The locker room was a vacuum of tension. Rin Kusanagi's blue eyes were cold enough to freeze the air as her hand tightened on her katana until the leather wrap creaked.
Kaizer leaned against the lockers with his lungs burning from the mana drain. He looked at Rin and realized she was powerful, but she was not the only one in Japan who could end him. If he walked out that door the JAA High Council or the hidden veterans of the Prime Minister's guard would eventually hunt him down. He needed an ally or at least a witness who understood the stakes.
He decided to gamble.
"The Great Illumination of 2025 was not a gift, Rin. It was a dinner bell," Kaizer rasped, his voice sounding older than his years. "There are entities from a place called the Underworld. Warlords. Kang-Jun serves one known as the Lord of Malice. And I have a contract with the one who intends to conquer them all."
Kaizer's eyes flashed a brief, haunting violet. "I bluffed him at the stadium but the Malice in him is waking up. By midnight he will realize I am not yet the King I pretended to be. When he snaps he won't just kill me. He will turn Tokyo into a larder for his Wraiths."
Rin stayed silent. Her S-Rank intuition was screaming that he was a singularity. She realized that if she killed him now she might be killing Japan's only shield against what was coming.
"There is a restricted facility," Rin said, sheathing her sword with a sharp click. "The Time-Dilation Vault. An S-Rank Red Gate that has been slowed by JAA Chrono-Mages. One hour outside is ten hours inside. If you want to survive the night you have exactly sixty minutes to become the monster you claim to be."
The Hyper-Grind: The Killing Fields
As Kaizer stepped through the rift the world distorted into a blur of crimson and black.
The region was the Abyssal Killing Fields. With the time dilation active at ten times speed, Kaizer had the window he needed. He was currently Level 18.
For ten hours of perceived time Kaizer became a whirlwind of black death. He pushed his body past the point of failure while using the Eclipse Talon to harvest the ancient mana of Lost Legionnaires.
The notifications flickered in his peripheral vision as he climbed through the ranks. Level 19. Level 23. Level 27. Finally, he hit the milestone of Level 30.
Inside the Vault his evolution was silent. But outside the fabric of reality was thinning.
The Gala: The Descent of Malice
At the Imperial Hotel the International Gala turned into a scene of cosmic horror.
The lights did not just flicker. They dissolved into a sickly, oily smoke. Kang-Jun stood in the center of the ballroom with his face contorted in a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. He had realized the truth. The pressure he felt at the stadium was a hollow shell.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Kang-Jun's voice was no longer human. It was a chorus of a thousand tormented souls. "HOW DARE YOU PLAY WITH ME, FAKE KING!"
His shadow exploded and expanded like a black tide. Hundreds of Wraiths surged out while shrieking with a frequency that made the guests' ears bleed. The Korean supervisors and JAA S-Ranks lunged at once but they were met with a terrifying reality. Underworld power was fundamentally different from the System power granted to humans.
A Japanese S-Rank launched a pillar of holy fire but the shadows simply swallowed it. The Malice did not follow the laws of physics or mana-equivalence. It was the power of an Underworld Monarch, an entity that existed outside the design of the Gods.
High above the clouds the Celestial Bureau watched in stunned silence. The Gods who monitored Earth debated the manifestation. An Underworld Warlord had manifested a vessel without the proper penalty. If the Abyss broke the treaty the Gods would have to descend, but the penalty for their manifestation was too high because the Earth would crack under their weight.
They were curious and they were afraid. They were not the only ones watching either. In the depths of the Abyss other Monarchs turned their gaze toward Tokyo to see if the Fake King was truly dead.
"Hunter Kang-Jun has gone rogue!" Director Goro shouted over the screams. "Target is an Enemy of Mankind! Lethal force authorized!"
Kang-Jun laughed while backhanding a veteran Hunter through three concrete walls. "LETHAL FORCE? I am the end of your world!"
The Monarch's Arrival
"You're making too much noise."
The voice did not come from the room. It came from the floor. The shadows that Kang-Jun was using to terrorize the crowd suddenly turned gray and then violet.
A pillar of absolute darkness erupted from the center of the ballroom to incinerate the Wraiths in a flash of purple lightning.
Kaizer Gold walked out of the void.
He was wearing a midnight-black suit that seemed to drink the light of the fires around the room. He didn't mention a level or a system. He simply held the Eclipse Talon which had grown into a blade of shimmering, crystalline obsidian.
From the shadows behind him a new presence manifested. Sylas the Cursed Archer materialized on a dangling chandelier with a bow made of bone-shards drawn tight. An arrow of pure black light was aimed directly at Kang-Jun's forehead.
Kang-Jun froze. For the first time his Wraiths were not retreating because they were scared. They were retreating because they were submitting to a superior power.
"You called me a Fake King," Kaizer said, his voice echoing with a dual-tone that made even the Gods in the sky pause their deliberation. "Let's see if your Malice can handle a real Monarch."