Absolute Cheater

The trio moved deeper into the criminal sector of World Heart City. The change was immediate.

The pristine marble streets gave way to darker stone, cracked and scorched in places. Lanterns here burned with a flickering violet flame, casting long shadows along the alleys. The crowd was different—sharper eyes, quiet footsteps, and subtle hands slipping into pockets before retreating just as quickly. Hooded figures leaned against walls, cloaked in veils of illusion or surrounded by faint ripples of spatial interference. Everyone here was dangerous—and everyone knew it.

Veyra walked between Asher and Valeris, her senses sharpened.

"This place feels like it shouldn't exist inside a city watched by the World Consciousness," she said softly.

Asher nodded. "It exists because the World Consciousness allows it. This city holds all types—saints, emperors… monsters. A perfect realm must have a shadow. And this is it."

Valeris stepped calmly over a bloodstained sigil half-buried in the stone. "Even gods need somewhere to throw their trash. The difference is, here, the trash bites back."

A merchant stall ahead beckoned with soft whispers. Odd items lay on dusty velvet—cursed talismans, broken soul fragments, preserved eyes still twitching in jars. A sign above read: 'Price Negotiable. Payment in Souls Accepted.'

Veyra gave it a wide berth.

They passed an alley where two cloaked figures were dueling with silent blades—no shouts, no flashes, only the flicker of blood mist. Another corner revealed a den where addicts burned relic ashes to glimpse their past lives. Above them, shadow-wrapped towers loomed, watched over by runes that wept black ink.

"Everyone here is pretending not to notice anyone else," Veyra muttered.

"It's safer that way," Valeris replied. "Make eye contact, and you might find yourself in a blood pact or dragged into an honor duel."

They stopped at a wide intersection where a metallic statue stood in the center—a woman with four arms, blindfolded, holding both a dagger and a scale. Beneath her, etched in ancient runes, were the words:

"Justice is debt. Mercy is weakness. Truth is forged in survival."

Asher read it aloud, then shook his head. "They call her the Matron of the Pit. Local deity of this district. Not a real god… but worshiped all the same."

"A mockery of judgment," Valeris said coldly. "But even shadows pray to something."

Suddenly, a ripple of distortion crossed the road ahead, and a masked figure stepped into view—slim, dressed in layered leathers, with a cloak stitched from shifting spectral feathers.

"New blood," the figure said, voice distorted. "You're not hiding your power well. Especially you." His head tilted toward Asher. "Care to leave behind your name and a warning? For when your body's found?"

Asher stepped forward, calm. "You first."

The man hesitated—then laughed dryly. "Smart. Enjoy your walk, outsiders. Just don't look too hard into the doors you pass… they might look back."

He vanished into the mist.

Veyra whispered, "I don't like this place."

Asher smiled faintly. "You're not supposed to."

"Then why are we here?" she asked.

"To learn how deep this city truly runs," Valeris replied, brushing a hand along the air. "Power always hides where others won't dare to go."

They walked on.

As they continued moving through the criminal sector, the murmur of the streets gave way to a deeper, more unsettling quiet. It wasn't the silence of peace—it was the stillness of a trap that hadn't been triggered yet. Veyra stayed close, her fingers near the hilt of her curved dagger, while Valeris walked like a queen who knew no one dared step into her shadow.

Eventually, they reached a part of the sector known as most dangerous one: The Black Spine.

It was an area built around the rib-like remains of some ancient leviathan, bones of black crystal protruding from the ground and arching overhead like a collapsed cathedral. Tents and crude buildings were woven between the ribs, and strange glowing veins of mana pulsed along their lengths. The moment they stepped in, a different pressure blanketed them—thicker, darker, and lined with eyes they couldn't see.

Asher narrowed his gaze. "It must have been a powerful beast when it was alive."

"A fallen World Rank beast," Valeris murmured. "Long before our era. Slain during the Great Epoch War. From the memories of Valeria, I've seen him—it was a disaster that claimed many lives until a group of World Rankers finally brought it down. Afterward, they divided its body, each taking a piece with them."

"It seems one of them came here and used the remains to establish a sector—or perhaps, after extracting all the essence, they simply abandoned it. Eventually, others repurposed it as a building material," Asher added.

As they walked under a hanging arch of talons, a child ran past them barefoot—laughing, wild-eyed, clutching a dripping red fruit that looked like a beating heart. No one followed. No one cared.

Suddenly, the space ahead shimmered, and a portal of fractured shadow opened, rippling like oil on water. From it stepped a man clad in jet-black armor laced with violet veins, his face half-hidden behind a cruel mask shaped like a skull's jaw. His aura was suffocating, not in weight, but in depth—a void more than a presence.

"Visitors," he said smoothly. "Unregistered, unclaimed, and very interesting."

Valeris met his gaze without blinking. "We're not here to be claimed."

"Pity," he replied, voice silk over steel. "You stand in territory ruled by the Pale Chain Syndicate. And here, everything has a price."

"Even your neck?" Veyra asked, expression sharp as a blade.

He chuckled. "Especially that."

Asher stepped forward. "We don't seek trouble. Only passage. Unless you're the toll."

There was a pause. A few cloaked figures emerged from behind market stalls, subtle ripples of energy beginning to gather in the air—shadow spikes, curse fire, gravitational distortions. Every member was at least Sovereign-grade, and one or two… might have reached the lower echelons of World Rank.

The man in black raised his hand.

The tension fell.

"I respect strength," he said. "You've already proven more poise than most who crawl into this ribcage. So I'll make a counter-offer."