Impetus System: The power of chaos

After a month, the wind carried dust and murmurs of despair through the streets of Soraoka. Satsu walked like a mindless automaton, her dragging steps marking the dirt floor like the footprints of an undead person. Grief was no longer a pain — it was an emptiness that sucked even the sound of her own breathing. The hologram flickered in his peripheral vision, reminding him daily of the brightness of Haruto's face fading. Even with the full support of his family, he felt empty. His vision looked into an endless dark abyss

[Regeneration completed] — the message said, but his internal scars were still bleeding.

— my regeneration really has improved a lot... so it can't be crazy in my head...

That was when a situation pulled him out of his reverie when he noticed an elderly woman struggling to push a makeshift wheelbarrow, full of scrap metal. Her frail body trembled under the effort, and each step she took seemed to weigh tons.

Satsu approached, and her gaze—a mixture of gratitude and shame—pierced him like a reminder: You failed them. Don't fail her.

Satsu didn't hesitate. She approached and, in her gentle voice, asked:

"Ma'am, do you need any help?"

She looked up, surprised. Her eyes were full of sweetness, but they also bore the marks of a hard life.

"Ah, young man... if it's not too much trouble…" she said with a humble smile.

Satsu took the handles of the cart and felt its weight. It was full of old metals, wires, rusty gears. A mishmash of discarded parts that the big city threw away, but that, for the poorest, could mean a meal.

"Where are you taking this?" she asked as they walked side by side.

"To sell. Maybe I can get some money to buy medicine for my grandson," the lady replied, sighing.

Satsu arched an eyebrow, feeling a tightness in her chest.

— Is your grandson sick? What's his name?

"Seiji. He's only seven years old, but he's already facing more than any child should. He's been bedridden for weeks…"

Satsu pressed his lips together. He knew what it was like to grow up without resources, but the idea of ​​such a young child suffering without access to treatment revolted him.

"And the public hospitals? Don't they help?" he insisted.

The lady let out a humorless laugh.

"Oh, my dear, the hospitals are full. They say they only accept serious cases…" her voice broke for a moment. "But anyone can see that Seiji's condition is serious. But for them, the poor don't count as a priority."

Satsu felt a lump in her throat. The old woman's words echoed in her mind, heavy as chains. That was the reality of those who had no power, of those who were not under the blessing of the Brotherhood of the Phoenix. The inequality was so blatant that it seemed suffocating.

As she turned the corner, she saw the scene. Two well-dressed hunters, wearing black suits with the Blades of Carnage crest, were surrounding an old man and a young man. The old man was lying on the ground, while the boy protected him, his fists clenched, his eyes burning with rage.

"I told you to go away!" the boy shouted.

The hunters laughed. One of them, a robust man with short hair and a scar on his chin, kicked the old man to the ground.

"But we just want to talk. These people from the outskirts are always so rude," he said, with a sadistic smile.

The other, a thin man with mischievous eyes, twirled a small pocketknife between his fingers.

"Security has a price, you know? Without us, this place would have already become a den of monsters. So, nothing fairer than a small contribution…"

"We don't have any money!" the boy shouted again.

The robust hunter smiled.

"But I didn't say we wanted money." He grabbed the young man's collar. — Perhaps we can think of another form of payment...

Satsu's hand trembled. What was happening here was clear. They were taking advantage of the fact that they were powerful adventurers to terrorize the weaker ones.

However, their crest filled him with such deep hatred that something inside him resisted with an overwhelming desire for justice.

That was when he felt a different vibration.

[Warning: danger zone ahead.]

He swallowed hard. IMPETUS had given a warning. His eyes scanned the adventurers. His heart was beating fast. He was no match for two Rank Bs, or even one. But… someone had to do something.

That was when he heard a voice behind him.

"So… you're that rookie who didn't die in that cave. You know, you disgust me."

Satsu turned around. A third hunter was there. A tall man, with defined muscles, an arrogant smile. His eyes swept over Satsu as if evaluating an insect.

Satsu sighed, trying to ignore him. But his hand clenched with a strength that Satsu had never imagined he had, but he knew that the confrontation would be much worse than the humiliation.

— I heard that your guild leader died like a pig in a slaughterhouse — He laughed loudly, drawing the attention of the other hunters. — What kind of idiot goes to an S-rank zone if he's a D-rank?

The laughter echoed.

Satsu's face heated up, but he forced himself to remain silent. But in his subconscious something was happening. Something that is beyond the control of any human being.

The system responded with a mysterious message, automatically

[CRITICAL ALERT: Survival rate: 0.3%]

Satsu immediately thought to herself — Are these bastards trying to kill me for no reason?

The System responded automatically

[User needs to be preserved]

[temporary unlock for emergency solution]

— Seriously, man, how do you expect to survive with that mentality? — he said, clenching his fists to pierce Satsu's chest at that moment — You're useless! You're useless! This is the real world, not a child's game. You should just die—

''CLACK.''

The B-Rank stopped mid-sentence.

His eyes widened. His breathing became ragged.

Satsu looked down, as if she had only heard the humiliation.

A black, distorted hand was firmly gripping the hunter's wrist. A hand that was not his. Made of liquid shadows, dripping onto the ground like living ink.

Time seemed to freeze.

Then, an ancient, distorted voice resounded in the void, as if several entities were speaking at once:

"Useless?"

The world shattered.

The scenery of the community disappeared.

The Adventurer was alone, floating in a colorless void.

In front of him, impossible images formed.

He saw himself being torn apart and reassembled endlessly, like a puppet of flesh and blood.

He saw the entire world compressed inside a single drop of water, and him falling eternally inside it.

He saw thousands of versions of himself, screaming in despair, their bodies deformed in unimaginable ways. He saw a gigantic silhouette, with eyes glowing in the dark, whispering secrets that his mind could not comprehend. The Adventurer tried to scream. There was no sound. He tried to run. There was no ground. Then, everything returned to normal.

The ground of the community. The noise of the people. The incomprehensible looks of his colleagues.

The Adventurer stood still, his eyes wide open, his body shaking violently. His face was pale as death.

Satsu blinked, confused looking at the situation.

The other adventurers looked at the Rank B, who seemed broken, sweating cold.

"Hey... what happened to him?" asked one of the hunters.

"Why is he shaking like that?" another person murmured.

One of the adventurers who were with him approached, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay? What happened?"

The Adventurer jumped back, screaming, as if he was running away from something invisible. He looked at Satsu with pure terror.

Satsu frowned.

"Uh... did something happen?"

The Rank B didn't answer. He just ran away, tripping over his own feet, not looking back as he screamed.

Satsu stood there, motionless.

He had no idea what had just happened.

But somewhere deep inside him, something laughed silently.

The adventurers who had been making a ruckus exchanged glances, trying to mask the discomfort that dominated their faces. Their feet faltered as they left the place, but, hesitantly, one of them declared, trying not to lose his composure:

"Tomorrow... we will return for more."

The words sounded empty, dissolving in the air like fragile promises.

Satsu stood there, his feet still firmly on the ground marked by dust and the footsteps of suffering lives. The silence that followed was slowly broken by murmurs of disbelief, followed by tears.

"He... he made them retreat?" a wavering voice asked.

People began to gather around him. Worn clothes, faces marked by hunger, tired eyes that had long since lost sight of hope. Each of them bore their visible pain, etched on their skin, and invisible pain, buried in their chest.

A thin mother, with calloused hands, held a child in her arms, her eyes sunken and dull.

"They took everything... everything from us. My son only has water to drink. There is no more bread, there is nothing else."

Beside her, an old man bent over by the weight of a hard life whispered:

"I lost my land... they said it was theirs now. If I try to go back there, they will beat me."

A young woman with tears in her eyes begged:

"Please, make the Brotherhood look at us... we are dying here."

Satsu looked around, feeling despair throb like an open, gaping wound. Those people didn't just need a hero... they needed a miracle.

Then, the metallic whisper of the interface appeared, cold and impersonal, but loaded with an unexpected weight:

[ Impetus has successfully protected the user ]

[ Warning: due to the user's current strength, access to a new skill was necessary ]

[ Skill: Catalyst of Ruin ]

• Grants 5x more mana, strength, speed and resistance for 5 minutes;

• After the end, the user will suffer extreme fatigue for the same period as the skill, reducing all statistics by half.

• If the skill is activated again within this period, the negative effects will be tripled.

Satsu read it and smiled. Not in triumph, but in recognition. The universe, in its poetic cruelty, was giving him exactly what he needed: a pact. More power than any common human being... in exchange for his own flesh as fuel.

—so it was Impetus who did that to that guy... — he said with some relief.

— I promise... — her voice echoed, not as a sigh, but as an unbreakable oath, forged in the depths of a heart that no longer belonged to her. — ...that justice will not be a tale... But a promise.

The crowd cheered. Not with joy, but with recognition. Something else was awakening in the air,

the smell of a storm before the lightning, the silence before the thunder. Dirty hands raised, not in applause, but in greeting to something greater than themselves. Satsu felt her enormous emptiness being filled again.

And in the middle of the crowd, almost imperceptible, a hooded figure watched. She remained silent. She observed everything, motionless.

And then, she smiled.