Neon bled into the perpetual twilight of Naarth, a province that once bore the name Japan.
Skyscrapers, monuments to corporate divinity, their sides flickering with advertisements for synthetic bliss and soul-crushing debt cycles.
Below, the masses toiled in a silent, desperate symphony of fear and resentment.
They were the true, unwitting engine of the world. After all, their negative emotions—their dread, their hatred, their despair—were the very fuel that summoned demons from the shadow realm. Hidden behind a veil of normalcy maintained by the sorcerer clans, demons were everywhere. Some continents had even fallen to demonic monsters, yet most of the population were caught in a web of propaganda and lies from the corporations.
In the shadow of this metallic jungle, the Longlost Clan's ancestral grounds were a bastion of old power. Ranked seventh out of hundreds of clans in Naarth, their prestige was carved from a dark pact made centuries ago: the ingestion of a Demon Serpent's bloodline into their own. It was a heritage of immense power and perpetual temptation.
Greem Kusanagi watched the commotion from a fractured overpass, his amber eyes, slitted like a snake's, missing nothing.
A block away, three official sorcerers were locked in a desperate dance with a horde of Curses.
His system interface automatically parsed the scene, overlaying cold data onto the chaos.
[Fire Antmen Overflow - D rank assignment
The Kusanagi Clan tasked you with clearing the cursed antmen that invaded District 63, the territory under the Kusanagi's protection. Although the Sorcerer Association dispatched official sorcerers, the Kusanagi lost trust in the Association after its latest failures in District 63, especially the gate overflow.
Targets: Cursed Fire Antmen
Threat Assessment: Low]
He saw the Body Refinement Sorcerer, a woman with mountains of muscle layered over her frame. Her body looked like that of a bodybuilder. Strong, solid, heavy...but inflexible.
[Body Refinement Sorcerer (D-Rank) - Lv. 13]
She punched a fire antman, its exoskeleton cracking and its body crashing onto a wall. Her strength was evident, but she understimated the wickedness of antmen. Those creatures were very durable, and their blood acidic. The woman knelt in pain, as the blood ate her flesh.
This moment of hesitation was all the demons needed to target the weakened sorcerer. Two more fire antmen rushed, their fists crashing onto her, each strike just as powerful as what the body refinement sorcerer was capable of.
[Fire Antman (D-rank) - Lv. 15]
[Fire Antman (D-rank) - Lv. 10]
A Summoner Sorcerer stood back, hands weaving. A spectral, demonic wolf of shadows and rage materialized, lunging at the creatures.
[Curse Summoner Sorcerer (E-Rank) - Lv. 8]
Although the summoner was only a novice, the demon he tamed was of respectable strength.
[Spectral wolf (D-rank) - Lv. 12]
Unlike the body refinement sorcerer who was barely enduring the assault of two cursed fire antmen, the spectral wolf was efficiently dodging the strikes of its opponent. However, it could do just that: dodging attacks. Its fangs and claws were not sharp enough to penetrate the tough exoskeleton of those demonic creatures, known to be one of the most resistant among D-ranks.
Finally, the Elementalist.
He channeled raw cursed energy, shaping it into a roaring fireball. It was the purest form of sorcery, and the most predictable.
[Elemental Sorcerer (D-Rank) - Lv. 14]
Greem found them pitiful. Four years ago, his soul had awoken in this body, memories of a thousand failed playthroughs of this doomed world seared into his mind. While these academy-trained fools learned theory, he had been groomed in the Kusanagi's brutal, secret ways.
Just like a player, he completed numerous missions and extracted EXP from the numerous curses he exorcised. Each battle made him stronger. Each mission brought him not just recognition from the clan, but true power-ups.
The Elementalist's fireball soared, but the lead Antman, a Level 17 D-rank Soldier, simply tanked the blast, its carapace smoking but intact. It closed the distance in a blur of chitin and flame and plunged its obsidian limb through the sorcerer's chest.
Just like that, the leader of the sorcerers dispatched by the Association died.
The others screamed. It was Greem's cue.
He dropped from the overpass, a silent predator. As he fell, his system flared to life.
He landed without a sound. The Antmen turned. Greem didn't give them a moment. His blood sang, and obsidian scales erupted across his skin, shimmering under the neon—his innate Curse Technique, Serpent's Scales.
His senses sharpened to a preternatural degree; he could smell their corrosive blood, hear the click of their mandibles, see the minute shift in their weight.
He moved.
His fist, coiled with dark energy, became a viper's strike.
The Snake Fist Technique of his clan was not for show.
It was a killing art.
His hand pierced the first Antman's hide as if it were paper.
*SPLASH*
[Critical Hit! Cursed Fire Antman (Lv. 9) Slain. 12 EXP Gained.]
He was a whirlwind of precision and brutality. He weaved between their burning limbs.
The fire antmen soldiers attempted to retaliate, but Greem's innate curse technique (Serpent's Scales) allowed him to deflect the blow without fear of suffering like the body refinement sorcerer.
His forearms deflecting strikes that would have sheared steel, his fists as deadly as spears, the cursed antmen fell one after the other.
Each thrust of his fingers found a chink in their armor, a nerve cluster, a vital core.
The system's notifications flashed in his vision, a satisfying counterpoint to the carnage.
[Cursed Antman (Lv. 11) Slain. 15 EXP Gained.]
[Cursed Antman (Lv. 15) Slain. 20 EXP Gained.]
In ten seconds, it was over. Six twitching, dissolving forms lay at his feet. The remaining two sorcerers, the Body Refiner and the Summoner, stared in stunned silence.
Their eyes darted from the corpses to him, then to the silver badge pinned to his chest. It glowed with a soft, authoritative light, displaying his registered rank for all sorcerers to see: B-Rank.
They were official sorcerers, graduates who just received their D-rank license, the bare minimum to take on the Association's orders. Their leader looked 30. Now, he was dead. Yet, Greem was sixteen.
"A B-Rank…?" the Body Refinement woman stammered, her bravado gone, replaced by a mixture of awe and pain as she clutched her acid-eaten arm. "But you're just a boy…"
The Summoner, his spectral wolf fading now that the threat was gone, took a hesitant step forward. "We're from the Blackwood Sorcerer Academy contingent. Thank you for your assistance. We were… overwhelmed"
Greem did not even glance at them.
His hand looted the fire antmen's bodies, snatching their cores.
[Cursed Fire Core obtained x1]
[Cursed Fire Core obtained x1]
[Cursed Fire Core obtained x1]
Each one of those cores could fetch a couple hundreds of credits on the black market. There was no way he would let profit go by.
Taking a look at the elementalist that just succumbed, Greem sighed. He had never intended to let a sorcerer die like that. As apathetic as he was, he knew that every single sorcerer was needed for the demon invasion that was to come. His system, his memories...they provided him with great powers, but they also foretold a grim future.
Staring at them, Greem spoke clearly, his amber eyes flickering with intensity:
"Tell your superiors the Kusanagi have the situation in hand. And that they should keep their academy pups on a shorter leash before they get more people killed"
He didn't wait for a reply. He leaped onto a nearby fire escape, scaling it with a preternatural grace that was anything but human.
The two sorcerers watched him go, the silence that followed broken only by the distant hum of the city and the sizzle of dissolving demon flesh.
The woman finally spoke, her voice a whisper. "A B-Rank. He looked younger than the freshmen. What kind of monster is that clan raising?"
High above, Greem dismissed the system notifications.