Global Lords: Building the Strongest Civilization with SSS Rank Talent

"We do not know the name," Tyler whispered from the corner of his cage. He kept his eyes locked on Jason's mangled corpse. "None of us know."

"He is telling the truth," Sarah chimed in frantically. "We really have no idea who that person was."

Rubedo frowned. "How do you lack the identity of your own classmate?"

Jessica pushed herself up from the floor and wrapped her arms around her stomach. "What are you talking about? The official invitation clearly stated every alumni could bring up to two guests with them to the banquet."

Rubedo processed the variable. 'A plus-one introduces a massive blind spot into the timeline.' "That alters absolutely nothing. Even if the thirtieth person was an external guest, one of you physically brought them into that hall. One of you knows their identity. Speak the name."

Marcus grabbed the iron bars of his cage and rattled them violently. His fear finally shattered into pure, cornered hysteria.

"Are you enjoying this?" Marcus screamed. He glared at Rubedo with manic eyes. "Is this part of your sick game? You come down here playing these twisted interrogation games just to drag out your petty revenge! You have all the power now! Just kill us and stop pretending!"

Rubedo raised his synthesized hand to snap Marcus's neck.

"Red."

The single word echoed through the dungeon. Elena finally lifted her head from her knees and looked directly at the violet flames consuming Krug's face. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked. Her voice cracked under the sheer terror of speaking out of turn. "You were the one who brought the girl with you."

Rubedo froze. He lowered his hand and stared at Elena through the bent iron bars. Complete bafflement cascaded through his mind. He had lived his entire life on Earth in absolute isolation. He had zero friends and no family. He attended that ten-year reunion completely alone.

The horrific realization crept into his thoughts. Either someone or something had completely altered his own memories of his past life, or the classmates were playing a trick on him.

Rubedo pushed down the rising panic. He refused to believe a foreign entity had compromised his own mind. He had isolated himself entirely on Earth and possessed perfect retention of his past life.

"Describe her," Rubedo commanded. "Tell me exactly what this girl looked like."

Elena shrank back against the stone wall. She wrapped her arms tightly around her knees. "She wore a faded silver dress. Her hair was completely white. She had no irises or pupils—just solid silver eyes. She never spoke a single word to anyone. She just held your hand and stared directly at the ceiling the entire night."

The moment Elena spoke the description, a massive red warning panel materialized across Rubedo's vision. The translucent interface bled crimson light over the dark dungeon.

[ WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED NARRATIVE THREAD DETECTED. ]

[ CLASS C ANOMALY IDENTIFIED. ]

[ MENTAL ENCRYPTION BREACHED. ]

The game engine actively detected the uncovered secret. Rubedo forced his consciousness inward to verify Elena's claim. He scoured his own memories of the banquet hall. He found a massive, gaping void situated right beside him in his mental recollection. He possessed a perfect picture of the room, the decorations, and the twenty-eight classmates.

However, he couldn't recall just how he got to the hall. He just read the invitation, and then he was there.

The realization triggered an immediate and violent reaction. His SSS-Rank 100x Growth Multiplier clashed forcefully with the artificial mental block. The systemic paradox ripped through Krug's synthesized vessel.

Violet flames erupted outward in a devastating shockwave. The iron cages glowed white-hot and warped outward from the epicenter. The captives screamed and scrambled away from the intense heat.

Rubedo dropped to one knee and gripped his skull with both hands. The synthesized scales on Krug's face splintered into jagged glass shards. Golden blood poured from his eyes and mouth.

The game engine fought his divine soul for dominance over the missing memory and threatened to tear his Apostle vessel apart.

Rubedo forced Krug's knees off the stone floor and fought the violent backlash tearing through his mind. The red warning panels continued flashing across his vision. He ignored the system alerts and scanned the terrified faces trapped inside the cages.

"Isabella," Rubedo commanded. "You won the regional art competitions back in Miami."

Isabella pressed her back against the bent iron bars of her cell and nodded frantically.

Rubedo manipulated his mana to materialize a flat slab of white stone and a piece of blackened charcoal. He levitated the items through the iron grate and dropped them directly at her feet.

"Draw her," Rubedo ordered. "Recreate the exact face Elena just described."

Isabella scrambled forward and grabbed the charcoal. Her hands shook as she dragged the black chalk across the white stone.

She sketched the outline of a girl with long hair and empty eyes. The scraping sound echoed through the quiet dungeon block while the other classmates watched in complete silence.

Isabella finished the portrait and held the stone slab up for Rubedo to view.

Rubedo stared at the drawn face. A strange sense of familiarity washed over his thoughts. He knew those solid eyes and that specific facial structure. He had definitely seen this woman somewhere before.

He searched his memories to place her identity, yet the exact origin completely eluded his grasp.

The glowing red warning prompts suddenly expanded. The game engine registered his active resistance against the mental block and escalated its response.

A physical counterattack erupted inside the dungeon. The translucent interface shattered into chains of glowing red code. The digital links whipped across the corridor and lashed tightly around Krug's wrists and ankles. The chains seared right into the synthesized scales.

The system engaged a localized quarantine zone. The red chains forcefully yanked Rubedo's consciousness downward. The game engine attempted to drag his mind out of the mortal plane to completely scrub the anomaly from his soul.

Rubedo evaluated the physical toll on the vessel. The game engine's quarantine protocol threatened to permanently destroy Krug's newly synthesized body within seconds.

'I have the visual description of the girl,' Rubedo thought. 'I can find her origin without sacrificing him.'

He manually activated the descent cancellation sequence. The violet fire instantly vanished from the dungeon block. The crushing cosmic density evaporated.

Rubedo's consciousness tore out of the mortal plane and shot upward, depositing him directly back onto his throne inside the orbital sanctuary.

Down in the Tarnstead prison, Krug collapsed to his hands and knees. The digital red chains faded into nothingness. He blinked a few times and shook his head to clear the disorientation of the sudden possession. He planted his boots against the stone floor and pulled himself upright.

The captive Earthlings pressed themselves against the back walls of their ruined cages. Tyler gripped the buckled iron bars and stared at the towering Apostle.

"Red?" Tyler called out. "Red, are you still in there?"

Krug looked at the cowering prisoners. He glanced down at the mangled corpse of Jason lying against the metal grate.

"The Sovereign has returned to his sanctuary," Krug answered.

He turned his back on the cages and walked down the corridor. He pushed through the reinforced doors at the entrance of the cell block and stepped into the outer hallway. A squad of Vanguard guards immediately stood at attention and saluted him.

"Relocate those prisoners to a different holding facility," Krug ordered the guards. "The Sovereign damaged their current cages beyond repair."

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