Chapter 27: killing kenneth

Kenneth’s teeth ground together as he looked up into the shadow of Dante’s. The arrogant pride he carried when he stepped down from the upper floors had completely broken away, replaced by the trembling fear of a man who realized his corporate connections meant nothing in the dark of the tower.

"A year ago, you told Marcus that locking the gate was just a calculation," Dante said, his voice entirely flat, his left hand resting back inside his hoodie pocket. "You said the guild’s baseline growth metrics justified dropping me down the shaft. Tell me, Kenneth—how does the math look from down there?"

"Go... go to hell, Dante," Kenneth choked out, a splash of blood coughing from his mouth as the invisible blade cut deeper into his shoulder joint.

"You think you’re a king because you got some cheap skills? Marcus has the backing of the deep dimension clans. The forty-fifth floor is a fortress. They’ll turn your cat-kin into leather and leave your bones to rot in the mining tracks."

"They can try," Dante whispered.

He didn’t pull the blade back. He didn’t offer a clean, quick death either. He simply tightened his right grip around the invisible hilt and activated the unique passive of his SSS-Rank weapon.

Soul Reaper.

The transformation was immediate and brutal. The red runes of the weapon began to pulse with a low vibration. Kenneth’s eyes instantly went wide, his pupils shrinking to tiny dots as an unendurable pressure struck his core. He wasn’t just bleeding; his entire internal mana network was being forcibly dragged out through his skin.

"Ah—Ahhhh! Stop! Dante, stop!" Kenneth screamed, his limbs twitching violently against the wall. His silver robes began to shrivel, turning brittle as his very life force was sucked into the weapon. The veins in his neck stood out like thick cords, turning a toxic black color as the sword drank his baseline stats. "My core... it’s tearing my soul apart! Dante! We were a team!"

"The team died on the fifty-fifth floor," Dante said, his gaze completely cold, watching the light fade from the Mage’s eyes without a single spark of empathy.

At the edge of the platform, Yenna stood completely still. Her cat ears were pinned against her hair, her long tail curled so tight around her ankle.

She had watched Dante eliminate vanguards and corporate guards before, but those were quick, silent erasures inside her silence zone. This was different. This was a systematic, agonizing extraction of an S-Rank hunter’s entire existence.

Watching the cruelty in Dante’s profile made her chest tighten with a deep, paralyzing awe. The man she served wasn’t just a powerful climber; he was a walking nightmare built out of pure, concentrated vengeance. The terrifying stability of their shared mind link kept her brain from fracturing under the pressure, but her eyes remained fixed on Kenneth’s shriveling body, her breath catching deep inside her throat. She realized then that if Dante ever turned that cold, indifferent gaze toward her, there would be no corner in the infinite dimensions of the tower where she could hide.

Kenneth’s final scream died out, turning into a dry rattle before his body went completely rigid. His skin turned the color of ash, his silver robes falling apart into worthless dust as his entire physical frame collapsed onto the floor.

[System Notification: You have eliminated S-Rank Traitor: Kenneth.]

[Unique Passive: ’Soul Reaper’ Activated.]

[Target’s S-Rank Magic Core fully absorbed. You have permanently gained: +80 Intelligence, +60 Mana Capacity.]

[Your baseline attributes have undergone a supreme scaling path.]

Dante felt a surge of refined energy flood his brain, his perception multiplying instantly until the ambient movement of the boiling fire fluid below sounded as clear as a text script in his ears.

But the system was not finished. The jade token on his belt flared with an intense, toxic red text interface.

[Unique Passive: ’Command the Dead’ Triggered!]

[Calculating 50% Probability Success Rate... Success!]

[Target Soul ’Kenneth’ has been perfectly bound to the Sovereign’s Blood Token.]

[Initiating Shadow Reconstruction...]

From the pile of ash on the floor, a black smoke-like liquid began to pool upward. The liquid fluid didn’t expand; it coiled tightly, taking the shape of a human figure wearing long, tattered robes. Within seconds, a completely invisible shadow thrall stood behind Dante’s right shoulder. It had no face, only two burning purple sparks where its eyes used to be, holding a duplicate of the blue crystal staff made entirely of dark energy.

"Kenneth," Dante commanded, "Stand watch at the lift gates."

The shadow thrall bowed its head low, its movement completely silent as it glided across the empty air, disappearing from sight entirely due to its invisible phantom form trait.

Dante turned his body around, shoving his right hand back into his pocket. He looked at Yenna, whose ears were still flat with tension.

"The reptile is out of the mud," Dante said, pointing his finger toward the twelve-meter alligator, which had crawled back onto the solid platform now that the isolation array was dead. "Get on its back. The thirty-third floor is cleared, and we have seventeen more levels before we reach Marcus’s throat."

Yenna swallowed hard, forcing her trembling legs to move as she climbed back onto the dark, obsidian scales of the beast. Her eyes looked at the empty spot on the wall where an S-Rank mage had just been erased from the world.

"Yes, Master Zero," she whispered.

The reptile let out a low rumble from its teeth, its massive legs moving forward through the clearing smoke as it carried them toward the exit opening, leaving nothing but dust behind.