[SSS-RANK SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[WELCOME, RECKONER]
Kai gasped as air flooded back into his lungs like a dam had burst. The invisible grip on his throat was suddenly… gone?
He rolled onto his side, coughing up blood and bile, his body still trembling from the integration.
New text scrolled across his vision:
[Analyzing threat level...]
[B-Rank Echo detected: Phantom Lord]
[Threat Assessment: LETHAL]
[Initiating Balance Protocol...]
"What…" Kai tried to speak, but his voice came out as a rasp.
He felt the world shift.
It wasn't a physical change as the ruined hospital was still falling apart, and the strange, clicking 'Echoes' were still in the distance. But something deep had shifted, like the world had been knocked sideways.
Kai felt it in his bones, in the way the air tasted different, and in the way his Shard… no, that doesn't feel like his Shard. Something else was throbbing in his chest.
The Phantom Lord turned its mirror-face toward him, raising its armored hand again.
But this time, it was slower.
Not by much. Maybe a fraction of a second. But Kai saw it… the way its movements lagged, like it was moving through water instead of air.
[Balance Protocol: Active]
[Equalizing power differential...]
[Target: Phantom Lord (B-Rank) → Temporary reduction to C-Rank equivalent]
[User: Kai Arren (E-Rank) → Temporary enhancement to C-Rank equivalent]
[Power Equilibrium Achieved: Both combatants normalized to C-Rank]
[Duration: Until threat is eliminated or user expires]
Kai's eyes widened. "You're... nerfing it?"
The Phantom Lord's crystallized air blades shot forward. Before, Kai wouldn't have even seen them coming. Now, he watched them cut through the space between them, and his body moved on instinct… no, not instinct. The System moved it for him.
He slammed his palm against the floor.
His E-rank earth manipulation, which had only ever been good for shifting rubble and reinforcing walls, suddenly worked PERFECTLY.
The ground beneath him exploded into a concrete wall that stopped the slicing air attack.
"What the hell?" Kai stared at his hands. They had a soft golden glow, like golden light were flowing in his veins or under his skin.
The Phantom Lord stepped forward, and Kai felt the pressure of its presence. It was still scary and very dangerous, but not as overwhelming. Before, it had felt like he was standing before a god. Now, it felt like he was facing an opponent he could actually fight.
An opponent that would still kill him if he made a single mistake.
'Okay,' Kai thought, scrambling to his feet. 'It's been brought down to C-rank. And I've been brought up to C-rank. That means...'
It means this is a fair fight.
The Phantom Lord's mirror-face reflected Kai's battered, blood-soaked body back at him… then, it charged.
Kai quickly jumped to the side. He felt the rush of air as the Echo's metal-covered fist smashed into the wall where his head had just been. Pieces of concrete exploded outward. He rolled on the ground, his mind racing.
'C-rank strength. C-rank speed. But I don't know how to fight at C-rank. I've been E-rank my whole life. I don't have combat training for this level.'
The Phantom Lord turned smoothly, twisting its whole body at the waist in a way that defied normal anatomy. Dark, shadowy tendrils shot out from its armor. Each whip ended in a sharp blade made of solid darkness.
'Analyze. What do I know?'
The right tendrils lashed out, cutting off every escape route.
'It's a Phantom-type. Reality warper. Close-range fighter. Armor is probably its weak point; too much focus on defense means...'
Kai slammed the floor with both hands. The concrete moved like water, and then sharp spikes of metal and rock shot up in a curve, blocking seven of the eight tendrils. The last one got through, leaving a burning cut across his shoulder.
Kai hissed in pain but didn't stop moving. He shaped the metal bar to make a crude spear and threw it right at the Phantom Lord's center mass.
The Echo's mirror-face shifted slightly… was that surprise? And then deflected the spear with one armored hand. But doing that left a gap in its defense.
Kai didn't waste a second.
He sprinted forward, using his earth manipulation ability to create handholds on the broken walls. This helped him launch himself into the air. The Phantom Lord's black arms shot out at him, but he spun around mid-flight. His temporary B-rank body gave him amazing speed, allowing him to move in ways that used to be impossible for him.
He came down hard, both feet slamming into the Phantom Lord's chest.
The impact sent shockwaves through the room. The Echo staggered backward, and for the first time, Kai saw a crack form in its shadow armor.
'It can be hurt.'
But the Phantom Lord recovered instantly.
Its mirror-face flashed, and suddenly Kai was staring at his own reflection… except the reflection was moving on its own, raising its hand and forming the same earth spikes Kai had just used.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
The reflected spikes took a solid form and shot from the mirror-face, aiming directly at his chest.
Kai ducked down, the spikes passing over his head by inches. One grazed his cheek, drawing blood. He rolled behind an overturned hospital bed, breathing heavily.
'It can copy techniques. Great. Fantastic.'
The Phantom Lord's tendrils punched through the bed like it was tissue paper. Kai barely got his arms up in time, using earth manipulation to coat them in a layer of stone. The tendrils hit the stone and…
Crack.
His makeshift earth armor shattered into pieces, and a sharp pain shot up both his arms. They weren't broken, but definitely cracked. Kai bit back a scream and quickly stumbled backward.
'Think. THINK. It's matched to my level now… we're both C-rank, but it's still a Phantom Lord Echo. It has experience fighting at higher ranks. I'm just an E-rank Hunter with temporarily boosted stats. If this becomes a slugfest, I lose.'
The Phantom Lord advanced slowly with no hurry. It knew Kai was cornered.
'What do I have that it doesn't?'
Kai looked around quickly. Chen's body was still bleeding out on the floor. Mira's gauntlets were sparking weakly. Demo's scattered explosives were mostly used up, but…
There.
One of Demo's charges, half-buried in rubble was still active. The timer looked paused mid-countdown.
'Explosives aren't my thing. But earth manipulation is.'
The Phantom Lord raised both hands, and the air itself began to crystallize again, forming a cage of razor-sharp shards around Kai.
Kai slammed his palm down one last time.
The floor under the Phantom Lord exploded. This time, there were no spikes… Kai turned the concrete into a wave that crashed up and covered the Echo's legs, then instantly hardened, trapping the creature in place.
The Phantom Lord's mirror-face tilted down, almost confused.
Kai didn't give it time to break free. He grabbed Demo's charge with his good hand, used earth manipulation to create a channel in the floor leading directly to the trapped Echo, and threw the explosive into the channel.
Then he shaped the earth to seal the channel, creating a direct pipeline from the charge to the Phantom Lord's feet.
"Balance this," Kai spat, and activated the charge remotely using the detonator still clipped to Demo's belt.
The blast was contained, shooting straight up through the earthern pipeline. The Phantom Lord's lower body disntegrated in a burst of fire and shadow.
But it didn't die.
The upper half of its body fell, hitting the ground hard.
Kai took a deep breath of relief as he tried to figure out what t6o do next. But the relief was shortlived as it started regenerating, shadow pouring from the armor to rebuild its legs.
"The fvvckkk???" Kai said to no one in particular. "Of course you regenerate."
His arms were screaming in pain, his Shard… or System, whatever it was, felt like it was burning through his life force. He could feel the temporary enhancement starting to fade at the edges.
'One shot. That's all I have.'
The Phantom Lord's mirror-face locked onto him, and this time Kai saw real hostility in the reflection. It wasn't playing anymore.
Neither was he.
Kai charged forward, and the Phantom Lord met him halfway. They collided in the center of the room, and what followed was less of a fight and more of a desperate attempt at survival.
The Echo's regenerated tendrils wrapped around Kai's body and squeezed. Kai's ribs, which were had just start to heal from the System integration, cracked again. He ignored the pain and pushed his thumbs into the crack in the Phantom Lord's chest armor, widening it.
The Echo slammed him into the ground. Once. Twice. Three times. Kai's vision doubled, blood running from his nose and ears.
But he didn't let go… he couldn't let go.
With the last of his strength, Kai activated his earth manipulation one final time. He didn't attack from the outside; he did from inside.
The ground around them was full of broken metal, concrete dust, and fragments of shattered stone. Kai pulled all of it… every piece, and forced it through the crack in the Phantom Lord's armor.
Right into its core.
The Echo's mirror-like face broke into pieces.
Its body convulsed, and the tendrils released Kai as it thrashed wildly. The shadow armor began to dissolve, revealing something formless underneath.
Kai didn't stop. He poured more material into the crack, filling the Echo's body until it couldn't move, couldn't regenerate, couldn't do anything but die.
The Phantom Lord let out a sound that didn't sound like a scream… it sounded more like reality itself tearing, and then crumbled into ash.
Kai collapsed to the floor.
[Threat eliminated.]
[Balance Protocol: Deactivating...]
The golden light faded from his veins. The temporary C-rank enhancement was gone, leaving him feeling empty and weak. His arms hung uselessly at his sides. His ribs were definitely broken now, and he could taste blood in the back of his throat.
But he was alive.
The sole survivor.
He lay there in the ruins, staring at the crumbling ceiling, listening to the hospital groan as it continued to fall apart around him. Chen's body was a few feet away. Mira's. Demo's. Sarah's ashes still drifted in the air like snow.
"I'm sorry," Kai whispered to the dead. "I'm so sorry."
Then the darkness took him.
—
"... I got a pulse!"
"He's alive? How the hell is he alive?"
"Get the medic! Now!"
The voices sounded distant to Kai. He tried to open his eyes, but his body wouldn't respond.
"Look at this place. It's a massacre. What could do this?"
"B-rank Echo signature detected earlier. Must've been a Fracture collapse."
"And this kid survived? Alone? His Shard reading is... weird. Showing C-rank output residue, but his registration says he's E-rank."
"Equipment malfunction… has to be. No way an E-rank takes down a B-rank Echo."
He felt hands pick him up, then he felt himself moving. It hurt, but the pain felt far away, like it was happening to someone else.
Then nothing.
—
Kai woke up slowly, feeling his consciousness return in bits… like his mind was reconnecting to his body piece by piece.
The first thing he noticed was that he wasn't in pain anymore. Well, not as much pain. His body felt wrapped in something soft, and there was a rhythmic beeping nearby.
He forced his eyes open: white ceiling, medical equipment, and the sterile smell of antiseptic.
"Where..." His voice came out as a croak.
"Easy." A woman in a white coat appeared in his vision, probably a doctor. "You're in Ironside Company's medical bay. You've been unconscious for two days."
"Two days?" Kai tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Pain shot through his ribs.
"Broken ribs, fractured arms, severe internal bleeding, and about a dozen other injuries that should have killed you," the doctor said, pushing him gently back down. "You're lucky the Reclaimer team found you when they did."
Kai's mind felt fuzzy. Two days. The hospital. The Fracture. The System.
"Was it..." He swallowed hard. "Was it real?"
The doctor frowned. "Was what real?"
Before Kai could answer, golden-lettered text appeared in his vision:
[Status Check Initiated...]
[Name: Kai Arren]
[Age: 22]
[Shard Rank: Unknown (Scanning Error)]
Kai's breath caught.
It was real… all of it.