Chapter 38
Kael did not take his eyes off the translucent System interface still floating in his mind. "Access Denied," "Authorization Insufficient." These words were insults to his dignity as a former Demon King. He was a man who once commanded legions, a being whose very shadow could swallow cities. Now, he was being told his own mind was a locked vault for which he lacked the key.
Just as he was about to force the first stage of his cultivation to regain power—a path he had chosen despite the risks—a chilling sensation, distinct from the physical pain of his injuries, ran down his spine.
Outside the small, dilapidated room where he was hiding, the silence of the night was broken not by a cry, but by a crystalline chime.
Cling.
Kael froze. His perception of mana, though limited by his fragile human body, went wild. This was not a physical attack or the clumsy approach of the bounty hunters who had hounded him recently. Someone had just "rung" reality itself.
On the decaying wooden wall, a crack appeared. It did not look like a natural break; it shimmered with a silver glow, as if the very room was made of mirrors. Through the fracture, Kael didn't see the dark street of the rotting city; he saw a void of white light.
[Alert: External Mnemonic Resonance detected]
[Unidentified Individual utilizing: Glass Frequency]
Kael rose slowly, ignoring the sharp pain in his side, his breath hitching as he remembered the inconsistencies the System had just flagged. A silhouette took shape behind the door, visible through the gaps. The man did not wear the heavy armor of the Heralds of Dawn, whom Kael had once infiltrated and decimated. Instead, he wore a stark, grey robe and a mask of polished glass that perfectly reflected Kael's own face—not his current human visage, but a glimpse of the fallen King he remembered being.
"Anomaly identified," a calm, emotionless voice said. "Subject Kael. Your existence is a calculation error in the weave."
The man—Valerius, the Glass Inquisitor—did not try to enter. He simply placed a gloved hand against the door. At his touch, the wood began to transform into transparent silica, turning the barrier into a window.
"I am not here for your life," the Inquisitor continued from behind his mask. "I am here to retrieve the data you stole from the Void. Your memories... the 'infinite' power you think you possess... surrender them, and the pain will cease."
Kael clenched his fists. These memories of infinite mana were now proven to be false—a post-collapse fabrication. Yet, they were the only threads connecting him to his identity. If he surrendered them, what would remain of Kael?
"Retrieve them?" Kael hissed, his eyes burning with a defiance that surpassed his physical limits. "If you want what is in my head, Inquisitor, you'll have to break the vessel. I have spent months watching this city rot and my own flesh fail; I will not let a puppet of the 'weave' take what is left."
[System: Defense Protocol suggested — Initiating Forced Cultivation]
The System's prompt flickered red. Kael knew he wasn't ready. The "Lies of Memory" had left his foundation fractured. To cultivate now was to pour molten lead into a cracked glass jar. But as Valerius raised a hand, and the walls of the room began to crystallize into a trap, Kael realized he had no choice.
He sank back into a meditative stance, even as the Inquisitor stepped through the now-transparent wall.
"You seek the truth of your fall," Valerius said, his voice echoing with the same mechanical coldness Kael had heard within his own mind during the System's activation. "But the truth is a weight your current soul cannot carry. You were never meant to survive the collapse of the demonic core."
"Then I shall become something that was never meant to be," Kael replied.
He closed his eyes, drawing in the mana of the room—not the infinite, fake energy of his altered memories, but the raw, chaotic mana of the world around him. He began to circulate it, not through his veins, but through the very "circles carved into his soul" he had glimpsed during his memory fracture.
The air in the room grew heavy. Valerius paused, his glass mask tilting in curiosity.
"Forced cultivation while under mnemonic suppression ?" the Inquisitor mused. "Illogical. You will shatter yourself before I even touch you."
"Watch me," Kael whispered.
[Warning: Soul Integrity at 64%]
[Beginning First Cycle of the Path of the Fractured King...]