Chương 331: The Siphoner’s Price

The air inside the jagged portal gash did not transition gracefully. It was a violent, geographic whiplash. One second, we were standing on pulverized black sand, inhaling the heavy, iron-rich stench of prehistoric anger; the next, we were shoved into the pressurized, hyper-sterile atmosphere of the shell-city basement. The Veresians manifested with a roar that was less about noise and more about an explosive, spatial intent.

They brought the ash and blood of their world with them, a staining mist that began to tarnish the grey obsidian floors of the Harmonic utopia. Alecton led the charge, his scarred hands gripping the air as if he intended to physically tear the cables out of the floor. But the "Harmony" above did not maintain its peaceful facade for long when threatened. [WARNING: Harmony Protocol Breach Detected.] [Deviance Level: CRITICAL.] [System Notification: Unique divergent scenario "The Return of the Donor" established. Rewards for Aspirant participation will be increased based on new scenarios' causality alteration.] I ignored the blue floating text, focusing my [Void-Lattice Perception] on the ambient mana. The entire abyss of veins erupted into action. Intricate, glowing golden runes began to climb up the obsidian walls, blooming like high-speed, mechanical vines.

The cables throbbed, no longer lazily siphoning Essence, but instead forcefully reversing the flow, pumping massive quantities of planetary energy into the local defense grids. I saw it through the Void's sub-layers: the golden light wasn't just illumination. It was a frantic, targeted infusion of power. The air around us became solid, thickening into a shimmering, golden dome — a containment bubble designed to anchor invaders and drain their combat reserves before they could reach the surface.

"Anchor your soles!" Alecton commanded, his gravelly voice cutting through the thrum. His soldiers did not scramble. They formed a tight, concentric circle around the portal mouth, locking their rusted shields and glass-shard spears together. Even in their tattered rags, they moved with a military discipline that was almost terrifying. Their auras began to heat the containment bubble, turning the golden light a diseased shade of orange as their Wrath resonated against the shield.

Suddenly, a piercing, multi-tonal frequency rang through the cavern. Through the Lattice, I saw it: five distinct streaks of silver Essence shooting out from the central spire like homing beacons, streaking through the ceiling toward different quadrants of the planet.

"They just pulled the alarm," I said, walking to the edge of the dome, my hand tracing the golden Mana-barrier.

"Those signals are probably sending notifications to the high-tier lords of this place. Based on the signal speed and my calculations, the nearest Guardian will be here in around ten minutes... assuming he'd be traveling as fast as the signal." Alecton turned toward me, his obsidian skin glistening with the effort of holding his people's aura steady.

"Then ten minutes is exactly enough time to break their cage." He stepped forward, his eyes twin pits of white fire. He reached for the Ring on his finger. I watched as the charcoal alloy began to thrum with a dark, violent beat that mirrored my own Black Bracelet. I blinked, narrowing my eyes. I could see the truth in the Lattice. The ring's interactions with Alecton weren't like a standard artifact; it was an invasive presence, behaving like how I was warned Gluttony would.

With every micro-second he drew upon its power, the ring sent microscopic threads of black, jagged energy deep into Alecton's spirit. It wasn't just lending him strength; he was drawing too much of its power and it had to eat the structural integrity of his Soul to fuel his fire. He was trading his own conceptual immortality for vengeance.

"Alecton, stop," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. The heat of his skin would have vaporized a Tier 6.

"The ring is hollowing you out. If you keep drawing on it at this rate, you won't survive to see the surface. Your spirit is burning down to the core." Alecton looked at my hand, then at me. He offered a short, tired smile that held more weight than a thousand war stories.

"Eren," he rumbled, his voice softening slightly amidst the roaring mana around us.

"My planet has been a battery for six centuries. My children have been bred solely as essence-fodder for the creatures above. I did not bind my Soul to this ring to live forever. I did it to ensure that the ones who follow me never have to feel the siphons again. My mission ends when the Harmony ends. My soul is a small price to pay for a sunrise that doesn't smell like blood." The pure, unbreaking resolve of his spirit silenced me.

I could sense his Truth-Perception probing me again, seeking judgment or disagreement. I found neither in myself. I understood his path perfectly. It was the same desperation that drove me to risk my life multiple times, and I didn't feel like it was my place to question his resolve.

"I understand," I said, pulling my hand away.

"Thank you," Alecton replied.

"And don't worry about me, you owe us nothing but here you are. We are just thankful that you're taking the time to help us. It would have taken us a few more months before we could be free." He turned back to the golden barrier and roared, unleashing the floodgates. A localized eruption of crimson fury shattered the golden dome. The explosion was the physical embodiment of the pain they had endured. The containment field disintegrated like shattered glass, raining motes of gold onto the grey basalt.

The Veresians surged upward toward the light-rivers, but I stayed grounded. I looked toward the nearest aqueduct. The first beacon-caller had arrived. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! A blinding, holy light descended from the ceiling in a silent pillar. As it dimmed, a figure was revealed, hovering twenty feet in the air. The Harmony 'Enforcer' didn't look like the other citizens I've come across in this world.

He was a Low-Tier 9 Ascendant, draped in pristine, flowing white silk and armor made of translucent, iridescent pearl. Focusing my [Void Omnipresence], I saw that he possessed a light-affinity that was terrifyingly sharp — not warm or comforting, but a kinetic, freezing light. His eyes were empty silver mirrors, and he carried a rapier that looked woven from a singular, high-frequency photon beam. The presence was one of pure authority, radiating the arrogant expectation of absolute submission.

"You have returned to your masters without summons, livestock," the entity spoke. His voice was melodic, serene, and absolutely dripping with dehumanizing boredom.

"To return what was siphoned without permission is a crime punishable by deletion." Alecton stepped forward, his feet gouging deep trenches into the obsidian walkway. His rusted mantle flared.

"Let me handle this one, friend," Alecton said to me without turning. The heat around him was melting the basalt beneath his boots.

"This isn't your fight. We fight our own battles. And as the leader of my people, I claim his head." I respected the command, stepping back into the shadow of the central spire, crossing my arms as I maintained the [Veil]. I wanted to see exactly how his Curse would operate against a high-tier combatant and what sort of power it contained. The battle didn't start with words. Alecton launched like a catapult.

He used the raw repulsion of his own aura against the planetary mana to propel himself with enough force to instantly crack the sound barrier inside the closed cavern. He brought his scarred fist down in a hammer-strike fueled by every sliver of the Wrath-ring's capacity. The enforcer sighed, almost looking bored. He tilted his photon-blade and made a single, fluid movement.

"Decree: Oblique Starlight." A barrier of physical light manifested, not flat, but angled. It attempted to deflect the kinetic momentum harmlessly into the ceiling. But Wrath seemed to lash out, refusing to obey the physics of deflections. Alecton's fist impacted the light-barrier, and instead of sliding, his fury physically grabbed the photons. The crimson energy of the Ring infected the holy light, turning it to obsidian soot mid-contact.

Alecton drove the punch straight through the broken Decree, clipping the enforcer's jaw. The silver-eyed Ascendant hit the floor with a jar, a streak of glowing blue ichor spilling from his lip. The look of boredom vanished instantly, replaced by a snarling, hysterical shock.

"Filth!" the enforcer screamed. He vanished, becoming a series of flickering starlight flashes that surrounded Alecton from six different directions. Every flicker emitted a piercing, focused beam of light intended to pierce the heart and the lungs simultaneously. The brawl was espectacular and long. Alecton became a raging hurricane of crimson and iron.

He was constantly bleeding, his tattered skin sizzling where the starlight hit him, but he simply didn't acknowledge the damage, refusing to back down from his rampage style of fighting. With every wound, the Ring on his finger glowed brighter. He fought like an inferno. When the enforcer attempted a mass-binding spell using threads of kinetic photons, Alecton simply roared and pulled. He grabbed the conceptual threads and tore them apart with his bare hands, the physical feedback burning his palms to the bone.

He wasn't fighting for seeded scores or sponsor bids. He was fighting a war of absolute attrition. The enforcer, realizing his refined elegance was failing against a creature that refused to stop even as its muscles were melted, lost his composure entirely. He unleashed a Mythic technique: [Final Eclipse of the Worthy]. The entire abyss turned to a blinding, monochromatic white. Total sensory deprivation coupled with a thousand high-speed starlight slashes. Alecton stood in the center of the blinding void.

He didn't try to dodge. He knelt, slamming both palms into the ground, and funneled every remaining drop of his Soul into the Ring.

"Atonement!" A shockwave of sheer, black flame exploded outward. It overwhelmed the light of the mythic skill, the darkness extinguishing the concept of the enforcer's attack. When the white light cleared, Alecton was standing over the shredded remains of the Ascendant. The Guardian's iridescent armor was shattered into pearls, his mirror-eyes gone dim as his conceptual form began to flake away into System dust. Alecton didn't cheer or celebrate. He coughed a glob of dark blood and stumbled, falling to one knee.

The Ring on his finger was dim, but I could see the cost. His mana veins were burnt, looking like charred trees beneath his skin. His aura was flickering like a dying candle in a high wind. He had won, but he had exhausted at least three centuries of his life to do it. I stepped out of the shadow, my [Void Perception] sweeping across the ceiling and the far distant city structures.

"Three more," I said, my voice carrying over the crackling silence of the basalt.

"And based on the way their signatures are vibrating, they are significantly more focused than this one. They should arrive within the hour." Alecton stayed on his knee, using his spear to stay upright. He looked up at me, his eyes clouded but determined.

"Flame brother," he breathed, his gravelly voice now a strained rasp.

"I am sorry for even asking this but… Can you... are you willing to help us hold the line? If the Lords arrive simultaneously, I don't think I would be able to protect my people while fighting. He turned out to be much stronger than I expected, I need some time to recover." A slow, jagged grin pulled at my mouth. Throughout the subjective years on Crystal City and the frantic weeks of the Mythic Five, I had meticulously repressed my dual nature.

I had played the support role, the subtle gravity mage, the invisible watcher. I had avoided using the terrifying potential of merging my Flame with my Void authority because it drew too many eyes. But here? In a personalized, secluded crucible? Surrounded by an empire that lived by bleeding the helpless? The Flame inside me roared in a perfect, harmonious unison with the Void. For the first time since my evolution to [Void Emperor's Omnipresence], I didn't feel like I was holding a weapon.

I felt like I was the apocalypse. The white-gold entropy licked at my fingers, bleeding through my boots to smoke against the grey floor. Simultaneously, the dark continent within my chest opened its maw, hungry for the light of these false Ascendants.

"Stay back and rest, Alecton. Keep your people centered near the gate," I stated, stepping toward the center of the abyssal cavern as three powerful streaks of silver light appeared in the distance.

"I've spent a long time hiding my true nature just to look ordinary. It's about time I got some actual practice." I manifested two colossal swords of obsidian nothingness, each one wrapped in the screaming grey Flame of Ending.

"You asked if I'm willing to help?" I didn't look back as my presence expanded until the cavern basalt groaned and shattered.

"I absolutely am. I despise everything these parasites stand for. Besides, I am very interested to see what it takes to turn three leeching Ascendant 'enforcers' into nothing but essence and ash."