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Chapter 33 - The Reckoning
The Echo of Infinity: Chapter 33 - The Reckoning
Kael pushed himself up, every muscle screaming in protest. The world swam slightly from mana exhaustion. He looked at the colossal corpse of the Sky Tyrant, then back at the stunned survivors. Torvin, Lysandra, Zephyr, Seraphina, Grokk – all stared at him, their expressions a mixture of awe, shock, and deep suspicion.
His final actions – the impossible teleportation onto the creature's back, the mana-infused killing blow – were too blatant, too powerful to be explained away by 'artifact surges' or 'lucky breaks'. He hadn't just contributed; he had ended the fight against a seemingly invincible foe.
Torvin was the first to approach, limping heavily, his shield arm hanging limp. He stopped a few feet from Kael, his dwarven face unreadable. "Explain," he rumbled, his voice hoarse. "Now."
Kael opened his mouth, but no easy lie came. The usual excuses felt laughably inadequate.
"The teleportation... the mana blade..." Lysandra murmured, her eyes wide. "That wasn't [Duelist] Lv. 15. That wasn't even Tier 1."
"Saw you vanish," Grokk grunted, clutching his bruised ribs. "Like smoke. Then... *thunk*." He pointed at the dead Tyrant.
Kael knew he couldn't maintain the full deception any longer, not with multiple witnesses to such overt displays of power. He needed a new lie, a bigger one, incorporating some truth.
He decided to reveal the [Nightblade] class, attributing it, along with the [Duelist] evolution, entirely to the 'artifact'.
"The artifact..." Kael began, his voice raspy. "It... it did something more during the fight. When the creature attacked with its mind... it triggered another change." He focused, modifying his fabricated status again, keeping the levels low but revealing the class name.
*‘Accumulator: Modify fabricated status. Add Class [Nightblade Lv. 16]. Remove [Gatherer]. Adjust attributes slightly. Project Weave instability.’*
He let his fabricated status flicker, showing [Duelist Lv. 15] and [Nightblade Lv. 16]. "I think... it unlocked another aspect. This... [Nightblade] class? It let me step through shadows, infuse my blade..." He deliberately kept the displayed levels low (his real Nightblade was Lv. 21) to imply the power was new, uncontrolled, and directly tied to the immediate life-or-death situation.
Torvin scanned Kael's projected status, his brow furrowed. "[Nightblade]? Another Advanced Class? Evolved from what? And Lv. 16 already?"
"I don't know!" Kael insisted, playing up the confusion and exhaustion. "[Shadow Scout], maybe? It all happened so fast! One moment I was sensing things, the next... I could step into shadows. The artifact... it's unstable! Powerful, but dangerous!" He gestured towards the dead Tyrant. "I barely controlled it. Nearly tore me apart." He clutched his head, feigning dizziness from mana exhaustion and 'artifact backlash'.
His performance seemed to sway them, partly because they *wanted* an explanation, however strange. An unstable artifact forcing multiple Advanced Classes and granting bursts of power under duress was more palatable than suspecting Kael was something else entirely.
"An artifact capable of granting multiple Advanced Classes, even unstable ones..." Lysandra mused aloud. "Extremely rare. Possibly Pre-Attunement in origin."
"Dangerous," Torvin grunted, though some of the immediate hostility left his eyes. "But effective." He looked at the dead Sky Tyrant. "You saved us all, lad. Whatever the source of your power, you used it for the team."
An uneasy truce settled again. They believed, or chose to believe, the 'unstable artifact' explanation for now. The immediate relief of survival overshadowed the lingering questions.
They spent the rest of the morning tending to wounds, repairing damaged wagons as best they could, and harvesting what they could from the Sky Tyrant under Torvin's supervision – scales, claws, teeth, and strange internal organs that pulsed faintly with residual energy. These materials were incredibly valuable, potentially worth more than the caravan's original cargo, and would be turned over to the Guild for analysis and distribution according to contract. Kael, despite his exhaustion, received another massive influx of EXP from the kill, pushing his levels even higher.
[Duelist Lv. 23], [Nightblade Lv. 22], [Mana Weaver Lv. 21]. He was solidly breaching Tier 2 capabilities now, while still officially listed as a low-level Iron Ranker with unstable artifact classes. The discrepancy was becoming terrifyingly vast.
As they prepared to finally resume their journey to Stonefall Outpost, Kael knew things had irrevocably changed. His secret was still hidden, but the shell protecting it was cracked wide open. He had bought himself time with a bigger lie, but he had also painted a much larger target on his back. Someone, eventually, would dig deeper into the mystery of the 'artifact kid'.
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Publishment Date: 10/4/2025
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