Chapter 9 The Executor
Three days without anyone trying to kill them.
The trio trained in the ruins of Ashveil — not brutal sparring, but something quieter. Aela sat on a large rock with Enchantment diagrams she'd drawn in the dirt with a stick, explaining barrier theory to Ren as though she were a lecturer and he a student who'd shown up a semester late.
"Every barrier has an anchor point. The spot where the mana is densest. If you can sense that point —"
"I destroy it from there."
Aela blinked. "...I wasn't finished explaining."
His Void Core absorbs theory like a sponge, Lyra said. He doesn't learn — he assimilates.
"Still, let me finish talking."
Kael appeared from behind the ruins carrying something that could technically be called food — mana mushrooms boiled together with monster meat inside a steel helm he'd repurposed as a pot. It smelled like a cross between a wet forest and regret.
"Dinner," he announced with pride that was entirely unearned.
They ate together, sitting among the ruins of a tower. It tasted awful. Nobody complained — because complaining required energy better spent chewing.
In the middle of that silence, Aela smiled.
Small. Barely visible. But there — like the sun peeking out from behind a cloud for one second before vanishing again. Ren noticed. Said nothing.
Kael noticed too. He nudged Ren's elbow with an insufferable grin that said more than words ever could.
Ren ignored him with extreme deliberation.
Don't get distracted, Lyra cut in, breaking the moment with surgical precision. You have twenty-four days left before the thirty-day deadline. And someone is coming.
Ashveil's second dungeon opened like a wound at the base of the ruins — a vertical shaft radiating blue energy from its depths. Grade-C+. Its contents were different from the first.
Wraith Sorcerers.
Caster-type monsters that fired magical projectiles from range, took cover behind crystal formations, and vanished when approached. A nightmare for close-range fighters.
Ren adapted. Silent Step to close the distance undetected. Shadow Claw to finish them off — three Classes working in rotation that grew smoother by the hour, like gears finally finding their rhythm.
But the Wraith Lord — the boss at the bottom of the dungeon — played on a different level. Grade-B. Its magical projectiles pierced through Null Shield before absorption could complete. Its teleportation was too fast for Silent Step.
"Ren!" Aela ran to his side. Her eyes were alight — not with fear, but calculation. "I have an idea. But you have to trust me."
"Do it."
Aela raised both hands. Enchant Mirror — a transparent barrier that didn't absorb, but reflected. She placed it directly between Ren and the Wraith Lord.
"Bait him."
Ren stepped in front of the barrier. Exposed. No defense. The Wraith Lord gathered energy — a massive projectile pulsing with violet light — and fired.
Ren dropped flat. The projectile slammed into the Enchant Mirror and ricocheted back at full force. The Wraith Lord staggered — stunned for two seconds.
Enough.
Ren seized the monster's face with his right hand, shrouded in darkness.
Devour Complete. Acquired: Sorcerer Core (Basic) — Grade B. New Skill: Void Bolt (Active) — long-range void projectile, penetrates magical barriers. Class Count: 4 — Beast Warrior + Assassin + Guardian + Sorcerer. Body strain: 58%. Vessel holding.
Ren stared at his hand. Dark energy pulsed at his fingertips — ready to fire at any moment. His first ranged weapon.
Four Classes. Lyra spoke softly, as if honoring the moment. In all the history I know, no one has ever held four at once. You're not an anomaly anymore, Ren. You're a new category entirely.
Night fell over Ashveil like a black curtain dropped too fast.
The trio rested in an underground chamber. Kael fell asleep first — his ability to sleep anywhere, in any situation, was a hidden talent that didn't appear on any status screen. Aela sat leaning against the wall, eyes half-closed.
But this time it was different. Not three recon signatures approaching cautiously. A single point. And the mana pressure radiating from it made the air tremble — as though the atmosphere itself was trying to get out of its way.
Grade-A.
"Wake up." Ren was already on his feet. "Now."
Kael jolted awake with his sword in hand. Aela stood immediately, a barrier forming around them on reflex.
Mara Synn entered Ashveil like a shadow that had decided to become real.
Alone. No need for an army. Her footsteps made no sound — not because of any skill, but because even the ground seemed too afraid to creak beneath her. The thin blade at her hip remained sheathed.
Not yet needed.
Class: Executor. Single-target elimination specialist.
Ren activated Silent Step — Judgment Chain bound him before the first step was complete. Silvery mana chains coiled around his body from shoulders to ankles in one brutal second. Silent Step — dead. Shadow Claw — dead. Null Shield — dead. Void Bolt — dead.
Every one of his active skills snuffed out like candles in the wind.
Ren hit the ground, shackled.
Mara looked at him with eyes that held nothing. Not cruelty. Not pleasure. Absence. "Ren Ashford. Target confirmed. Void-class." Her gaze shifted. "And Aela Voss. Bonus."
Aela raised her strongest barrier — three layers of Enchantment stacked on top of each other. Mara drew her blade and cut once.
The gap between Grade-A and Grade-B wasn't a staircase. It was a chasm.
Mara dragged Ren by the chains. Kael charged — Heal Aura still active on his body, sword swinging with everything a Grade-B Paladin had to give.
Mara kicked him into a wall without looking.
Aela rose. Blood ran from her temple, seeping into her eye, but she didn't blink. Enchant Overload — a forbidden technique that burned raw mana as pure explosive force — blazed in both hands.
Mara leveled her blade at Aela's throat. "Your father said alive, if possible." Her voice was flat, like she was reading off a grocery list. "Don't make me choose the other option."
Ren lay on the ground. Bound. No skills. No power.
But at the very bottom of his Core — deeper than Devour, deeper than any skill he'd ever absorbed — something pulsed.
The Void itself.
Ren, don't — Lyra whispered, and for the first time her voice carried something that sounded like fear. That's not a skill. That's the Void itself. If you release it, you might not be able to stop it —
Ren wasn't listening.
Pulse.
A black wave erupted from his body. Just absence spreading in every direction like ripples across a pond made of darkness. Mara was hurled thirty meters back, landing on both feet, and for the first time — her expression changed.
The entire ruins of Ashveil shuddered. Dust rained from the ceiling. Cracks spider-webbed across stone walls.
And in the night sky above the Fractured Lands, for just a moment — the stars disappeared.
Then returned. As if nothing had happened.
But everyone with sensory abilities within dozens of kilometers knew. Something had just screamed from the depths of Ashveil.
And now the whole world had heard it.