Samael immediately started looking around, confused, wondering if Malachai had used his Echo again as he had in the basement.
But Malachai looked just as surprised, scanning the narrow slum alley with the same tense look.
That's when Samael saw Fatty Cash’s frozen expression.
Samael noticed the reaction immediately and followed his gaze.
Then, he saw it.
Behind Black Rose.…
The air itself had split apart like a thin crack in glass as space tore open.
A moment later, Malachai felt it too.
His head snapped toward Black Rose as the pressure in the alley suddenly increased.
They both looked on, confused, as two long, thorned vines burst from the opening as if they had been waiting there the entire time. Black petals flickered across their length as they lashed forward with terrifying speed.
Ash was the first to fall.
A thorn sliced across his shoulder.
“… What the…”.
His legs gave out instantly.
He hit the ground hard, his body paralyzed.
Malachai moved to catch him, but the moment he stepped forward, another vine struck. A small cut opened across his thigh.
Malachai froze.
“…Poison.”
His leg buckled, and he dropped beside his brother.
Red reacted immediately.
Her hand shot for her sword when ash fell, but Black Rose stepped in and slammed her palm down on Red’s wrist, forcing the blade back into the scabbard.
A thorn flashed.
A shallow cut opened across Red’s arm.
She staggered once.
Then, her knees gave out.
Three bodies hit the floor.
The alley went quiet.
Fatty Cash stared in fear.
“…Boss, I can explain.”
The vines floated behind Black Rose, swinging from side to side.
Fatty swallowed.
“Boss lady… we were just talking…”
A vine snapped forward.
The thorn pierced through his shoulder and pinned him to the wall.
Fatty screamed in pain
“WAIT WAIT WAIT—”
Black Rose looked at him calmly.
“Did you really liquidate everything?”
Fatty nodded frantically.
“Yes! Yes! For the expansion!”
“The echoes.”
“Yes!”
“The bonds.”
“Yes!”
“The land.”
“Yes!”
Her head tilted slightly.
“Yet when captured, you rolled over faster than one of your whores.”
Fatty froze, thinking how does the boss know the Whores roll over for me.
“Plus 250,000 in savings i don’t pay you that well.”
“And for those reasons…” she continued quietly, “…I’m not convinced.”
The thorn moved again.
It pierced his other shoulder.
With two points of entry, she released the poison, which started working immediately.
Fatty gasped.
“I’m not lying!” he wheezed. “I swear I didn’t steal anything!”
Black Rose watched him without blinking.
“You used thirty-one point eight million gold without asking.”
Fatty swallowed.
“…When you say it like that, it sounds bad.”
The poison continued to spread through his body.
His legs weakened.
“But I did it for the guild!” he blurted desperately. “the bonds, the harvested echoes, the land.
I did for us.”
He struggled to breathe.
“We could survive inside the walls!”
Fatty’s voice lowered.
“…Boss?”
The vines pulled free.
Fatty collapsed against the wall, unable to stand.
Black Rose had already turned away.
Her gaze moved to Samael.
“Now… You…..I’ve been watching you, and I am honestly getting tired of pretending,” she said quietly. While she walked slowly towards Samael.
“You’re uncultivated.”
Samael didn’t answer.
“No Echo aura. No tier.”
“By all observations, a normal human.”
The long vines floated between them.
“And yet somehow…” she said softly, head turning to the side, “…you took control of my tower.”
A thorn drifted forward.
It hovered inches from Samael’s throat.
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
Her eyes settled on him.
“So.”
“Explain.”
For a moment, Samael didn’t answer.
The thorn hovered inches from his throat.
While he was staring at the thorn in fear
His breathing started to become uneven under extreme stress; his body's self-defense mechanism kicked in.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
His mind briefly wondered if this many near-death experiences were starting to have side effects.
Then, his shoulders jerked.
Once.
Twice.
His body started shaking and convulsing.
Black Rose frowned.
The vines around them shifted slightly as she stepped forward.
“Samael?”
His head twitched to the side.
His hands began to tremble violently now, fingers curling and uncurling like his nerves were misfiring.
For a moment, it looked as if he was having a seizure.
Black Rose moved closer instinctively.
“Hey.”
Her hand snapped forward, grabbing his jaw and forcing his face up.
“Samael.”
She slapped him.
Once.
Then slapped him again.
Harder.
“Are you even listening…”.
Samael’s hands shot up instinctively.
To defend himself.
His palm collided with something hovering between them.
The Rose Echo.
For the first time in history, someone other than the original owner touched an Echo.
The moment his fingers brushed its surface
He immediately wrapped his hands around it
Everything froze.
[Echo Contact Detected]
[Foreign Authority, Detected]
[Resistance Detected]
[Searching For Available Resource…]
[Resource, Found: Skill — Hack]
[Authorization Received]
[Skill Evolution, Possible]
[Hack → Echo, Link]
[Evolution Complete]
[Resistance Overridden]
[Echo Link, Established]
[Root Authority Established]
[Skill: Echo Link]
Allows the user to establish a link with an Echo.
The user becomes Root Authority over the linked Echo.
The original owner may be granted:
- Full Authority
- Limited Authority
- Revoked Authority
Echo Link allows the user to channel the power of the Echo’s original owner.
This skill may be used to interact with foreign Echoes. Touch is required.
Frequent use will increase link speed and stability.
The vines hovering inches from his throat stopped moving.
Even though it sounded as if the entire thing took a long time
It all happened in seconds.
During the system's battle, the system had pushed through his collapsing thoughts, and in the instant before his mind went dark, Samael instinctively activated every skill he had, including Hack.
Samael's body went still, as his body's self-defense mechanism was activated.
An Old self that had been buried when he woke up in this world was being slowly released.
Violence and calm rage took over.
When his vision cleared, he looked at Black Rose with newly reinforced empty eyes, as if he was a completely different person.
Whatever expression had been there before was gone.
Black Rose felt the personality change instantly and tried to back away.
Samael’s empty eyes followed her.
A faint, amused smile appeared on his face.
Something was wrong; her Echo wasn’t following her.
Her gaze dropped to his hands.
They were wrapped around her Echo.
A chill ran down her spine.
Her instincts screamed.
Danger.
The vines were already hovering inches from Samael’s throat, their black thorns extending dangerously.
Black Rose poured her will into the bond.
The command surged through the connection the way it had thousands of times before.
Strike.
The vines trembled.
But they didn’t move.
Her breath caught.
She pushed harder, forcing more of her will into the Echo.
The bond answered
But not the way it should.
Black Rose felt something slip inside the connection.
Another hand had reached into the bond and taken hold.
Then, she felt a part of her was suddenly missing.
Her heart skipped as she watched the vines slowly withdraw from Samael’s throat.
Then, they turned.
Pointing back at her.
Black Rose stared.
“...impossible…”
Samael tilted his head slightly.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
His eyes wandered around the slums curiously, as if he had just noticed where he was.
“I might have let you go.”
A pause.
“Maybe, don’t think because you’re a woman I will go easy on you im an equal opportunity criminal.”
Samael’s attention drifted back to her.
“Tell me,” he said softly.
“Do you like breakfast?”
Black Rose blinked.
“W-what—”
Her eyes shifted slightly, scanning the slums behind him, searching for an escape.
Samael noticed immediately.
The amusement vanished from his face.
Irritation flickered in his eyes.
His fingers tightened around the Rose Echo.
Black Rose, collapsed.
The pain hit instantaneously.
It felt as if someone was directly crushing her soul.
She dropped to one knee, a strangled sound tearing from her throat as she fell over and started rolling on the ground in pain.
The vines above them trembled violently.
Then, he pressed the Echo harder.
Black Rose gasped, her body convulsing as the pain surged through her.
“Pay attention,” he said calmly.
His voice was no longer amused.
“I asked if you like breakfast.”
Black Rose’s body jerked as another wave of pain tore through her.
“Yes—! Yes!” she gasped.
“Stop—stop—!”
Then, his fingers loosened slightly around the Rose Echo.
The pain receded just enough for her to suck in a desperate breath.
“Good,” he said calmly.
Seemingly pleased with her answer.
His gaze wandered across the slums.
“This place reminds me of home. I used to visit this small hole in the wall where you could buy almost anything you could ever need. There you could also buy breakfast that came in boxes. Isn’t that the most absurd thing you’ve ever heard? Breakfast in a box.”
He paused, almost nostalgic.
His empty eyes dropped briefly to Black Rose, making sure she was still paying attention.
“And sometimes they put these small prizes inside.”
His gaze drifted back to the Rose Echo still resting in his hand.
“The prize was always at the bottom of the box.”
“When I was a kid, shorter than a coffee table, I used to absolutely love those breakfast boxes.”
His eyes unfocused slightly.
“All I wanted was the prizes…”.
His gaze drifted slowly across the slums.
“The good stuff was always buried at the bottom.”
He looked back down at her.
“And wouldn’t you know it…”
“This whole place is the bottom.”
He looked down at her, his words confusing.
“So eventually…”
“I figured out something better.”
His fingers slowly turned the Rose Echo in his hand.
“You could just flip the box over…”
“…reach in…”
“…and take the prize.”
Suddenly, behind him,
The space ripped open the same way it had for Black Rose.
A vine started appearing through it.
Black petals formed along its length as it climbed higher and higher into the air behind him.
Black Rose stared.
Her own rose shard trembled.
Her voice broke.
“How…”
“That’s impossible.”
Samael's eyes suddenly lit up.
“Actually…”
“I realized something else.”
“Why settle for the prize?”
His eyes seem to get brighter with renewed passion.
“I want it all.”
His fingers tightened around the Rose Echo.
“The hole in the wall.”
“The shelves.”
“Everything inside.”
“you”
At first, only a small sound escaped him.
A quiet breath of amusement.
“Heh…”
Then, it came again.
“Hah…”
His shoulders began to shake slightly.
The sound grew.
“Hahaha…”
And then, it broke free.
“Hahahaha…!”
The laughter echoed through the narrow slum alley.
Black Rose sat up and scrambled backward until her back hit the wall.
Terrified as she watched in horror as another Rose Echo began forming in front of him, hovering in the air the same way her Echo had.
His laughter lingered for a moment before slowly fading away.
Samael frowned as he looked around at the bodies around him as if he had completely forgotten about them.
As the vines slowly circled him, drifting through the air alive, as if they recognized something in him, Samael was deciding if he should save those people or just let them die, and as for this troublesome woman.
He had her under his control; he had also grown fond of these vines. Wouldn’t the power disappear if she died? This power needed further experimentation.
Deep in his eyes, there was a brief conflict — back and forth. Resistance… and then resignation, as the body was no longer feeling threatened. His presence was no longer needed.
Out in the air, the lights flickered as both Echoes slowly drifted down, seeming less bright than usual.
Samael suddenly staggered.
The Vines snapped forward and caught him before he hit the ground.
Samael blinked, steadying himself as the vines slowly lowered him back onto his feet.
His eyes focused again.
The strange, calm, empty madness that had filled them moments ago was gone.
He looked around in confusion.
Then, he noticed Black Rose staring at him.
“…What are you looking at?” he said irritably, remembering how he almost died.
“Don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re a woman. I’m an equal-opportunity criminal.”
Then, memories came flooding in.
That’s right.
I was a criminal.