Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power

[Quest: Save your sister.]

[Difficulty: Hard.]

[Description: Your sister is being held inside the underground of the Castle of Steel. Save her and escape this situation together safely.]

[Rewards: Depends on performance]

[Penalty: Daela's death.]

Kaden looked at the quest, but his eyes lingered especially on the penalty.

He could guess it wasn't the system punishing him, it would simply be the consequence of his own inability to save his sister.

And that was something Kaden would never accept.

'Daela's death…?' Kaden thought, a dark chuckle rising from his throat.

That was something that would never happen in this life.

Because as long as he was here, he would rewind time a million times if it meant saving his sister or anyone in his family.

'Ah… let's finish this rapidly.' Kaden thought inwardly.

He focused on the task ahead: infiltrate the Castle of Steel, more precisely the underground, and then save his sister.

There were two major problems Kaden faced in this mission.

First, he didn't know how to bypass the two guards stationed at the gate and enter the territory of Goremaw unnoticed. And even if by some miracle he managed to pull that off, he still had no idea where exactly the underground prison was.

He didn't know the door. He didn't know the way. He didn't know anything.

He was operating in complete… blank.

But he wasn't discouraged, not even slightly.

'If one game isn't enough to understand all of its mechanics, then surely playing multiple other games will be.' Kaden added silently, his expression now firm and resolute.

Having made up his mind, he acted.

But just because he could rewind time didn't mean he'd waste his death coins carelessly, so he decided to act… smart. Or maybe, let's say, ingenious.

His stats were incredible, versatile even. He just needed imagination to wield them, just like with his traits—especially Soulbrand and Synthesis.

He remembered the description of Synthesis, how it could combine and transform anything.

'And by anything…' Kaden began to think, but didn't finish the sentence.

Instead, a wide and feral grin stretched across his face.

While heading toward the castle, he had marked many beasts with his Soulbrand, mostly just to train it along the way.

And now, all those beasts he had marked…

'I can sense their location…' he thought, closing his eyes and pushing his perception to its max.

He could feel them. And, as if fate had decided to favor him today, two of them were even close…very close.

He smirked, then vanished in a blur of terrible, silent speed, heading straight toward the two beasts. In less time than it took for a teacup to grow cold, Kaden was back at his original position—two beasts clutched in his hands.

The beasts looked like rabbits, but their fur was so dark it seemed to absorb the surrounding light, and their red eyes brimmed with unfiltered malice.

They were the size of human toddlers, but they were… fat. Yes, that was the word.

Their teeth were jagged and sharp. One bite, and an unawakened human would lose their entire arm. Even a regular awakened would suffer a permanent wound without a high-ranked health potion.

Kaden observed them carefully, and the bunnies glared back, their eyes filled with animosity.

They would have screamed if they could… but Kaden had already silenced them using a special artifact he bought long ago—an item that robbed its victims of their voices completely.

A Voice Oublié, a rare-rank artifact that had cost him dearly. It looked like a sewn mouth, sealed shut with dark red threads.

A very unique design to say the least.

And Kaden didn't regret buying it.

'Just the perfect tool to tortu—no, I mean interrogate someone unruly,' Kaden mused before refocusing on the two black bunnies.

'Synthesis.'

He activated the trait, his intention clear—to fuse the two into one unstable being.

Yes, he made sure to specifically order Synthesis to make the fusion unstable.

And the trait obeyed.

A few minutes later, there was no trace of the two bunnies, only a single towering red monstrosity standing nearly six feet tall, with rows upon rows of jagged teeth and eyes that glowed with a madness so intense it seemed to distort the very air around it.

Kaden had already disappeared before the transformation was done. So when the red bunny finally emerged and started hunting for prey… it found two delicious-looking steel-and-flesh guards.

It didn't hesitate.

In an instant, it lunged at them, its massive feet slamming into the earth with such force that the ground creaked violently beneath its weight. A loud crack echoed through the air, making the steelbeasts turn their heads sharply toward the creature.

Their expressions twisted in momentary confusion, their minds failing to comprehend what was going on. But soon, they abandoned all logic and yielded to the one instinct engraved into them since birth…

Kill.

But before they could even take a step…

BOOOOOOMMMM!

The red bunny exploded into a grotesque rain of flesh, blood, intestines, and pulsing organs. It looked like a downpour of monster remains.

It was a disgusting sight—flesh and entrails still wiggling on the ground as if alive, writhing in pools of black and green blood.

A deep, putrid stench spread instantly, a horrific mix of rotting meat, feces, sulfur, and that unbearable stench that filled your nose when old fish was left under the sun for days.

It was that foul.

So foul, in fact, that the guards didn't even notice the shadow that streaked silently past them.

And so,

Kaden…

…had entered the territory.

…

Meanwhile, as Kaden risked everything to pass through the gates,

Deep beneath the City of Silver, in a cramped cell forged entirely from burning steel, a young woman sat on the floor, her back against a wall that sizzled with heat.

Her expression was void of emotion as she stared at the glowing, burning bars in front of her.

The cell was barely large enough to fit two grown people. The floor, made of crimson steel, radiated heat so intense it could sear the flesh of a mundane in seconds and the walls weren't any different.

The air was nearly impossible to breathe. Inhaling even once would scorch your lungs. It was suffocating.

And yet, amidst all this, Daela sat still, her face utterly blank inside this little imitation of hell.

Her face was untouched but her body…

Ah, Lord…

It was a sight that, if Kaden saw it…

Then I'm afraid that even death would not be enough for whoever was responsible for mutilating Daela Warborn.

—End of Chapter 104—