Kael arrived in New York City with a sound like tearing dimension He was violently spat out of the dimensional warp, landing hard in a back alley near Wall Street. The jump had stabilised, but the temporal displacement was jarring. The sun was setting, painting the skyscrapers in tones of bruised orange and deep purple.
He was awake, his wounds stabilised by the Library's arcane mana, but his Karmic Sight screamed in confusion. The dense web of financial debt and anxiety that had defined the city 12 hours earlier was gone. The Great Confession of Debt had been averted, but the colossal, frustrated energy of the failed transaction had left a vacuum.
The city's karmic threads were now broken. They didn't flow logically toward debt or trust; they simply snapped back upon themselves, vibrating with frantic, unpredictable energy a massive store of unspent consequence. The expected global collapse was gone, replaced by a deep, chaotic Debt of Disorder.
The physical world reflected the chaos. Traffic lights were dead. The usual aggressive rush of the evening commute was replaced by localised, directionless chaos: shouting, abandoned cars, and the persistent, low thrum of unexplained power outages. The system was alive, but the control mechanism had vanished.
A block away, the chaos coalesced. An entire intersection was twisting into impossible shapes manholes exploded, asphalt buckled into sharp, jagged teeth, and a passing taxi was violently contorted into a crumpled sphere of metal.
A figure stood in the centre of the geometric ruin. He was tall and clad in sleek, silver armour that shimmered with the chaotic light of the city. This was Prince Varak, a high-tier Scavenger a Prince of Entropy drawn to the massive, available energy left by the Broker's failure. His power, the Debt of Disorder, specialised in converting social anxiety into a hostile, physical reality.
"The great feast was ruined," Varak hissed, his voice echoing with digital distortion. "Your little purity trick stopped the Broker's perfect collapse. But I'll take this mess. I'll take the unwritten consequence! The chaos you created is far sweeter!"
Varak extended a hand, and the anxiety of the nearby, panicking crowd was instantly weaponised. The street beneath Kael buckled and twisted, throwing him backwards.
Kael knew he was outmatched physically, and his internal Absolution was too slow against this level of chaotic energy. He had to use the Keeper's knowledge. He had to shatter the Debt of Silence.
He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the searing pain in his core, and faced the Prince of Entropy. He focused his will, not just willing the truth, but preparing to speak it, to give his Absolution physical form.
Varak laughed, a sound like glass shattering. "You're going to use your little light trick? Here? You're too late! The chaos is already mine!"
Kael took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing the pure, crystalline truth of his power into his voice. It felt like tearing metal, the unfamiliar resistance immense.
"I Absolve the Lie of Entropy!" Kael shouted, the words tearing from his throat, amplified by the last of the Library's mana.
The effect was instantaneous and devastatingly precise. The verbalised Absolution was not an internal command; it was a physical wave of purifying energy. The twisted taxi sprang back into shape, the asphalt smoothed, and the panicked energy drained from the surrounding crowd.
The Prince of Entropy staggered back, shielding his eyes from the raw, spoken truth. The chaos he was feeding on was utterly cleansed.
"A Word of power?" Varak whispered, his voice shaking with disbelief. "You've learned to speak the truth? This is unexpected."
Kael stood firm, exhausted but energised by the raw potency of the verbalised command. He was still depleted, but his Word had shattered Varak's immediate attack.
Varak regained his composure, his armour shimmering with renewed, cold malice. "You're strong, Reclaimer, but you're too late. The vacuum you created is too large. The failed Broker transaction has drawn in the Vultures. They're all converging on the UN Nexus the ultimate point of global consensus and debt. They're going to force a collapse of authority instead of finance! You stopped the money, but you created a war for the final, sweetest debt: obedience."
Varak sneered, then vanished in a shimmer of localised disorder.
Kael was alone again, the immediate physical threat gone, but the immense, new reality settled on him like a shroud. He had averted financial ruin, only to spark a much deadlier, multi-faction war for global political control. The UN Nexus, the epicentre of global authority, was the new target; he had mere hours before the Scavengers and Rival Princes tore the world's final sanctuary apart.