Sylar's eyes twitched before they finally opened. A sharp wave of discomfort rushed through his entire body the next second. Pain pulsed with every breath, spreading through his chest like ripples of fire, and his internal organs felt as if they were under constant strain.
Still, he pushed the pain aside the moment he took in his surroundings.
He was in a strange, metallic room, cold and sterile. Aside from a small bed tucked into one corner, there was nothing else, no windows, no lights beyond the dim glow coming from the walls themselves. The air was clean but unnervingly still.
Taking a slow breath, Sylar tried to extend his senses outward using Echolocation. Normally, the ability allowed him to perceive entire streets and structures around him in perfect clarity. But now, to his surprise, the signal went no farther than the boundaries of the room. It was as if the walls swallowed his perception completely.
That alone told him this place was designed with materials that surpassed Arcade's normal construction.
Moving cautiously, he approached the door. It was smooth, gray, and seamless, with no visible handle. He reached out, pressing his palm against the cold surface. After a moment's hesitation, he clenched his fist and struck.
The blow was strong enough to shatter a car, yet the door didn't even dent. The vibration barely traveled through the metal.
So even if he went all out, it wouldn't matter.
Confusion flickered in his eyes, followed by a quiet sigh. "At least there doesn't seem to be a shortage of oxygen," he muttered.
With no other option, Sylar sat cross-legged on the floor, forcing himself to breathe steadily. If he couldn't escape yet, he needed to recover. When the chance came, he would be ready.
With a single thought, the Nemesis System interface materialized before him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NEMESIS SYSTEM INTERFACE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[HOST STATUS]
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• Designation: Sylar Bright
• Species Line: Homo Evolutus
• Rank: 1 – KINDLER
• Level: 17
• Vault Capacity: 21 / 60 TP
• Entropy Debt: 41 % (Caution)
• Free Points: 0
• System Access: Basic – Status | Quests | Vault | Mutation
───────────────────────────────────────
[CORE ATTRIBUTES]
───────────────────────────────────────
STRENGTH (STR) 58
AGILITY (AGI) 91
VITALITY (VIT) 55
COGNITION (COG) 50
INTEGRATION (INTG) 15
WILL (WIL) 19
ADAPTABILITY (ADP) 16
Derived Values:
• Combat Efficiency Rating (CER): 174
• Evolutionary Potential (EP): 31
• Survival Index (SI): 74
• Cognitive Feedback Threshold (CFT): 69
───────────────────────────────────────
[INNATE ABILITIES]
───────────────────────────────────────
• Mutations: - Super Strength (Grade 4)
• Mutations: - Echolocation (Grade 4)
• Psychic Power – Magnetism Manipulation (Grade +2)
───────────────────────────────────────
[VAULT DATA]
───────────────────────────────────────
Vault Tier: 1
Capacity: 60 TP (Grade 3 entities max)
─ Stored Entities ─
▫ SYMBIARCH [MYC-Σ03] (20 TP)
▫ THRALL [MYC-Σ04] (1 TP)
───────────────────────────────────────
[MUTATION SLOTS] 2 / 2
───────────────────────────────────────
• Neural Web Node (Grade +3)
• Metabolic Surge (Grade +3)
───────────────────────────────────────
Sylar couldn't help but show a faint smile as he looked at his new stats. The difference between now and when everything had begun was like night and day. But his satisfaction didn't last long. His gaze fell on one particular value on the interface: Entropy.
It was high. Far too high.
"No wonder I feel so uncomfortable," he muttered, pressing a hand against his chest. His body felt sluggish, his nerves overcharged and frayed.
Without hesitation, he immediately disabled the Neural Web Node mutation. Even with it off, the accumulated entropy would take time to fade.
Still, he forced his mind to move on and focused on the new Innate Ability that appeared on the interface: Magnetism Manipulation.
The name alone sent a thrill down his spine. It was a Grade 2 Ability, the same level as Xerxes' power. Even though he'd arrived only at the end of that fight, Sylar vividly remembered how the True Apostle had raised a colossal metallic tower, nearly three hundred meters tall (328yd), and hurled it like a missile.
"If I could do that… maybe..."
He didn't finish the thought, but his eyes burned with restrained hatred. Killing Xerxes had brought a sharp, satisfying release deep within his soul, but vengeance was not yet complete. There was still one more, the being that had descended from the sky, whose shockwave had wrecked the orphanage and buried everyone he loved.
Yes, Xerxes had delivered the final blow, but that other creature had caused the massacre. It was that monster who deserved to die by his hands.
Sylar closed his eyes briefly and exhaled, forcing the rage back down into his chest. There would be a time for revenge, but not now. First, he had to survive and understand where he was.
Testing his new power would have to wait. He didn't know who had captured him or what kind of surveillance surrounded this place, and the less they saw of what he could do, the better.
Shifting his focus, he opened the Vault Interface, noticing something new had been added.
"So it was recorded after all," he murmured. "I didn't personally kill it, but I made it kill itself. Guess that counts."
He hadn't paid much attention to the captured Thrall before, but something next to its listing drew his attention, two letters glowing faintly.
"TP?" he whispered.
A brief pulse from the System confirmed his curiosity, filling his mind with new information.
[The Vault has a finite capacity measured in Threat Points (TP). Each captured entity consumes TP proportional to its grade and strength compared to that of the Host. Capacity can be expanded by several paths, the most common being to upgrade the Nemesis System Rank.]
Sylar nodded slightly. It was simple enough to understand. Lower-grade creatures that did not really present a threat, like the Thralls, cost little to store, but entities like the Symbarch had demanded a massive portion of his Vault's capacity, even after all his recent upgrades.
He'd barely finished processing the information when a deep mechanical sound echoed through the room.
The door was opening.
Sylar's eyes sharpened, turning cold and alert like blades. Instinct took over. He triggered Metabolic Surge, feeling his blood ignite as his Agility and Adaptability spiked by fifty percent. His muscles coiled like steel cables, and in an instant, he moved, a blur of motion faster than sound.
A sonic boom cracked the air as he shot toward the door, every fiber of his being focused on a single goal: escape.
He didn't care who was on the other side. He would not be caged like an animal.
But before he reached the threshold, a finger gently tapped his solar plexus.
The touch hit like a cannon. The impact forced every ounce of air from his lungs and sent his body flying backward across the room. He crashed hard into the far wall, pain exploding across his ribs and spine.
Sylar gasped for breath, barely managing to stay conscious. By the time he staggered to his feet, the door had sealed again, and his attacker was inside.
The man who stood before him was tall, broad-shouldered, and impossibly muscular. His presence filled the small room like a storm about to break. His hair was gray, his eyes glowed faintly with a dangerous light, and every inch of his body radiated power.
It took Sylar only a moment to recognize him by the scent. It was the super soldier, the one who had fought Xerxes before Sylar struck the final blow.
Up close, he looked less like a man and more like a weapon sculpted from flesh and bones.
"It's as if his muscles have muscles," Sylar thought grimly, forcing himself to remain calm. But his eyes stayed sharp, his posture guarded.
"I want to leave," he said coldly.
It didn't matter that this man was human too. Sylar would not entrust his life to anyone else's mercy.
The super soldier regarded him in silence for a moment, his glowing eyes narrowing slightly. Then, without warning, they brightened, and a wave of pressure exploded outward.
The entire room trembled. The air itself seemed to crush down on Sylar like the weight of an ocean.
"What… what the hell is this?" he gasped, struggling to stay upright.
Sylar's understanding of the world had grown immensely in the last couple of days, as he learn about the true power of mutations and the existence of psychic powers.
Yet, this was new. It acted similarly to bloodlust, but this was not just an ethereal concept or some psychological trick. There was a force behind it, a tangible energy emanating from the super soldier, pressing against his body and mind.
The metal walls around them began to groan, warping under the invisible strain. Sylar's bones felt as though they would snap at any second. Darkness crept in at the edges of his vision.
Still, he clenched his jaw and refused to kneel. His body trembled, every muscle screaming, but he stayed on his feet.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the pressure vanished.
───────────────────────────────────────
[Will has increased by 1 point]
───────────────────────────────────────
Sylar barely registed the voice of the system adn the silence that followed was almost deafening.
Standing just a few feet away, the super soldier looked completely calm, his expression unreadable.
"Good job," he said finally, his voice deep and steady. "You might make it after all. You can call me Benjamin."
Sylar stood there, chest heaving, cold sweat dripping down his temples. His lungs still burned, and his entire body ached as though crushed by a mountain, but he lifted his gaze to meet Benjamin's.
Even in his weakened state, his eyes carried the same fire, the unyielding will to live, to fight, to escape if he must.
He didn't delude himself into thinking he could win. Not now. This man was far beyond him, a predator among predators.
But that didn't mean Sylar would bow like a dog and accept what a stranger had designed for him.
Benjamin studied the boy in silence. Despite his exhaustion, Sylar's stance was steady, his eyes burning with defiance and unshakable resolve. He gave a single, approving nod.
"I understand how you feel," Benjamin said at last, his voice calm yet carrying the weight of authority. "But you currently lack the clearance to even be on this ship, let alone walk freely within it. That may change soon… but until then, you are to remain confined here."
He stepped forward, his heavy boots echoing against the metallic floor. Then, with a faint hum, he placed his hand against one section of the wall. The smooth metal shifted and slid aside, revealing a large transparent panel.
"Besides," Benjamin continued, gesturing toward it, "you couldn't really leave even if I allowed it."
Sylar frowned, confusion flickering across his face. He hesitated for a moment before stepping closer to the panel. The light that poured through it was cold and alien. His eyes widened.
Before him stretched a vast, endless void, a sea of blackness speckled with stars. A planet loomed in the distance, and he recognized the geography from pictures.
"That is Arcade." The voice of the boy shook for a moment as he understood. He was no longer on the planet.
He was in outer space.