From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

Captain Ishiro stated, "Caelum, I always do appreciate your hard work and your refusal to care why an order is given, but I do want to see you have the care for the orders."

Caelum, heading out the door, replied, "I trust you, and that's enough. Even if I don't see the point in wiping their memory, I am sure there is a good point behind it. So who am I, who has lived far less than you, to question you?"

"While that is true, please remember there are terrible people who walk the path of pure evil that have lived longer than you as well. If we truly have a traitor, I would like them to not know we are onto them. This could become much bigger than anyone could foresee.

Come back once you have finished wiping their memories so we can further discuss the plans moving forward to assist Kieran and get an audience with the King."

Caelum's eyes widened. "An audience with the King?! I have only ever seen him once."

Captain Ishiro sighed and said, "Yes, it is quite draining even being in his presence, so contact is always limited. If you don't want to, I will understand and have the audience solo with the information we have garnered."

"No!" Caelum blurted out. "I h-have been meaning to see him again after so long."

The captain chuckled. "That's right, I remember the second time I saw him as well. It was almost like a drug, but after a while, it can become bothersome. Regardless, I will wait for your return and do some digging on my own."

Caelum nodded, heading out the door as it sealed closed on its own. He walked down the long corridor, striding past the doors labeled by number.

Spinning the pen in his hand, he thought to himself, Who would go so far as to partner with a universe as disgusting as the Demon Universe to assist in murdering humans?

There's a right way and a wrong way to get stronger.

As Caelum came up on the door where Janice and the others were, he slid his hand over the sensor. It blinked red. "What the hell?" Sliding his hand across it twice more, hoping for a different outcome, it just flashed red again.

"They must have locked the door from the inside?!" He banged on the door loudly, shouting, "Open the door!"

No response came, but he heard a loud bang and something hitting the floor inside.

"Screw this," he thought. He pressed his hand on the metal door itself as energy began to wrap around his hand in a blue cascade. "I don't have my katana blades on me right now, but this door is—" His thought was interrupted as the doors slid open on their own. Smoke and damage filled the room.

Janice stood with her arm extended, holding a remote, while a ghostly black figure covered in shadows had her by the throat.

Caelum's mind raced at lightning speed, processing the scene in an instant. He noticed countless bodies in the room, split in half or killed, with computer screens cracked, smashed, and destroyed.

"This isn't an angelic being. How the hell did they get in here?!" In a blink, his legs twitched, and he appeared behind the ghostly figure. The creature contorted its hand into a spear, aiming for Janice's head. Caelum spun, swiping at the creature. His strike phased through like a hand through a cloud. Rebounding off the wall, he caught the strike with his bare hand, feeling an intense burn.

He pulled Janice away from the shadow creature.

"What the hell is going on?" he exclaimed, grabbing Janice and jumping back dozens of feet from the creature. "Thanks for opening the door, Janice. Sorry I was so late getting back here."

As he looked up, the creature had slipped into the floor.

Had he just retreated? Caelum thought for a moment before he shot from the ground, aiming toward Caelum's face, twisting and contorting his hand into a blade.

Stumbled back as his cheek was cut, spraying blood, he quickly spun around, attempting to deliver a kick to the creature's head. It did nothing but phase through as it turned its shadowy yellowish-orange look on him and stated, "Elimite."

Yellow energy began to course around the creature as Caelum thought, "It was getting stronger or powering up."

Not wasting a moment, he dived toward the creature, aiming for its head again before fainting back and bringing an open palm strike to the creature's center mass as another tendril strike aimed at his face.

Grabbed his wrist as his hand kept palm straight out, a massive amount of energy jetted out like a crashing wave. His shoulder was impaled by the creature before being thrown back against the wall.

In that moment, Caelum saw a blue and red orb hung around his chest before slowly the shadow closed in around it again.

"Stronger than I thought," the shadowy creature hummed. "No matter, the damage is done." Find exclusive content at empire

Caelum dropped to a knee as he noticed the wound in his shoulder had begun to ooze black liquid.

Janice shouted, "What is going on? Are you okay?"

Followed by a dozen men and women who gathered around the door behind Caelum and stated, "What the hell is going on here?"

The shadow figure chuckled as it began to fade back into the wall behind the broken computer systems.

Caelum chuckled with a grin as the creature had half phased away and said, "Like hell I will just let you leave after the damage you caused!" before slicing his arm off with his hand and adding, "Yui, throw me my blade!"

As a single blade spun above Caelum's head, a woman with long black hair holding one blade said, "Of course, you always leave your blade in the weapon rack when things go down!"

Caelum caught it and tapped his shoulder as the leaking blood closed up. He jetted back toward the creature attempting to flee.