The morning sun over Area 17 struggled to pierce the heavy veil of industrial smog that permanently hung over the lower sectors. Cold, damp air swept through the concrete avenues, carrying the metallic tang of transit rails and distant exhaust.
Hide Volter stepped out through the main exit doors of the General Hospital, taking a long, quiet breath. Having been officially discharged after his mandatory physical assessment, he adjusted his cloths and began walking down the pavement. He had no specific destination in mind. His mind was cluttered with the lingering weight of his awakening, and what had conspired yesterday, this was the worst coincidence of his life.
He just walked, his boots making a steady, rhythmic cadence against the stone.
A hundred yards behind him, blending seamlessly into the morning crowd of commuters, was Rosh.
Assuming his unassuming template of a plain, harmless teenager, Rosh kept his green eyes locked onto Hide’s silver hair. Rosh had been lurking around the complex for hours, waiting for the boy to finally step outside. He had been unable to infiltrate the hospital building itself. His spatial perception had warned him of two powerful A-Rank Exterminators stationed near the upper wards—one of them being the fierce, golden-blonde woman with blood-red eyes he had spotted the day before.
Rosh had quickly deduced that the blonde woman was directly affiliated with Commander Maddox. Just the thought of that auburn-haired human sent an involuntary shudder through Rosh’s chest. The memory of Maddox’s effortless physical domination, his compressed white mana, and the terrifying speed that had forced an Overlord to flee in sheer panic still lingered in Rosh’s body like a ghost of pain. It irked him beyond measure. The fact that a mere human could instill such primal terror in his soul made Rosh’s blood boil with quiet, venomous rage.
Furthermore, the higher entities on Rilth had explicitly commanded Rosh not to kill Hide Volter with his own hands.
’I won’t strike him directly,’ Rosh thought, his jaw tightening as he maintained his distance. ’But I cannot simply let him live. He is weak. He has only just awakened, possessing no registered talent and a fragile core. If I cannot slay him myself, I will simply deliver him into a trap he cannot possibly survive.’
Rosh had already forged a dark alliance with Garath, the ancient Overlord of Death currently sealed behind Vincent’s S-Rank barrier on the ocean block. Garath still possessed a massive stronghold back on Rilth, currently ruled by one of his six loyal death servants. Garath had granted Rosh permission to link that distant fortress to Earth, converting the territory into a 3-Star Dungeon Gate.
The scheme served two brilliant purposes. First, the corrupted, dark-mana environment and the legion of undead would effortlessly consume Hide Volter. Second, Garath had devised a desperate plan for his own liberation: once Hide or another human entered the gate, Garath’s servant would kill the intruders, destroy their soul, and take over the physical vessel. Garath would then transfer his own core consciousness into the servant’s newly acquired soul, effectively bypassing Vincent’s spatial barrier and allowing the Overlord of Death to walk the surface of Earth once again.
As Rosh trailed Hide down the commercial avenue, preparing to execute the first phase of the plan, his spatial senses suddenly picked up a strange anomaly.
’Wait...’ Rosh’s eyes narrowed into sharp slits.
He wasn’t the only one tracking Hide Volter.
Positioned on opposite sides of the street were two other men, moving with stealthy, practiced discipline. One was dressed in a plain civilian trench coat, while the other wore an unmarked tactical jacket. Their mana signatures were fundamentally different, proving beyond a doubt that they belonged to entirely separate factions.
’Why are there humans following him?’ Rosh frowned, his mind working rapidly. ’Is it because of that blonde Exterminator? Or are other syndicates already spying on the boy?’
Up ahead on the sidewalk, Hide suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Rosh watched in deadpan bewilderment as Hide raised his right hand and tapped his index finger against empty air. To anyone else, the boy looked as if he had lost his mind, poking at invisible translucent space, swiping his hand through the breeze as if reading floating words.
’Has he gone completely mad?’ Rosh thought dryly, watching the silver-haired boy interact with nothing.
Hide dismissed his System interface, adjusted his jacket, and abruptly turned away from the route leading to his residential apartment block in Unit 4M. Instead, he marched with clear intent toward the heavy concrete perimeter of Gate Training Facility 7.
Rosh followed silently. He knew he couldn’t walk through the facility’s main security checkpoint. He lacked the necessary municipal passes and Exterminator ID documents. However, physical clearance was irrelevant to an Overlord. Once Hide entered one of the training zones, Rosh could easily use his spatial authority from outside the building to manipulate the portal’s internal structure.
Rosh approached a shaded alleyway near the perimeter wall of Facility 7. He was just about to raise his gloved hand to channel a thread of spatial mana when a sudden, suffocating chill violently gripped his entire body.
An earth-shattering aura—quiet, flat, and heavy as an absolute mountain—descended over the street.
Rosh’s eyes widened to massive circles, his breath catching in his throat. He slowly turned his gaze toward the corner of the brick building where one of Hide’s followers had been standing.
Standing right beside that operative, leaning casually against the wall with his hands shoved into the pockets of his formal coat, was Commander James Maddox.
Rosh’s heart hammered against his ribs like a desperate war drum. Cold sweat poured down his neck, his muscles locking up in instinctual horror. Every survival instinct in his core screamed at him to tear open a spatial rift and flee to the farthest corner of Rilth. His knees trembled under the crushing weight of Maddox’s presence.
No! Rosh gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached, forcing his feet to stay glued to the dirt. ’I am a Primordial Overlord! It is not my way to run like a beaten dog again! I will stand my ground!’
Suppressing his mana output to absolute zero, Rosh melded into the deep shadow of an industrial dumpster, holding his breath and refusing to flee.
Out on the sidewalk, the operative who had been tailing Hide turned around, froze in sheer terror, and immediately bowed deeply to Commander Maddox. Maddox offered a brief, lazy wave of his hand, dismissing the agent, who hastily turned and departed. Meanwhile, the second follower—catching sight of the S-Rank Commander—panicked completely. The man ducked into an alley and sprinted away in a frantic rush, confirming to Rosh that he belonged to a separate faction terrified of being caught by top-tier authorities.
Maddox didn’t bother chasing him, but he knew of the person’s presence. He adjusted the collar of his brown coat, turned on his heel, and walked casually through the main entrance of Gate Training Facility 7.
From his hidden vantage point outside the glass observation dome, Rosh monitored the entire sequence using his heightened spatial perception.
Inside the facility lobby, the desk staff and regional manager almost tripped over themselves bowing to Commander Maddox. Maddox maintained a cheerful, boyish smile, handling the administrative staff with smooth, practiced ease. He bypassed standard helper assignments, smoothly overriding the registry to assign Hide to an isolated 1-Star Loop Gate.
Rosh watched the cunning Commander through the glass. Maddox made the entire setup look completely natural—as if he were merely an outsider, spiting facts for some new rookies. But Rosh understood Maddox’s true motive. Maddox was placing Hide inside a controlled environment to test the boy’s limits and evaluate his awakening potential from the safety of the observation deck.
’You want to test him, old man?’ A dark, vicious smirk spread across Rosh’s face. ’Then let us make this test truly grand.’
Down on the bay floor, the stasis barrier around Zone 2 hissed open. Hide Volter stepped onto the containment platform and walked cleanly into the bruised-purple vortex, his figure vanishing into the gate.
The exact second Hide crossed the threshold, Rosh acted.
Concealed in the alleyway, Rosh raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. A thread of pitch-black spatial authority shot from his fingertips, plunging straight into the facility’s external mana conduit.
Instantly, the ambient readings around Zone 2 went wild. The stable, bruised-purple vortex of the 1-Star Loop Gate violently destabilized, expanding to twice its original size and shifting.
Inside the facility lobby, red emergency sirens began to wail loudly.
"Warning! Gate Zone Two has undergone spontaneous rank advancement!" the automated alarm chimed frantically across the intercom.
From the observation deck, Commander Maddox’s brown eyes narrowed as he stared at the changing gate.
Outside in the alleyway, Rosh lowered his hand, a cold, triumphant grin spreading across his face as he vanished into the shadows.
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