Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 280. Non-Magical Anchor

Zein escalated. He drew on the Archon’s corruption network, not a full connection, but a partial interface, using corruption as an amplification medium for his grief-resonance field the way a craftsman uses a lever, applying less force to move more weight.

The suppression now had both pre-coalition magical depth and corruption density behind it simultaneously, and Rick’s Draconic Sovereignty started losing ground.

It was wrong to see it that way. Zein’s hands were getting faint purple-black lines along the knuckles.

It wasn’t possession or corruption taking hold; it was something that was chosen and kept up by someone who knew exactly how much of it they were using. On purpose, sacred theory and corruption are mixed together with two hundred years of careful building, resulting in a complex interplay that influences individuals like Zein in profound ways.

"What the fuck...?" Rick looked surprised.

"He’s not corrupted," Rick said quietly. "He’s using it... like a tool."

"Almost the same as Typhon and Seris..."

"Yes," Sebastian said. "That means the Archon has been helping with his operation."

"They have been collaborating, which implies that the corruption crisis, the node beneath the Council building, and the entity’s surveillance network are all interconnected—"

"Yes," Sebastian said again. "We’ll talk about the full effects later."

"For now, if you keep fighting him directly, he will beat you in the next sixty seconds."

"Oh fucking great. Like YOU have any better options for this kind of situation?"

"Well, I have, but it needs something you don’t have right now."

"What?"

"More time than you do now."

"Aghh! Fuck it!"

Rick focused more on defense than offense, and his health was steadily declining. The effectiveness of his Sovereignty bonus was reduced to about fifteen percent due to the combined suppression.

He continued to hold his ground; that was all he could manage. Moving forward was not an option. Everyone in the courtyard, including Zein, was aware of his struggle.

...

Heinz opened his eyes in the archive room.

He was staring at the ceiling. He could tell it was the archive room ceiling because he had been looking at it from a more comfortable position for the last few hours.

He turned his head and saw the junior priestess sitting next to him. She looked like someone who had been watching someone sleep and hoping it would last because waking up would be hard.

"Did I fall?" Heinz asked.

"You were hit by a spell that made you unable to move."

"Ah." He stayed there for a moment to think about it. "Is Sophia—"

Before she could say anything, the junior priestess’s face said it all.

Heinz stood up abruptly, feeling dizzy. He had to grip the bookshelf for support, managing to hold on for just a moment before releasing it entirely.

"I have to go outside."

"You really shouldn’t move right now—"

"I know," he said. "But I’m going to do it anyway."

He followed the sound to the courtyard. It was the kind of sound that a fight between a man with pre-coalition suppression techniques and a hero with dragon wings would make in a small stone space.

He stood at the entrance to the courtyard and watched as Rick was pushed back by a field he couldn’t punch through. He also watched Zein sit at the edge of the field with the patience of someone who had already won and was waiting for Rick to realize the same thing.

"Oh no," Heinz said.

Sebastian appeared next to him. Heinz could see it, which was intriguing because Sebastian usually didn’t let people outside the bond network see him.

Sebastian said, "The socket suppression field targets emotional investment in active power sources."

He was watching the fight with the focused look of someone doing math. "The Sovereignty runs on bonds, while the grief resonance gets in the way of the emotional channel."

"The more Rick cares about the bond, the more pressure the field can put on it."

Heinz saw Rick take in another exchange and fall behind again. "So his caring about people is what makes him weak."

"Yes, against Zein specifically." Sebastian looked at him. "Someone said a name the last time this was important."

"It was enough to break the shape’s hold on the socket because it was outside the magical network." He looked at Rick again. "Rick needs something real, something outside the network, and not magic."

Heinz saw Rick in the courtyard. He saw Zein’s suppression field pushing steadily against everything Rick was trying to keep in place.

He nodded once, with the firm certainty of a man who knew he had reached a point where there was one thing he could do that would help, and he planned to do it.

He shouted across the courtyard in the same tone he always used, the tone he employed to check on Sophia, apologize to horses, and share stories about borrowed boats with the temple priestesses.

"RICK!"

The suppression field didn’t stop. But Rick’s head turned.

Heinz was at the entrance to the courtyard, with dried blood on his temple from the fall and both feet on the ground. His face was the same open, simple face it always was.

He had walked here from the archive room, briefly using the wall for support before continuing on his own. Now he stood in the courtyard, and that was all that mattered.

Rick’s chest shifted in some way. Not through the bond network, not through any skill or magical channel.

Just like a sound that comes through clearly despite interference is real.

Rick said, "Heinz, glad to see you’re okay, buddy."

"Yeah... I fell earlier, but I’m completely fine now."

"Good, then I suppose you don’t have to be out here."

"I know," Heinz said as he looked at him across the courtyard. "I’m sorry about Sophia."

"It’s not anyone’s fault other than this sick asshole."

"I was right there."

"You stepped in front of a trained operative with nothing in your hands," Rick said.

He was still holding Zein’s field, but it was steadier now. "That’s not a failure, Heinz."

"That’s the bravest thing I saw from you today."

The field of Zein’s suppression changed. He had been listening and had found the new emotional channel.

He was already targeting it, putting grief-resonance pressure on the bond between Rick and the man standing at the entrance to the courtyard. He found it and pushed.

And the push couldn’t find anything to hold on to.

Because there was no magical channel to mess with. There was no bond resonance, no connection to an artifact, and no spiritual architecture.

A man stood at the entrance to the courtyard and called Rick’s name in a normal voice. He had walked here from the archive room on shaky legs.

The field’s targeting lock came loose.

A short, factual message came through the system:

[Non-magical anchor, active.]

[Source: Heinz Solvane. Grief-resonance suppression field loses targeting lock on emotional channel.]

[Sovereign Convergence restored to sixty percent efficacy.]

Rick felt the suppression field release, like a hand letting go of something it had been gripping. He turned to Heinz.

He focused on Zein and said, "I think I found the gap."

Sovereign Convergence at 60% surged through the restored channel. This time, Zein was pushed back six steps instead of three.

Rick closed the distance on wings and struck Zein cleanly twice—once in the shoulder and once in the arm—but the second hit still exacted a toll on Zein.

Zein looked at Heinz as if he had encountered an unexpected variable and was contemplating its implications.

He remarked, "I didn’t think about him." His tone lacked scorn or dismissal; it was more akin to someone acknowledging a miscalculation with the professional honesty of someone who values precision.

"I also apologize to boats sometimes," Heinz replied, "if the situation calls for it."

For a moment, Zein regarded him. "She chose well," he stated.

This was the most human thing he had said throughout the encounter—an expression devoid of purpose or agenda, simply the truth as he perceived it.

Then his grief-resonance field reformed around the gap. This time, it didn’t focus on the emotional channel; instead, it heightened the raw suppression pressure from all sides to compensate for it.

This was the adaptation of someone who had been doing this for 200 years and understood that when one method ceased to work, it was necessary to find another.

"Fucking hell... it’s getting even worse now."