I Level Up by Killing Gods-Chapter 55: A Life for Another

The Earth Faction’s stronghold smelled of antiseptic and iron.

Kael followed the enforcer down a corridor of polished black stone, his boots echoing against walls lined with glowing Etherite conduits.

Lira had been taken to a medical bay—a sterile chamber where white-coated acolytes muttered over her blighted body, their instruments humming with sterile light.

He’d seen her one last time through a reinforced glass panel, her skin waxen and translucent, the violet corruption now threading through her lips like sutures.

The enforcer, a woman named Veyra, walked with the rigid precision of a blade. Her armor, unlike the grunts in the courtyard, was filigreed with gold—a spiderweb of delicate chains etched into the chestplate.

She said nothing until they reached a chamber deep in the mountain’s belly. The door hissed open, revealing a circular room dominated by a table carved from a single slab of Nexus-forged obsidian.

Maps and scrolls littered its surface, their edges singed.

"Sit," she said, not looking at him.

Kael remained standing.

---

Veyra leaned against the table, her gauntleted fingers tracing the outline of a map. "Sanctus Nexus is a wound. A den of scavengers and oathbreakers. But the Earth Faction holds within it, as we hold every Reach from the Third to the Fifteenth." She glanced up, her eyes sharp as shrapnel.

"You’ve seen the strongholds. You’ve seen our strength."

Kael said nothing. The air here was too clean, too still. It made his skin crawl.

"But you," she continued, "entered the Nexus without our gateways. No permits. No tithes. You simply... appeared." She tilted her head. "How?"

The question hung like a blade. Kael kept his face blank, but the sigil on his palm throbbed—a warning.

"Does it matter?"

Veyra smiled, thin and cold. "Everything matters. The gateways are chokepoints. They’re guarded, taxed, controlled. Yet here you stand, unbound. The Council would pay dearly to know how."

Kael met her stare. "I walked."

"Through the blend of worlds?"

He didn’t flinch. "Through the dark." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Her smile faded. For a moment, the only sound was the distant thrum of the stronghold’s engines.

---

The door slammed open. A man in a medic’s uniform stood panting, his gloves slick with Blight-tainted blood. "Enforcer Veyra. The girl."

Kael stepped forward. "What about her?"

The medic avoided his gaze. "The corruption’s reached her heart. Our purifiers can’t... she won’t last long."

Veyra sighed. "A shame."

Kael’s hand found the edge of the table, the obsidian cracking under his grip. "You said you could help."

"We tried," the medic said. "But this strain—it’s ancient. Cursed. Only one person could help her survived it."

"Who?"

"Dr. Levi. On Earth. She pioneered the first Blight antidotes during the Fracture Wars." The medic hesitated. "But getting the girl to her... the gateways are unstable. It’d take a fortune in Etherite cores to stabilize a portal, even for minutes."

Veyra waved him off. When the door shut, she turned to Kael. "You see the problem. Gateways are expensive. Why would we waste such resources on a gutter rat?"

Kael’s voice dropped. "Name your price."

"Join us." She gestured to the maps. "The Earth Faction rewards loyalty. Serve, and we’ll spare no expense to save your... companion."

"And if I refuse?"

Veyra shrugged. "The girl dies. You walk away. But the Nexus is vast, Kael. Enemies lurk in every shadow. Even rouges need allies."

The word hung between them—

A test.

Kael’s fingers twitched. "I’m no one’s weapon."

"Aren’t you?" She leaned closer, her breath smelling of Etherite smoke. "You reek of power. Old power. The kind that breaks. But power untethered is a threat. To the Council. To the Nexus. To yourself."

---

The door opened again. Another medic, younger, her face pale. "Enforcer, the girl—she’s seizing."

Kael moved first.

He walked past Veyra, down the corridor, through the medical bay doors. Lira convulsed on the table, restraints snapping as her body arched. The Blight had turned her eyes black, veins bulging like roots. Her mouth opened in a silent scream.

One of the medics pressed a syringe to her neck. "It’s not working!"

Kael grabbed his arm. "Stop."

The man yanked free. "You’ll kill her!"

"You already are."

Veyra’s voice cut through the chaos. "Enough." She stood in the doorway, arms crossed. "Choose, Kael. Her life for your service. Now."

Lira’s hand twitched. Her fingers brushed his—cold, brittle.

He closed his eyes.

*...weak...*

The Null’s voice, taunting.

*...you need us...*

"Do it," he said.

---

The gateway chamber was a cathedral of suffering.

Kael stood at the edge of a circular platform, his reflection warped in the polished floor. Etherite conduits snaked up the walls, feeding into a massive archway of Celestial steel.

The air buzzed with latent energy, raising the hairs on his arms.

Lira lay on a stretcher beside him, her breathing shallow. The medics had stabilized her—barely—with a cocktail of sedatives and hope. Her skin looked gray under the chamber’s harsh light.

Veyra approached, holding a gauntlet studded with soul cores. "The gateway will open for twelve minutes. Our agents on Earth will retrieve the girl. Dr. Levi has been... notified."

Kael didn’t look at her. "And my end?"

"Your oath. Sworn here, in blood and Etherion." She extended a dagger—its blade etched with the Earth Faction’s sigil.

He took it. The edge bit into his palm, mingling his blood with the metal. The sigil on the blade flared, green light clashing with the chamber’s blue.

Veyra nodded. "Welcome to the Earth Faction, Kael."

The archway roared to life. A vortex of light and shadow spiraled within its frame, the air screaming as reality tore. The medics rushed Lira’s stretcher forward, her body vanishing into the maelstrom.

Kael watched until the gateway collapsed, leaving only silence.

---

Veyra led him to a barracks deep in the stronghold—a cell with a cot, a desk, and a window overlooking the Blightlands.

"Rest," she said. "Tomorrow, you’ll be deployed back into Sanctus. We have a guild there that requires... discipline."

When she left, Kael sat on the cot. The dagger’s hilt dug into his palm.

*...fool...*

The Null’s laughter echoed.

*...you traded freedom for a corpse...*

He closed his fist.

"Not yet."

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