In the spacious and cozy ‘lounge’ of the Special Investigation Squad, Celestia Black and John were looking at the campus, their eyes focused on the crowd of people opposing each other.

Most of the students were either asleep or readying themselves in the dorms, so there weren’t many onlookers, to begin with. Those who happened to witness such a sight were wise enough to keep their distance and opt for being quiet spectators.

“From one hole to the other. I almost pity the boy.” Remarked Celestia as she kept her eyes on Zeke.

While it was true she had first disliked him, her impression of him slightly changed. His attitude notwithstanding, she knew that he was a good-natured youth, one whose circumstances pushed him to become an impassive and overall gloomy person.

John, who stayed a couple of paces behind the girl, remained silent for a long time before a chilling voice came out of his now unsealed lips.

“Prepare yourself.”

As she heard the Talking Sin out of nowhere, Celestia turned around and looked at the creepy mouth with utter astonishment.

It was clear that the Talking Sin had forcefully taken control of its host, its gleaming eyes shining with an ominous light.

It ignored Celestia’s menacing glare and approached the window, a low tune coming out of its mouth and echoing throughout the room.

“What do you want?”

“I’m here to observe, nothing more. You better look up ahead or else you’ll miss the spectacle.”

Using John’s body, the self-proclaimed ‘Alexia’ pointed at the darkening canopy with a wide and gloating smile.

“Behold, my pretty girl! This… this is the power of the Paths of Extinction System.”

Her voice was filled with excitement and eagerness, in contrast to the rising apprehensiveness within Celestia’s bosom.

A cluster of dark clouds gathered up, covering the clear blue sky and casting a looming shadow over the entirety of Erys.

“What’s happening?”

Celestia was confused by the sentient artifact’s words, but she instinctively kept her eyes glued on the darkened canopy, unknowingly holding her breath.

Just as ‘Alexia’ chuckled and offered a response, Zeke sprung into action…

…

Amidst the deafening silence flowing between the two opposing parties, Zeke finally made his move.

His legs transformed into lightning as ‘Over-drive’ was activated, followed thereafter by the instantaneous ‘Self-Injection’.

Zeke’s legs, empowered by the two skills, kicked the ground; His body vanished from his initial spot as the crisp sound of crackling lightning resounded across the campus.

With all the speed he could muster, he charged at Olivia, planning to end her life with one decisive and unstoppable attack.

The distance separating him from his target was less than 20 meters, which was crossed in the blink of an eye.

A thin and long arrow made of lightning was in his right hand, empowered by a high concentration of Voltage.

In that single breath, Zeke saw the environment around him blur as he appeared right in front of Olivia, who couldn’t react in time.

However, just as he was about to deal the finishing blow, his body jerked backward then got slammed to the ground, thudding loudly.

Zeke coughed a mouthful of blood as his body was pressed to the ground by an invisible yet outrageously strong power.

Elder Vas tapped his stick on the ground as he smiled at Zeke.

“You think I didn’t expect this?”

His shit-eating grin lasted only for half a second, disappearing when he saw the triumphant expression of the young man. He hastily turned his body, attempting to pull his daughter out of danger, but it was too late.

From the center of the swirling dark clouds up above, a single human-sized flash of blue light descended. It was akin to a God’s judgment, letting out an ear-piercing and soul-rending thunderclap as it struck the unsuspecting Olivia.

While it didn’t burst her body into nothingness like what happened with Anthony, it did cause an fountain of blood to appear.

Olivia didn’t even utter a cry as her body, which was riddled with countless holes and bloodied from head to toe, fall to the ground, much to everyone’s surprise.

Zeke felt the force bounding him get more intense, but he laughed it off.

Either way, he was going to be taken by the prosecutors, so he was determined to try this out lest he would regret it.

If Olivia stayed in her household, it would be close to impossible to kill her with his current powers. However, by coming here, she had condemned her fate and given him a golden chance to exact vengeance.

The sky returned to its clear and peaceful azure color, but the deafening thundering voltage was still engraved into everyone’s minds.

Even Principal Solas was speechless, a frown plastering across his wrinkled face.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The body-guards of Olivia along with her father were tending to the fatally injured Olivia. Meanwhile, Zeke tried to concentrate his powers again, in the hopes of breaking free.

Unfortunately, it was easier said than done as a torrent of System notifications appeared in front of his eyes.

All strength was drained out of his body, rendering him weak and helpless. However, this wasn’t the side-effect of Self-Injection, but a hindrance and a boon initiated by the System.

Zeke saw his stats decrease all the way to 1 point, all his skills get temporarily locked.

Elder Vas, enraged by what happened, turned his attention to the still-smirking youth. He was clearly about to kill Zeke, uncaring about Solas’ presence or anyone else’s.

Zeke felt the invisible burden crushing his body become more intense, but his ‘grandfather’ was interrupted by a rapid figure.

Maxine broke free from V and James’ grasp and rushed to her brother’s side. Alas, she was far too weak to make a difference and was blown to the back by Elder Vas’ frightening Gravity magic.

“Your life ends here… no one will s-”

Elder Vas’ unnecessary monologue was cut-off as the sun’s rays illuminating the sky were replaced by an unprecedented heat and a blinding crimson light.

It was like a giant meteor was crashing down, creeping closer to Erys with an astronomical velocity.

Within seconds, the ‘meteor’ crashed near Zeke’s, dealing no damage whatsoever to him, but canceling Elder Vas’ ability and forcing everyone to safely retreat to the back.

The situation was getting more ridiculous, especially when they saw the meteor was, in fact, a man; He had a tall frame, was completely bald, a wore a black tank top and loose military pants.

The Seat of Criminality, Sulong, had made his flashy and grand entrance. A circle of crimson flames surrounded his feet and rose to his waist, providing ample protection.

The man didn’t spare a glance to the flabbergasted onlookers, he bent down and lifted Zeke’s body.

“Never say I’m not loyal.” He muttered with a smug face.

The only response he got was a grunt from Zeke before his eyes closed and he lost consciousness, not due to the sustained wounds but because the System had temporarily poured all his stats into Sulong.

Elder Vas used his ability again, trying to eliminate the unknown man but a gigantic fireball manifested itself and flew straight at him.

“Who are you?”

Unlike his peer, Principal Solas was much more cautious of Sulong. He even raised a big protective barrier that resisted the uncontrollable sea of flames spreading around.

A pair of flaming and large wings spread from Sulong’s back as he cackled and replied,

“I used to be a con artist… hahahaha…”

Sulong bent his body then jumped, shooting toward the canopy and disappearing from view. From his abrupt appearance to his timely departure, not even a minute passed.

Everyone was left in awe as they saw the shining flaming light edge farther into the horizon until it turned into an unnoticeable speck.

“Ugh…”

After swiftly quelling the flames left by the fireball, Elder Vas waved his hand to get rid of the smoke then returned to his daughter’s side.

Soon enough, he stormed out of the campus, in a rush to save Olivia’s laugh. It was obvious that neither he nor Solas wanted to kill each other. The latter didn’t even obstruct him, instead, checking on the teachers and the nearby students.

…

“T-this…”

Celestia was as surprised as everyone else, her constricted pupils edging to the side and looking at Alexia, who was in a particularly good mood.

“What did I tell you? If Protocol 2 is lifted, then mortals can only dream of harming the user.”

“What’s Protocol 2?”

The Talking Sin playfully winked at the inquisitive girl and covered her mouth, acting as if she had mistakenly uttered something unspeakable.

After a brief silence, in which the artifact mused with itself, it licked its lips seductively then muttered,

“I could tell you a bit more… in exchange for a promise.”

As someone knowledgeable about the 3rd-grade Artifact nestling within John’s body, Celestia was both wary and hesitant.

A promise with the Talking Sin was like a covenant; an unbreakable oath, in which both parties would be in agreement to proceed with a fair and equivalent exchange.

Eventually, when she was done contemplating, Celestia clicked her tongue and begrudgingly asked,

“What do you want? What kind of promise?”

“It’s a simple one, actually. When the time comes, I want you to help me change hosts. Dear Johnny boy cannot sustain me forever and the longer I use him as a host, the more endangered he would be. It wouldn’t be fair to him, wouldn’t you agree?”

Celestia frowned but didn’t agree on the spot. As ‘Alexia’ had said, John indeed was suffering irreversible repercussions by ‘hosting’ the artifact.

He would gain a strong ability but that was in exchange for his Vitality, or to be accurate his Life Aether.

“Alright.”

“Fantastic! Now then… let me tell you an old story. It’s about a man named Edward Heart…”

*****

“Aaah!”

Jack almost pissed himself when he saw his best friend fall from the sky like a meteor. He had been driving the van out of the Sunken Metropolis only to push the brakes in a panic.

“A warning would’ve been appreciated! I’m shaking from fright!”

Jack pointed at his trembling hands, but Jack let out an embarrassed laugh.

“I still don’t have the hang of it.”

The unconscious Zeke was put at the back of the old white van, which cost the loan sharks a hefty sum despite its mediocre capabilities.

Once Sulong got into his passenger seat, the power-up he had been blessed with was gone and his unseen stats returned to normal.

“What now? Do we leave?”

“Not quite.”

Sulong pointed to the back of the vehicle and added, “He has some kind of a meeting later on. Drive to the hills North-West of here and find us a quiet spot.”

“Ugh… fine. I’m not used to impromptu retreats like this one.”

“Well, you better get used to it. After what our new friend had done, it seems will be more running than hunting.”

Jack sighed and shook his head while lamenting, “Why am I not surprised…”

…

After Sulong appeared and literally flew away while taking Zeke with him, Katrina didn’t know what to do.

She had maintained her distance and though she wasn’t as strong as Elder Vas, she was still going to risk her life to offer Zeke a possibility of escape. Yet, who would have thought the loan shark from before would appear and save the day, just like that.

Her initial assessment of him was undoubtedly precise. However, when he came, he was outrageously strong, to the point that Elder Vas’ ability wasn’t able to reach him, much less hinder him.

Edward had been notified and he should be on his way to Erys, but Katrina knew that it was too late. She sped toward her workplace of Sulong, but, unsurprisingly, no one was there.

The place had been meticulously cleaned and emptied, thus confirming her initial suspicions.

‘They run away.’

She was an assassin, not a tracker, therefore, she could only regroup with her superior and figure out a solution.

Neither Elder Vas nor the household would stand for what happened. They would relentlessly track down Zeke, and that’s while excluding the Department of Defense, which would be informed of the events by the prosecutors, consequently leading to a thorough investigation about Zeke Orland.