A figure stepped out from the shadow of the gatehouse.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in the same deep-crimson uniform as the banners, a black cloak pinned at the shoulder with the Noxford crest.
Silver hair, sharp jaw, and eyes the color of storm clouds.
He looked like he could have been my father's brother.
Behind him, six armed guards fanned out, hands resting on the hilts of their blades.
Every one of them was staring straight at me.
The man stopped ten paces away.
His gaze flicked from my face to the faint shimmer of mana still clinging to my clothes like a second skin.
A slow, dangerous smile curved his lips.
"Well, well," he said, voice low and carrying easily across the distance. "The lost heir finally decides to show up. Took you long enough, cousin."
My pulse spiked.
Cousin?
Nox's voice chimed in my head before I could even open my mouth.
"Unique signal confirmed.
Blood relation detected.
Recommendation: Do not reveal full capabilities yet."
I kept my expression blank—the same poker face I'd perfected on Earth—and met the man's eyes.
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage," I said calmly. "You seem to know who I am.
Mind returning the favor?"
The man chuckled, but there was no warmth in it.
"Name's Kael Noxford.
Captain of the Noxford Guard… and the one who's been waiting fifty-six years for Levi's brat to finally walk through that portal."
I did the math instantly.
Eight years on Earth.
Seven Alexian days to one Earth day.
Fifty-six years.
The timeline aligned perfectly.
He had been waiting since the exact moment my father disappeared from my eighth birthday.
He took another step closer, the guards mirroring him like shadows.
"So tell me, Hsuya," he said, tasting my name like it left a bad flavor on his tongue, "did you come here to claim what's yours… or to die trying?"
The air between us crackled with mana—his, not mine—and for the first time since I'd stepped into Alexia, I realized infinite power didn't mean infinite safety.
Not when the family I'd come to find might want me dead.
"Huh? Dying?"
I tilted my head, letting a faint, tired smile touch my lips—the same one I used back at Nexon Academy when Zen thought he had me cornered.
"I didn't come here planning to die."
I raised my hand slightly, mana already stirring beneath my skin like liquid steel waiting to be shaped.
My voice stayed calm, almost bored.
"How about this?
Come at me—with all your bodyguards.
I'll kill every last one of them… but I'll leave you alive at the end.
If I win, you explain everything.
About this town, about the Noxfords, and especially about my father."
Kael's eyes narrowed, amusement flickering into something darker.
The six guards drew their blades in perfect unison, mana flaring around the steel in glowing arcs.
They were clearly well-trained—each one radiating the kind of power that would have terrified a normal newcomer.
"Arrogant little shit," Kael muttered. "Take him."
The fight began.
The first guard lunged with blinding speed, his sword trailing blue fire.
I didn't move my feet.
Instead, I extended my will through Mana Sharer, flooding the ground beneath him with a thin layer of liquid mana.
The moment his boot touched it, I hardened the surface into jagged spikes of solid mana.
He stumbled mid-stride, balance shattered.
Before he could recover, I shaped a whip of flexible mana from my left hand—thin as wire, edges sharpened to atomic precision.
One flick, and it sliced cleanly through his sword arm at the elbow.
The guard screamed as his weapon and forearm hit the dirt.
I followed with a casual thrust of solid mana straight through his chest, the spike forming and dissolving in less than a second.
He dropped without another sound.
Two more charged from the sides.
I used my brain, not brute force.
With Mana Matter, I created a wide disk of gaseous mana around my body, then rapidly cooled and condensed it into a transparent shield.
Their blades bounced off with sparks, the impact feeding me data on their strength through the vibration.
While they reeled, I shared a burst of mana into the air itself, turning the space between us into a dense, liquid-like fog.
Visibility dropped to zero for them.
For me—connected directly through the System—it was crystal clear.
I stepped forward silently, formed two needle-thin mana blades in my palms, and drove them upward under their chins.
Precise.
Surgical.
Both guards collapsed, throats pierced, mana cores shattered before they could even cast a spell.
The remaining three hesitated, fear creeping into their stances.
Kael barked an order, and they attacked together, coordinating with practiced formation—flanking left, right, and overhead with a leaping strike.
I dominated the fight completely.
Instead of meeting them head-on, I manipulated the battlefield.
I poured mana into the dirt road, creating a shallow pool of liquid mana that looked like ordinary mud.
As the left and right guards stepped in, I flash-solidified it around their ankles, locking them in place like statues.
The overhead attacker came down with a crushing overhead slash.
I simply tilted my head and let the gaseous mana layer around me absorb the momentum, then redirected it back as a solid hammer of force that smashed into his ribs.
Bones cracked audibly.
He flew backward, crashing into the gatehouse wall.
The two trapped guards struggled, hacking at the solid mana with their swords.
I didn't give them the chance.
I shaped my right hand into a long, flexible mana blade—more like a whip this time—and swung it in a wide, horizontal arc.
The edge, sharpened beyond mortal sight, passed through both of them at waist level without resistance.
Two clean halves fell to the ground, blood barely having time to spill before the mana edges cauterized the wounds with searing heat.
The fight had lasted less than two minutes.
Six elite guards lay dead or dying around me, their bodies sliced, impaled, or crushed with terrifying efficiency.
I hadn't even broken a sweat.
Infinite mana meant I could experiment, adapt, and overwhelm without ever running dry.
My Intelligence stat analyzed Kael's micro-expressions, his mana fluctuations, and the subtle fear now leaking into his posture.
Kael stood alone now, his face pale, sword trembling slightly in his grip.
"You… what the hell are you?" he whispered.
I walked forward slowly, my voice steady and cold.
"Your turn.
Explain.
Everything."
Kael swallowed hard, the fight completely drained from him.
He dropped his sword and fell to his knees.
"Your father… Levi Noxford… I killed him," he said, voice shaking. "Fifty-six years ago.
Right after he returned through the portal.
He was getting too powerful, too close to uniting the entire Noxford bloodline under his vision.
I couldn't let that happen.
I poisoned his mana core during a family council meeting.
Made it look like an accident from portal sickness.
I took control of everything—Zutopia, the estates, the mines, the alchemical labs, every asset your father built."
He looked up at me, desperation in his storm-cloud eyes.
"But I swear, I'll give it all back.
Every title, every gold coin, every secret.
Just… forgive me.
Spare my life, and it's all yours."
I stared down at him for a long moment, letting the silence stretch.
On the surface, I looked calm.
Inside, I went to work.
Infinite mana meant endless control.
Taking a step forward, I pushed a thread-thin stream of mana through the air and into Kael's chest via Mana Sharer.
It bypassed his physical senses entirely, weaving directly into his mana core and wrapping around his nervous system.
I wasn't just intimidating him; I was systematically rewriting his survival instincts, binding the very flow of his core to my own so that defiance would feel physically impossible to him.
A faint smile touched my lips.
"I forgive you, Kael."
He blinked, a profound sense of relief washing over his face as the invisible tethers took root.
In that moment, he stopped being a threat and became an extension of my will.
He would serve me now, completely convinced that choosing loyalty was his own desperate, clever idea.
"Stand up," I said softly. "You're going to help me take back everything that belongs to the Noxfords.
Starting today."
Kael rose, eyes shining with a deep, unbreakable devotion.
"Yes… my lord."
I turned toward the gates of Zutopia, the weight of my father's legacy settling comfortably on my shoulders.
The real game had only just begun.