon efficiency reduced by 40% unless physical contact is made.]"Next!" a guard barked.The guard wasn't wearing the elegant golden silk of the Sun-Guards. He
Chapter 10
The sky above Xylos was no longer a sky; it was a throat. The "Absolute Eclipse" had solidified into a swirling, obsidian canopy that pulsed with a slow, rhythmic violet light, echoing the heartbeat of the Void-Engine deep below. Within the city walls, the air was eerily still, but beyond the dome, the world was screaming.Jaxen stood on the precipice of the Aurelian Spire’s highest balcony, his white hair whipping in the chaotic winds generated by the clashing energies. Below him, the once-proud "Sun-Guards" were throwing down their spears, kneeling in the streets as the darkness washed over them. They weren't kneeling out of loyalty—they were kneeling because the very air had become too "heavy" for those who relied on stolen light.[System Notification: Level 100 Stabilized.] [Status: Global Threat Level - SSS.] [Awaiting Directive: Expand or Consolidate?]"Jaxen."The voice was soft, but in the silence of the Void, it sounded like a bell. He didn't turn. He knew the resonance of he
Chapter 9
Lord Valerius stared at the dust of his ancestral staff as it slipped through Jaxen’s fingers. The silence in the Throne Room was absolute, broken only by the whimpering of the advisors who had crawled into the corners like beaten dogs."You... you are a monster," Valerius hissed, his voice trembling. "The world will not stand for this. The other Spires—The Iron Duchy, the Lunar Sect—they will see what you are. They will burn Xylos to the ground to kill you!""Let them watch," Jaxen said.He moved so fast the air itself shrieked. He grabbed Valerius by the golden breastplate and slammed him into the throne. The impact shattered the mana-crystal seat, sending shards flying like diamonds.[Skill Activated: Soul-Rend.] [Siphoning the Valerius Bloodline...]Jaxen didn't kill him instantly. He reached into the man’s soul and began to pull. The golden mana that gave Valerius his youth and strength was dragged out in shimmering, agonizing strands. The Chancellor’s skin began to wrinkle; his
Chapter 8
The descent into the lowest levels of the Spire felt like walking into the throat of a dying god.Jaxen strode through the corridors of the sub-basement, his every footfall a death knell for the Valerius dynasty. Behind him, Seraphina followed in a daze. She had spent her entire life believing that mana was the only true currency of the universe, yet here was a man who moved through the most concentrated magical fields in the world as if they were nothing more than a light breeze.[System Notification: Proximity to Blood-Core—200 Meters.] [Warning: Ambient Mana Pressure is exceeding safe limits for biological entities.] [Void Heart Status: Overclocking. Storage: 92%.]"Jaxen, stop," Seraphina gasped, clutching her chest. Her Golden Eye was weeping tears of light. "The pressure... it’s too much. Not even my father comes down here without a Level 9 Aegis Suit. Your skin... it’s starting to smoke."Jaxen didn't turn back. "The smoke isn't from the heat, Seraphina. It’s the world trying t
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