The High Priest, a man named Valerius whose robes smelled of holy incense and ancient greed, stepped forward. He held a crystal orb that pulsed with a faint, rhythmic light—the Eye of Truth. One by one, the others touched it.
Ryu went first. The orb exploded into a blinding gold. "A Saint of Light!" Valerius cried, his voice trembling with artificial awe. "A gift from the Heavens!"
Then came the others. Fire, Wind, Shadow, and Iron. The throne room felt like it was vibrating with the sheer density of their potential. Then, the Priest turned to Sora. His eyes narrowed, sensing the lack of 'divine' resonance.
"You," Valerius commanded, thrusting the orb toward Sora's chest. "Touch it. Let us see what meager scrap the gods have left for you."
Sora reached out. His fingers, calloused from lives the Priest couldn't even imagine, brushed the cold glass.
The orb stayed dark. Not a flicker. Not a spark. It was as dead as the stars Sora had watched go out in the five-hundred-billionth loop.
Valerius pulled the orb back, a sneer curling his thin lips. He looked at the King, then back at the boy in the center of the room. "Nothing," the Priest spat. "Not a drop of mana. No affinity, no soul-vessel, no purpose. You are a defect. A parasite on this holy summoning. You are utterly, biologically... worthless."
Silence fell over the hall. Ryu and the others looked at Sora with a mix of pity and burgeoning disgust. The King leaned back, already bored.
Then, a sound broke the silence.
It started as a wheeze in Sora's throat. A dry, rattling noise. Then it grew.
"Hah... ha-ha..."
Sora threw his head back. The laughter that tore out of him wasn't human. It was a jagged, manic sound that echoed off the vaulted ceilings and tore through the heavy oak doors. It rolled out of the palace, echoing through the streets of the capital like a physical weight. People in the market squares stopped. Horses shied away.
Sora's smile stretched so wide it looked like his face was going to split open. His eyes were wide, bloodshot, and dancing with a trillion years of madness.
"Worthless?" Sora gasped between peals of laughter. "You think... you think this world's metrics matter to me?"
"How dare you!" Valerius roared, raising his staff. "Guards! Take this madman to the—"
Sora didn't use a spell. He didn't have a 'system' skill. He simply moved.
In a trillion lives, he had learned exactly how the air felt before a strike. He knew the structural weakness of every bone in the human body. He was a master of a physics the Priest hadn't even named.
CRACK.
Before the Priest could finish his sentence, Sora's hand was buried in the man's chest. No magic. Just raw, calculated force. Sora's fingers had pierced through the silk robes, the ribcage, and the lungs, gripping the High Priest's spine from the inside.
Valerius's eyes bulged. A fountain of crimson sprayed across the white marble floor.
"I've killed you in so many ways, Valerius," Sora whispered, his face inches from the dying man's ear.
"I've burned you. I've fed you to dogs. But I think I like this the best. Simple. Messy."
With a casual jerk, Sora ripped his hand back. The High Priest collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, his blood pooling around Sora's boots.
"SORA!" Ryu screamed, his voice cracking with terror. He took a step back, his hands glowing with a light that flickered and died. "What are you doing?! You just... you just killed him! Why?! He was a Priest!"
The other heroes were trembling, some retching at the sight of the gore. The King had bolted upright, his face pale as a ghost.
Sora didn't even look at them. He was too busy staring at his bloody hand, a terrifyingly serene expression replacing the manic grin.
"What am I doing?" Sora repeated, his voice dropping to a calm, terrifying silk. "I'm clearing the board, Ryu. You wouldn't understand. You're still on your first life."
He turned his gaze toward the throne, the blood dripping from his fingertips. 'One down,' Sora thought. 'Only a few billion more to go.'