The Grand Auction Hall was no longer a place of gold and velvet. It had become a pocket dimension—a jagged landscape of obsidian and bone. This was Kian's 'Domain Forge,' a territory where the Hammer of the Forgotten Tomb dictated the laws of existence.
Inquisitor Zero stood at the center of the chaos, his six silver eyes blinking in perfect synchronicity. His Soul Weight of 2,500 pulsed like a rhythmic heartbeat, pushing back the shadows. Unlike the previous Inquisitor, he didn't scream or boast. He was a machine of divine judgment.
"A Domain at Weight Zero," the Inquisitor noted, his voice calm. "You are not just a glitch, Kian. You are an 'Anti-Soul'. If you are allowed to grow, you will 'un-make' the world. I cannot allow the Weaver's tapestry to be unraveled."
With a silent motion, the Inquisitor vanished. He didn't move fast; he simply 'erased' the distance between himself and Kian. A palm strike, glowing with white celestial fire, slammed into Kian's chest.
The impact should have turned Kian into mist. A weight of 2,500 against a 0 should result in instant annihilation.
But Kian didn't move. The white fire didn't burn him. Instead, it flowed through his body like a ghost passing through a wall. Kian looked down at the Inquisitor's hand, his expression one of hollow curiosity.
"You still don't get it, do you?" Kian whispered. "You are trying to crush something that isn't there. How can you break a hole? How can you burn the wind?"
[System Notification: Resonance Level 100%.]
[Hidden Attribute Unlocked: The Void Singularity.]
[Truth Revealed: 'Zero' is not a Lack of Soul. It is an Infinite Capacity.]
Kian's eyes suddenly shifted. The blue fire didn't just glow; it turned into a vacuum. He grabbed the Inquisitor's wrist. For the first time, the silver-eyed man showed a flicker of emotion: Fear.
"You call us 'Zeroes' because we have no weight," Kian said, his voice echoing from everywhere at once. "But 'Zero' is just a container that hasn't been filled yet. And you... you are a very heavy soul, Inquisitor."
"FORGE: THE HUNGRY ABYSS!"
The Hammer slammed into the ground between them. A black hole, no larger than a coin, opened at the point of impact. The Inquisitor's 2,500 units of soul-weight began to be pulled—not into the Hammer, but into Kian himself.
The nobles in the room began to scream as their souls were also tugged toward the singularity. Lord Helius, the Silver Wings' leader, felt his very memories being ripped from his mind as his weight was siphoned away.
"Stop!" Inquisitor Zero roared, his six eyes bleeding silver light. He summoned his ultimate weapon: The Scale of Justice, a massive ethereal balance that appeared in the sky, threatening to crush the entire city to reset the equilibrium.
"Vara! The Battery!" Kian commanded.
Vara leaped forward, dragging the bloated, glowing 'statue' of Thorne. The man was a ticking bomb of 800 units of stolen divine energy. Kian swung his Hammer, hitting Thorne's crystalline body like a golf club.
The "Thorne-Battery" flew straight into the Inquisitor's Scale. The explosion was silent but devastating. The golden light of the Scale collided with the corrupted, stolen energy, creating a shockwave that shattered every window in Oakhaven.
In the chaos, Kian appeared directly in front of Inquisitor Zero. He didn't use the Hammer. He used his bare hand, reaching into the Inquisitor's chest as if it were water.
"I've decided," Kian said, his face inches from the 'God's' mask. "I don't want to just be a blacksmith. I want to be the Architect of the New World."
He ripped his hand out. In his palm was a silver orb—the core of a 2,500-weight soul. The Inquisitor's body began to turn into grey, lifeless ash. Without his soul, he was nothing but a hollow suit of armor.
[SOUL ACQUIRED: Inquisitor Zero (Rank: Demigod) – Weight: 2,500.]
[Warning: The Council of Ten has been alerted.]
[Host Condition: Evolution in Progress. 'Zero' is becoming 'One'.]
Kian stood amidst the rubble of the auction hall. Around him lay hundreds of 'Emptied' nobles, their wealth and souls gone. He looked at the silver orb in his hand, then at the sky. Far above, ten pillars of light were descending from the capital. The Kings of Etherea were finally taking him seriously.
But Kian just turned to the terrified survivors. Among them was Lyra, shaking in the corner.
"Go," Kian told her, his voice devoid of any human warmth. "Tell the world that the 'Zero' has finally started counting. And I'm only at One."
As he spoke, Kian swallowed the silver orb. His hair didn't just turn white; it began to float as if he were underwater, and his skin became etched with silver runes that hummed with the power of a fallen god.
[END OF CHAPTER 6]
[Next Chapter: The Forbidden Forest Ambush and the Soul-Army]