SYSTEM ASCENSION

Larzan burst into laughter at his achievement.

"You never expected that, did you! No one can replace their head!"

Elias simply turned around and walked away.

This confused Larzan and he stopped laughing. He had expected Elias to come at him in anger so he could use the same skill hopefully, but the boy had just walked away?

"Is he dead?" The visitors were already muttering.

"That hurts."

Zeal’s voice startled him. In fact, it startled everyone in the room except Elias. They realised how much of a monster they were actually dealing with.

With a terrifying speed, his head started knitting back into existence.

"I...I .. killed you..." Larzan crawled back. ".. you’re not... human..."

Zeal’s head hadn’t completely regenerated before he raised the dagger and plunged it into the man’s chest.

"Arrk! Aaarrrggghhh!"

His skull finished knitting together. Strands of hair, now noticeably longer, slipped over his eyes as he calmly twisted the dagger deeper into Larzan’s chest.

Larzan grabbed his hand in a desperate attempt to survive, but he just watched Zeal’s face as darkness began to take him. Or at least, that’s what he thought.

He opened his eyes again. The pain was gone.

"What?"

Before he could react, the dagger came down on his neck.

"Aaarrrggghhh!"

Blood pumped out without restrain, and once again, darkness claimed him while seeing Zeal’s cold eyes.

Until he woke up again to the same eyes, and the dagger descended.

Zeal did it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again...

No pain. More stabs. Die. Return.

The rest stared in horror. They didn’t understand, but were somehow able to grasp what was happening. He was rewinding time in the man’s aspect, while they watched on a normal time flow.

"What is..."

"Is it possible to have two abilities?" The prime minister staggered back to his seat.

Murmuring grew and died. No one knew how long, or how many times Larzan went through the ordeal.

It only stopped when Larzan was willing to talk.

"...West..." the man finally rasped, his voice cracking.

Zeal stopped.

"The western district...Abandoned... sewage tunnels..."

A weak laugh escaped him.

"The entrance... is hidden beneath... the old waterworks... it’s a portal..."

Zeal remained silent.

Larzan continued speaking, words pouring out faster now, as though he feared stopping more than continuing.

"There are... Fifty guards... rotating every six hours..."

"The children aren’t kept there long..."

"They’re... moved before sunset..."

"The orders..."

He coughed.

"They came from..."

He forced himself to look at Zeal.

Before he could say further, his body convulsed. He grasped Zeal’s hand as he struggled to breath. His eyes pleaded for help, but the league master only stared at him till his head blotted and exploded.

"Is that a..." The patriarch gasped.

"He revealed too much information." Another muttered.

Zeal silently stood up. He walked back to the table, taking off his clothes and cleaning his face with it. The number ’twenty’ that Larzan had muttered was indeed encrypted on his collarbone.

The patriarch approached him.

"I’ll mobilize..."

"I’ll go alone." He cut off the man.

"Sorry?"

"Are you slow?"

The patriarch stepped back. "I apologize."

Zeal glanced back at Elias. "Go to the branch. Tell the numbers to evaluate the west. I don’t want any interference."

"I don’t feel like it." Elias snorted.

The rest of them paled. Was he going against Zeal’s orders?!

A brief moment passed, then Zeal released a breath to calm himself.

Elias was right. He wasn’t being himself.

He smiled. "I’ll fry you a hundred buns."

"Hundred and fifty." Elias cut in.

"Deal."

"Eehh?"

"Clean up!" Zeal clapped.

The first to move was not the visitors, but the chief servant.

"Clean the blood before it stains the marble!"

"Yes, ma’am!"

Servants hurried into movement. Some dragged Larzan’s corpse away, carefully avoiding the expanding pool of blood. Mages hurriedly activated cleansing spells across the floor.

Outside the dining hall, armored guards rushed in. "What happened?!"

The Dashad patriarch didn’t even look at them. "Seal the manor."

"Yes, Patriarch!"

"No one leaves. No one enters. Anyone associated with Merchant Larzan is to be detained immediately."

"...Immediately?"

"I don’t repeat myself."

The captain saluted and disappeared, barking orders before he had even reached the corridor.

The Prime Minister had already produced a communication crystal.

Its surface shimmered before the King’s projection materialized.

"What is so urgent that—"

His words stopped when he saw the face of the league master behind him.

"...Prime Minister."

"We found the disposal hideout."

"And?"

The old man’s expression darkened.

"It concerns nobles."

"...How many?"

"We don’t know yet."

"...Who’s leading the operation?"

The Prime Minister glanced toward Zeal.

"The League Master."

Meanwhile, Elias was already halfway down the corridor, hands tucked into his pockets, and a communication device hung around his ear as he talked to Remy.

Several guards instinctively stepped aside as he passed. No one dared to stop him till he exited the Dashad household.

Moments later, several servants approached Zeal cautiously, each carrying something different. He had already taken another bath.

One held a neatly folded black uniform, and another carried a white towel. A third silently knelt beside him with polished boots.

He just stared out the window as they dressed him. One draped the fresh uniform over his shoulders. Someone combed his now waist-length hair behind his back.

Only then did one of the maids mutter.

"...League Master."

"Hm?"

"Your hair..."

Zeal looked over his shoulder.

"Should we reduce the length?"

"Back to its previous length."

The maid nodded nervously.

___

Before the sun rose, guards had been mobilized on standby.

The location had been confirmed.

The west had been evacuated.

Sound league members had surrounded the location.

Hours later, night had swallowed the western district.

The abandoned waterworks stood in silence, its rusted pipes groaning beneath the wind. Cracked concrete stretched across the forgotten facility, vines swallowing what little remained of civilization.

A lone figure approached. Black coat, hands in his pockets, no escort nor army.

Zeal stopped before the massive drainage tunnel.

"...Hidden beneath the old waterworks." He lifted a manhole cover with one hand and saw the portal. "So this is it."

He stepped inside.

The other side was a tunnel in a different world.

Ancient brickwork dripped with stagnant water mixed with damp earth and dried blood.

Eventually, he heard voices.

"...Shift ends in two hours."

"I know."

Zeal slowed his steps until they became soundless. A faint light leaked through the corridor ahead.

Four guards.

A pair of children slept inside iron cages nearby.

The guards hadn’t noticed him.

"...You hear the news?"

"The merchant?"

"Yeah."

"Damn shame."

The second man snorted.

"Serves him right."

"You’re saying that because he’s dead."

"I’m saying that because he was disgusting."

A third leaned against the wall.

"...Still, this place won’t last long. The higher-ups said we’ll relocate before dawn. We don’t want the same thing that happened that time to happen again."

The youngest frowned.

"Speaking of that time, remember Number Twenty?"

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