Triple X System

The sky above was still a dusty purple, framed by the towering spires of white stone. But the peaceful atmosphere from yesterday was completely gone.

In the center of the courtyard sat a heavy iron cage, large enough to hold dozens of people. Inside were the refugees—the forty-seven humans Kyle, Elara, and Yua had pulled out of the dark sectors before the hell dump collapsed. They were huddled together, filthy, bruised, and shivering in the mountain chill.

Standing on a raised marble platform above the cage was Grand Duchess Seraphina Vance.

She wore a fresh dress of deep forest green, her staff held loosely in her right hand. Elara stood a few paces behind her mother, her arms crossed tight over her chest, a furious look on her face.

"Kyle!"

One of the refugees inside the cage—a middle-aged man with a bandaged arm named Marcus—spotted him and pressed against the iron bars. "Kyle, tell them! Tell them we aren’t monsters! We just got caught in the lower zone!"

Kyle stopped, his chest tightening. He looked toward the platform. "What is this?"

Seraphina didn’t look down at him. Her gaze remained fixed on the cage. "This is quarantine, boy. And standard Council protocol."

"Protocol?" Kyle took a step toward the platform, but the two guards immediately crossed their halberds to block him. "We saved those people! They were hiding in the ruins!"

"They were exposed to the hell dump’s core rift for weeks," Seraphina said, her voice flat and carrying easily across the stone floor. "Their mana veins are corrupted. Look at them."

She raised her staff and tapped it on the marble floor. A faint pulse of white-gold light swept across the cage.

Several of the refugees gasped as black, vein-like marks flared up on their skin—arms, necks, faces. It was the exact same dark residue Kyle had seen on the imps, though much fainter.

"Dark energy saturation," Seraphina continued cold-bloodedly. "It settles into the flesh of non-mages. In less than forty-eight hours, the corruption will reach their minds. They will turn into feral husks."

"That’s a lie!" Elara snapped from behind her mother. "Mom, they’re unawakened humans! If you use a basic purifying array—"

"A basic purifying array costs five hundred high-grade mana stones per head, Elara," Seraphina cut her off sharply, turning her head just enough to glare at her daughter. "The Clover Council does not spend resources on corrupted unawakened. They are a biohazard to the domain."

"So what are you going to do to them?" Kyle growled, his hands clenching into fists.

Seraphina finally looked down at him, her golden eyes cold and unreadable. "They will be incinerated before the Council convenes on the third day. It is the cleanest way to prevent the rot from spreading."

A wave of panicking screams broke out inside the cage. Marcus slammed his fists against the iron bars. "You can’t do this! We have families in the upper sectors!"

"Mom, stop!" Elara stepped forward, grabbing Seraphina’s arm. "Kyle almost died pulling them out of the chamber! You can’t just burn them!"

Seraphina shook Elara’s hand off her arm with an icy flick of her wrist. "I am the Grand Duchess of House Vance. I do what is necessary to keep this domain safe. You would do well to remember that, child."

She turned back to the guards. "Take him back to his cell."

"No," Kyle said.

[Kyle, don’t,] Snow warned immediately. [Your body can’t handle a spike right now!]

Kyle ignored her. He took a hard step forward, shoving past the halberds blocking his way. The guards stumbled back, surprised by the sudden movement.

"They survived the imps," Kyle shouted, glaring up at Seraphina. "They survived the collapse. You’re supposed to be a ruler, and you’re just going to slaughter them because it’s cheaper than saving them?"

Seraphina’s expression didn’t change, but the air in the courtyard instantly dropped twenty degrees. Frost cracked across the white stone beneath Kyle’s boots.

"You speak bold words for a parasite’s nest," Seraphina said softly.

She pointed the tip of her staff straight at Kyle’s chest.

A sudden force hit him like a rushing wall of water. Kyle was slammed backward onto the hard ground, skidding ten feet across the frost-covered stone. He gasped, grabbing his chest as the amber crystal beneath his shirt flared with a violent, blinding light.

THUMP.

The heartbeat rang out through the courtyard like a muffled cannon shot.

THUMP.

[Warning!] Snow yelled in his mind, her voice spiking with alarms. [Entity response triggered! External pressure is threatening the seal! It’s waking up!]

Black tendrils exploded out from Kyle’s chest, burning straight through his clothes. They didn’t just crawl over his skin this time—they whipped out into the air around him, dark, misty spikes that hissed as they touched the frost on the ground.

The refugees screamed and shrank back into the center of their cage. The guards pulled their swords, forming a shield wall around Seraphina’s platform.

"Kyle!" Elara yelled, trying to run toward him, but her mother held out an arm, pinning her back with a barrier of golden light.

"Look at him, Elara," Seraphina commanded quietly. "Look at what you brought into my home."

Kyle gritted his teeth, his vision going entirely crimson. The pain was unbearable, like liquid fire being poured directly into his bone marrow.

Feed me, a voice rasped in the back of his brain. It wasn’t Snow. It was low, ancient, and heavy with hunger. Break the cage. Drink their magic.

"Get... out of my head!" Kyle roared, slamming his fists against the frozen floor.

He dug his fingernails into the stone, forcing his own weak mana to fight back against the black tendrils. He squeezed his eyes shut, picturing the hell dump, picturing Yua’s bloody face, picturing the people in the cage who had trusted him to get them out alive.

"I said... NO!"

With a ragged scream, Kyle forced the black tendrils back down. They retracted into his chest like burned ropes, snapping violently as they forced themselves back into the amber crystal.

The crimson tint faded from his eyes. The cold air rushed back into his lungs, and he collapsed onto his hands and knees, panting, sweat dripping off his chin onto the frost.

Silence fell over the courtyard.

The guards were shaking, their swords raised. Seraphina stood on her platform, her golden eyes wide with a mixture of anger and genuine shock.

She hadn’t expected him to regain control.

[Core integrity at twelve percent,] Snow reported, her voice trembling slightly. [Kyle... if you do that one more time, the crystal is going to shatter. You won’t have three days. You’ll have three seconds.]

Kyle pushed himself up onto one knee, wiping a mix of sweat and blood from his lip. He looked up at Seraphina, his breathing heavy and ragged.

"Three days," Kyle rasped, his voice hoarse. "You said I had three days until the Council meeting."

Seraphina adjusted her grip on her staff, her knuckles turning white. "I did."

"Then leave them alive until then," Kyle demanded, pointing a shaking finger at the cage of refugees. "If the Council executes me, do whatever you want. But until then... leave them alone."

Seraphina stared down at him for a long, heavy moment. The wind whipped her silver-braided hair around her face.

Finally, she lowered her staff.

"Two days," Seraphina corrected coldly. "The Council has been moved up. They arrive tomorrow at dusk."

She turned her back on him, walking toward the grand doors of the tower.

"Drag him back to the depths," she ordered the guards over her shoulder. "And double the suppression barrier. If he breathes too loud, kill him."

Elara locked eyes with Kyle as her mother pulled her into the tower. She didn’t say a word, but her face was pale, her fingers twitching against her sides.

The guards didn’t hesitate this time. They grabbed Kyle by his arms, hauling him up off the ground, and dragged his exhausted body back toward the dark, freezing stairs.

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