Kai looked at Serah.
Serah looked at him.
Her markings pulsed at their usual rhythm — the rhythm Kai had learned to read in sixteen days as calm.
Kai turned toward Jameson.
"The guild quest is already cleared up. You're not an S-class threat."
Pause.
"But the enchantment system in active mode is a problem. If I detect it active again without consent, the next hit won't be precision."
Jameson processed this.
The red jaw. The robe covered in wood dust and preserve remnants. The destroyed stall behind him.
Then he looked up.
And smiled.
"Who's going to stop me?"
His voice had something different — no longer the constructed softness from before. Something more direct.
"You?"
---
The pink aura that had been faint, localized, operating in passive mode for hours expanded.
Not gradually.
All at once.
It covered the plaza in a second.
The destroyed stall, the Ferris wheel, the colored pennants, the carousel. It spread through the streets toward the booths, toward the houses, toward the edges of the village.
And with it, the atmosphere of Mirfeld changed.
The air grew denser. Not in temperature — in something harder to name.
Like when a room has too many people and the oxygen isn't enough to breathe easily.
Kai noticed it the moment it touched his skin.
[System — alert]
[Enchantment System — Active level: MAXIMUM]
[Range of influence: expanded — 2,400m]
[Entities under effect: classification in process]
[The system notes that this is considerably different from passive mode]
---
[GarcíaFTW: THE AURA COVERED THE ENTIRE VILLAGE]
[NocheEterna99: "who's going to stop me?" — JAMESON WASN'T TAME]
[xSorinx: Kai is assessing something. He has that calculation face.]
[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ FINAL BOSS MODE ACTIVATED ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]
[Deral_Bleattler: ←←←← AURA →→→→ (°ロ°) THE WHOLE VILLAGE]
[User_7741: (ಠ_ಠ) something really bad is happening (ಠ_ಠ)]
---
Kai observed him.
And the aura — from Jameson's system.
Which was now completely visible to him on the floating panel that Jameson himself had made visible earlier in the conversation and which now, with the system at maximum level, showed more than Jameson probably intended to show.
[Enchantment System — Active level: MAXIMUM]
[Secondary abilities unlocked by influence level:]
[— Soul fire: ACTIVE]
[— Shadow dominion: ACTIVE]
[— Time fracture: ACTIVE — charge at 34%]
There it is.
Kai processed it in two seconds.
The hunters reported fire magic. Shadow magic. One insisted on time magic.
He doesn't change magic types. He unlocks them based on the system's influence level.
The greater the control over the area, the more active abilities.
And with the entire village under effect...
Blue flames appeared in Jameson's hands — the same ones that had scared the hunters two months ago, but this time without accident.
Deliberate.
Controlled.
On his right shoulder, a shadow that didn't correspond to any light source condensed into solid form — not an attack yet, but the kind of presence that precedes one.
And in the air around Jameson, something Kai hadn't seen since arriving in Aethon — a distortion.
Like heat over asphalt but cold, as if the space around him were deciding whether to remain the same space or become another.
Time fracture at 34%.
If it reaches one hundred, the combat area changes.
---
[NocheEterna99: BLUE FIRE + SHADOW + TEMPORAL DISTORTION]
[GarcíaFTW: THAT'S WHY THE HUNTERS REPORTED CONTRADICTORY ABILITIES. IT WASN'T INCONSISTENCY. THEY WERE ALL REAL.]
[StreamerHunter: the system gives him more powers the more control he has over the area. And now he controls the ENTIRE VILLAGE.]
[xSorinx: Kai has 34% time fracture before the field changes. He's calculating.]
[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘ RUN KAI ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘]
[Deral_Bleattler: he's not going to run. He never runs. (╥_╥)]
[User_7741: (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง KAI DOESN'T RUN (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง KAI FIGHTS]
---
Jameson opened his arms slightly — the gesture of someone presenting something.
"Four years in this world," he said.
"Four years learning how this system works. How to expand it. How to use it." He looked at Serah.
"And you've been here sixteen days."
"You even got an SSS-rank entity. Your influence system must be abysmal, or maybe you just got lucky."
"Influence system? What influence? All I have are my fists and a system that's sensitive about haters."
Serah's silver markings were at maximum intensity.
Not the irregular glow from before — the steady, cold glow of fully active primordial aura.
Jameson's enchantment system had reached her when she was vulnerable.
When the markings were low and something inside her was asking if Kai had used the same words as the men who left.
She was no longer vulnerable.
Jameson noticed.
His expression changed slightly.
"Interesting," he said. "The SSS is immune after all."
"I've always been immune, it's just that," Serah said. "I was distracted."
"Why?"
"Because I was thinking about him."
Jameson looked at Kai.
Kai hadn't said anything in the last forty seconds.
He was still looking at Jameson's system panel with the expression of someone finishing reading something.
"One question," he finally said.
Jameson looked at him.
"How did you figure out my plan?"
---
Kai looked at him.
And smiled.
Not the small, genuine smile from when he challenged the guildmaster of Dunholt.
Something calmer than that.
The smile of someone confident and possibly a high-level detective.
---
[GarcíaFTW: KAI SMILED]
[NocheEterna99: HE DIDN'T ANSWER. HE JUST SMILED — HE'LL DO HIS REVEAL LATER.]
[StreamerHunter: viewers: 1,800,000. People arrived on their own just from the smile.]
[xSorinx: Jameson is going to get his answer and end up looking like a fool. That's worse than any hit.]
[Pedro_Sierra: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) KAI WAS VERY GOOD AT DEDUCING SOMETHING WAS OFF ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
[Deral_Bleattler: ←←←←← [Kai's smile] →→→→→ [Jameson with no answer] = the worst possible outcome for Jameson]
[User_7741: ψ(∇´)ψ KAI HAS A PLAN ψ(∇´)ψ]
[NocheEterna99: if this were a novel, the chapter ends here. KAI SMILING. NOT ANSWERING.]
[GarcíaFTW: next chapter please already]
[System — notification]
[Time fracture: charge at 47%]