The gold light of the Astra Guild airship didn't just illuminate the Iron Plaza; it scrutinized it.
Rex Halvard stood in the center of the carnage, his massive claymore still smoking from the heat of Sovereign's Judgement. Around him, the bifurcated remains of the Veil Behemoth were dissolving into violet ash, but the expected roar of the system was absent. There was no orchestral fanfare, no blinding pillar of light signifying a rank ascension.
[ System Status: Evaluating Event Claim... ]
[ Discrepancy Detected: 15% of Core Credit Unaccounted For ]
"Scouts!" Rex's voice cracked with a fury that made his golden aura flare violently. "Search the perimeter! Nothing survives a Rift explosion of this magnitude. If there's a scavenger hiding in the rubble, find them."
High in the skeletal remains of the clock tower, Kael didn't breathe. He pressed his back against a rusted support beam, his hand firmly over Lira's mouth. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the silver-clad scouts now fanning out across the Plaza like a swarm of hornets.
[ Status: Zero Index Mask Active ]
[ Detected Narrative Weight: 0.00% ]
To the scouts' high-tech ocular implants, Kael was no different from a piece of rubble or a discarded tin can. He was a literal blind spot in their reality.
"We have to go," Lira whispered against his palm as he finally released her. "If they find the Narrative Siphon, they'll know."
"They won't find it," Kael said, his voice a low vibration. He looked down at the device in his hand. The Aether-Glass shards had turned a dull, matte black, having served their purpose as a conductor for the stolen credit. "But Rex is smart. He'll realize the System didn't just 'glitch.' He'll realize he's being hunted by something he can't see."
Kael's eyes narrowed as he watched Rex Halvard strike a nearby pillar in frustration, the impact shattering the stone into dust.
[ Index Devour: Integration Complete ]
[ Current State: 1.2% toward Stage 2: 'Event Thief' ]
A cold, tingling sensation began to spread from Kael's chest to his fingertips. It wasn't power in the traditional sense—his muscles weren't bulging, and his Soul Index remained a stubborn, hollow 0. Instead, it was an expansion of his perception. He could see the faint, shimmering threads of Narrative Weight connecting the scouts to their leader, and the leader to the airship above.
He was beginning to see the puppet strings of the world.
"Lira," Kael said, turning toward the dark maintenance tunnels that led deeper into the underbelly of Nerathis. "The Aether-Glass you found... where did you get it?"
Lira hesitated, her gaze shifting toward the Surface Realm spires. "The Sector 4 waste-chutes. Why?"
"Because that wasn't a random drop from a drone," Kael replied, his mind already calculating the next ten moves. "Rex Halvard didn't just come here to kill a Behemoth. He came here to retrieve something the Behemoth was guarding."
Kael looked back one last time at the furious "Hero" in the Plaza.
"And since I've already taken his credit," Kael whispered, a dark, clinical light in his eyes, "I might as well take his prize, too."
[ Narrative Alert ]
[ New Objective: The Hidden Cache of Sector 4 ]
[ Danger Level: High ]
[ Current Narrative Weight of Kael Veyron: 0.00% (Still Unrecorded) ]