A figure stepped out from the shadow of the gatehouse. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in the same deep-crimson uniform as the banners, a black cloak pinned at the shoulder with the Noxford crest. He had silver hair, a sharp jaw, and eyes the color of storm clouds.
Behind him were six armed guards fanned out, hands resting on the hilts of their blades. Every one of them was staring straight at Hsuya.
Then the man stopped ten paces away. His gaze flicked from Hsuya's face to the faint shimmer of mana still clinging to his clothes like a second skin. A slow, dangerous smile curved his lips.
"Well, well," he said, voice low and carrying easily across the distance. "The lost heir finally decides to show up. Took you long enough, cousin."
Hsuya's pulse spiked.
"Cousin?"
Nox's voice chimed in Hsuya's head before he could even open his mouth.
[ Unique signal confirmed ]
[ Blood relation detected ]
Hsuya kept his expression blank, and with his poker face, he met the man's eyes.
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage," he said calmly. "You seem to know who I am. Mind returning the favor?"
The man chuckled, but there was no warmth in it.
"Name's Kael Noxford. Captain of the Noxford Guard… and the one who's been waiting years for Levi's brat to finally walk through that portal."
Hsuya did the math instantly. I am currently eighteen so ,three years on Earth. Two Alexian days to one Earth day. Six years. The timeline aligned perfectly. Kael had been waiting since the exact moment Hsuya's parentsdisappeared from his fifteenth birthday.
Then Kael took another step closer, the guards mirroring him like shadows.
"So tell me, Hsuya," he said, tasting the name like it left a bad flavor on his tongue, "did you come here to claim what's yours… or to die trying?"
The air between them crackled with mana—Kael's, not Hsuya's—and for the first time since he had stepped into Alexia, Hsuya realized infinite power didn't mean infinite safety. Not when the family he had come to find might want him dead.
"Huh? Dying?"
Hsuya tilted his head, letting a faint, tired smile touch his lips.
"I didn't come here planning to die."
He raised his hand slightly, mana already stirring beneath his skin like liquid steel waiting to be shaped.
His voice stayed calm, almost bored.
"How about this? Come at me—with all your bodyguards. I'll kill every last one of them… but I'll leave you alive at the end. If I win, you explain everything. About this town, about the Noxfords, and especially about my father and mother."
Kael's eyes narrowed, amusement flickering into something darker.
The six guards drew their blades in perfect unison, mana flaring around the steel in glowing arcs. They were clearly well-trained—each one radiating the kind of power that would have terrified a normal newcomer.
"Arrogant little shit," Kael muttered. "Take him."
The fight began.
The first guard lunged with blinding speed, his sword trailing blue fire.
Hsuya didn't move his feet. Instead, he extended his will through Mana Sharer, flooding the ground beneath the guard with a thin layer of liquid mana. The moment the guard's boot touched it, Hsuya hardened the surface into jagged spikes of solid mana.
The guard stumbled mid-stride, balance shattered. Before he could recover, Hsuya shaped a whip of flexible mana from his left hand—thin as wire, edges sharpened to atomic precision. One flick, and it sliced cleanly through the guard's sword arm at the elbow.
The guard screamed as his weapon and forearm hit the dirt. Hsuya followed with a casual thrust of solid mana straight through his chest, the spike forming and dissolving in less than a second. The guard dropped without another sound.
Two more charged from the sides.
Hsuya used his brain, not brute force. With Mana Matter, he created a wide disk of gaseous mana around his body, then rapidly cooled and condensed it into a black shield. Their blades bounced off with sparks, the impact feeding him data on their strength through the vibration.
While they reeled, Hsuya shared a burst of mana into the air itself, turning the space between them into a dense, liquid-like fog. Visibility dropped to zero for them. For Hsuya—connected directly through the System—it was crystal clear.
He stepped forward silently, formed two needle-thin mana blades in his palms, and drove them upward under their chins. Precise. Surgical. Both guards collapsed, throats pierced, mana cores shattered before they could even cast a spell.
The remaining three hesitated, fear creeping into their stances.
Kael barked an order, and they attacked together, coordinating with practiced formation—flanking left, right, and overhead with a leaping strike.
Hsuya dominated the fight completely. Instead of meeting them head-on, he manipulated the battlefield. He poured mana into the dirt road, creating a shallow pool of liquid mana that looked like ordinary mud. As the left and right guards stepped in, he flash-solidified it around their ankles, locking them in place like statues.
The overhead attacker came down with a crushing overhead slash. Hsuya simply tilted his head and let the gaseous mana layer around him absorb the momentum, then redirected it back as a solid hammer of force that smashed into the attacker's ribs. Bones cracked audibly. The guard flew backward, crashing into the gatehouse wall.
The two trapped guards struggled, hacking at the solid mana with their swords. Hsuya didn't give them the chance. He shaped his right hand into a long, flexible mana blade—more like a whip this time—and swung it in a wide, horizontal arc. The edge, sharpened beyond mortal sight, passed through both of them at waist level without resistance. Two clean halves fell to the ground, blood barely having time to spill before the mana edges cauterized the wounds with searing heat.
The fight had lasted less than three minutes.
Six elite guards lay dead or dying around Hsuya, their bodies sliced, impaled, or crushed with terrifying efficiency. He hadn't even broken a sweat. Infinite mana meant he could experiment, adapt, and overwhelm without ever running dry.
His Intelligence stat analyzed Kael's micro-expressions, his mana fluctuations, and the subtle fear now leaking into his posture.
Kael stood alone now, his face pale, sword trembling slightly in his grip.
"You… what the hell are you?" he whispered.
Hsuya walked forward slowly, his voice steady and cold.
"Your turn. Explain. Everything."
Kael swallowed hard, the fight completely drained from him. He dropped his sword and fell to his knees.
"Your father… Levi Noxford… I killed him. And your mother... she is held captive inside the Noxford underground prison," he said, his voice shaking. "Six years ago. Right after they returned through the portal. They were getting too... popular and influential, too close to uniting the entire Noxford bloodline under their vision. I couldn't let that happen. I poisoned Levi's mana core during a family council meeting. Made it look like an accident from portal sickness. I took control of everything—Zutopia, the estates, the mines, the alchemical labs, every asset your father built, and sent your mother to the Noxford underground prison."
He looked up at Hsuya, desperation in his storm-cloud eyes.
"But... I swear, I'll give it all back. Every title, every gold coin, every secret. Just… forgive me. Spare my life, and it's all yours."
Hsuya wasn't angry because he knew that being angry would not change anything. He stared down at him for a long moment, letting the silence stretch. On the surface, he looked calm. Inside, he went to work.
Infinite mana meant endless control. Taking a step forward, he pushed a thread-thin stream of mana through the air and into Kael's chest via Mana Sharer. It bypassed Kael's physical senses entirely, weaving directly into his mana core and wrapping around his nervous system. Hsuya wasn't just intimidating him; he was systematically rewriting his survival instincts, binding the very flow of his core to his own so that defiance would feel physically impossible to him.
A faint smile touched Hsuya's lips.
"I forgive you, Kael."
Kael blinked, a profound sense of relief washing over his face as the invisible tethers took root. In that moment, he stopped being a threat and became an extension of Hsuya's will. He would serve him now, completely convinced that choosing loyalty was his own desperate, clever idea.
"Stand up," Hsuya said softly. "You're going to help me take back everything that belongs to the Noxfords. Starting today."
Kael rose, eyes shining with a deep, unbreakable devotion.
"Yes… my lord."
Hsuya turned toward the gates of Zutopia, the weight of his father's legacy settling comfortably on his shoulders. The real game had only just begun.
*****
A/N : Hsuya is going to become badass guys so don't miss it .