Kai looked at Serah.
Serah looked at him.
Her markings pulsed at their usual rhythm — the rhythm Kai had learned to read in sixteen days as calm.
Kai turned toward Jason.
"The guild quest is already cleared up. You’re not an S-class threat."
Pause.
"But the enchantnt system in active mode is a problem. If I detect it active again without consent, the next hit won’t be precision."
Jason processed this.
The red jaw. The robe covered in wood dust and preserve remnants. The destroyed stall behind him.
Then he looked up.
And smiled.
"Who’s going to stop ?"
His voice had sothing different — no longer the constructed softness from before. Sothing more direct.
"You?"
---
The pink aura that had been faint, localized, operating in passive mode for hours expanded.
Not gradually.
All at once.
It covered the plaza in a second.
The destroyed stall, the Ferris wheel, the colored pennants, the carousel. It spread through the streets toward the booths, toward the houses, toward the edges of the village.
And with it, the atmosphere of Mirfeld changed.
The air grew denser. Not in temperature — in sothing harder to na.
Like when a room has too many people and the oxygen isn’t enough to breathe easily.
Kai noticed it the mont it touched his skin.
[System — alert]
[Enchantnt System — Active level: MAXIMUM]
[Range of influence: expanded — 2,400m]
[Entities under effect: classification in process]
[The system notes that this is considerably different from passive mode]
---
[GarcíaFTW: THE AURA COVERED THE ENTIRE VILLAGE]
[NocheEterna99: "who’s going to stop ?" — JASON WASN’T TA]
[xSorinx: Kai is assessing sothing. He has that calculation face.]
[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ FINAL BOSS MODE ACTIVATED ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]
[Deral_Bleattler: ←←←← AURA →→→→ (°ロ°) THE WHOLE VILLAGE]
[User_7741: (ಠ_ಠ) sothing really bad is happening (ಠ_ಠ)]
---
Kai observed him.
And the aura — from Jason’s system.
Which was now completely visible to him on the floating panel that Jason himself had made visible earlier in the conversation and which now, with the system at maximum level, showed more than Jason probably intended to show.
[Enchantnt System — Active level: MAXIMUM]
[Secondary abilities unlocked by influence level:]
[— Soul fire: ACTIVE]
[— Shadow dominion: ACTIVE]
[— Ti fracture: ACTIVE — charge at 34%]
There it is.
Kai processed it in two seconds.
The hunters reported fire magic. Shadow magic. One insisted on ti magic.
He doesn’t change magic types. He unlocks them based on the system’s influence level.
The greater the control over the area, the more active abilities.
And with the entire village under effect...
Blue flas appeared in Jason’s hands — the sa ones that had scared the hunters two months ago, but this ti without accident.
Deliberate.
Controlled.
On his right shoulder, a shadow that didn’t correspond to any light source condensed into solid form — not an attack yet, but the kind of presence that precedes one.
And in the air around Jason, sothing Kai hadn’t seen since arriving in Aethon — a distortion.
Like heat over asphalt but cold, as if the space around him were deciding whether to remain the sa space or beco another.
Ti fracture at 34%.
If it reaches one hundred, the combat area changes.
---
[NocheEterna99: BLUE FIRE SHADOW TEMPORAL DISTORTION]
[GarcíaFTW: THAT’S WHY THE HUNTERS REPORTED CONTRADICTORY ABILITIES. IT WASN’T INCONSISTENCY. THEY WERE ALL REAL.]
[StrearHunter: the system gives him more powers the more control he has over the area. And now he controls the ENTIRE VILLAGE.]
[xSorinx: Kai has 34% ti fracture before the field changes. He’s calculating.]
[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘ RUN KAI ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘]
[Deral_Bleattler: he’s not going to run. He never runs. (╥_╥)]
[User_7741: (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง KAI DOESN’T RUN (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง KAI FIGHTS]
---
Jason opened his arms slightly — the gesture of soone presenting sothing.
"Four years in this world," he said.
"Four years learning how this system works. How to expand it. How to use it." He looked at Serah.
"And you’ve been here sixteen days."
"You even got an SSS-rank entity. Your influence system must be abysmal, or maybe you just got lucky."
"Influence system? What influence? All I have are my fists and a system that’s sensitive about haters."
Serah’s silver markings were at maximum intensity.
Not the irregular glow from before — the steady, cold glow of fully active primordial aura.
Jason’s enchantnt system had reached her when she was vulnerable.
When the markings were low and sothing inside her was asking if Kai had used the sa words as the n who left.
She was no longer vulnerable.
Jason noticed.
His expression changed slightly.
"Interesting," he said. "The SSS is immune after all."
"I’ve always been immune, it’s just that," Serah said. "I was distracted."
"Why?"
"Because I was thinking about him."
Jason looked at Kai.
Kai hadn’t said anything in the last forty seconds.
He was still looking at Jason’s system panel with the expression of soone finishing reading sothing.
"One question," he finally said.
Jason looked at him.
"How did you figure out my plan?"
---
Kai looked at him.
And smiled.
Not the small, genuine smile from when he challenged the guildmaster of Dunholt.
Sothing calr than that.
The smile of soone confident and possibly a high-level detective.
---
[GarcíaFTW: KAI SMILED]
[NocheEterna99: HE DIDN’T ANSWER. HE JUST SMILED — HE’LL DO HIS REVEAL LATER.]
[StrearHunter: viewers: 1,800,000. People arrived on their own just from the smile.]
[xSorinx: Jason is going to get his answer and end up looking like a fool. That’s worse than any hit.]
[Pedro_Sierra: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) KAI WAS VERY GOOD AT DEDUCING SOTHING WAS OFF ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
[Deral_Bleattler: ←←←←← [Kai’s smile] →→→→→ [Jason with no answer] = the worst possible outco for Jason]
[User_7741: ψ(∇´)ψ KAI HAS A PLAN ψ(∇´)ψ]
[NocheEterna99: if this were a novel, the Chapter ends here. KAI SMILING. NOT ANSWERING.]
[GarcíaFTW: next Chapter please already]
[System — notification]
[Ti fracture: charge at 47%]
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