The echoing tap of the old man’s cane soon faded completely into the distance, leaving the splintered, ruined reception room in a heavy, suffocating silence.

Hide remained sitting on the shattered floorboards. His mind was racing, trying to process the sheer scale of the emergency that had just pulled the S-Rank monster away, but before he could dive deeper into the mystery of Tarita, a familiar, translucent golden light flared brilliantly in his vision.

[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]

Counter Skill Generated.

[Mana Press - A (Active)]

Allows the Host to forcefully impose their own will onto the ambient mana in the surrounding atmosphere, covering a maximum spherical area of 30 square meters.

Hide stared at the glowing text, his eyes narrowing as he read the description twice. At first, he was a little confused. The system hadn’t given him a physical shield or a bodily enhancement this time.

But as his sharp mind processed the mechanics of the skill, a profound realization washed over him.

The old man’s Supreme Presence talent was no normal thing... the old man was so unimaginably powerful that he was simply forcing his own will onto the mana in the room, making it as heavy as lead.

The way to counter a talent like that wasn’t to build thicker armor. It was to use the exact same kind of talent in response. It was a direct clash of domains.

In the end, surviving an aura attack depended entirely on who could force themselves more strongly onto the surrounding mana. If the old man tried to crush him again, Hide could use Mana Press to violently push back, creating a 30-square-meter safe zone where the mana would only follow his will.

Hide closed the system window, a dark, satisfied glint in his eyes.

"You..."

A harsh, trembling voice broke through Hide’s thoughts.

Hide turned his head. In the corner of the room, Enji had finally stopped wheezing. The young assassin was slowly forcing himself to his feet. His loose, traditional clothing was disheveled, and his face was smeared with the blood that had poured from his nose under the old man’s crushing aura.

Enji wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand, his features twisting into a hideous, trembling scowl.

The lazy, laid-back demeanor he had displayed when Hide first arrived was completely, utterly gone. In its place was the fragile, shattered ego of a prodigy who had just been publicly humiliated in his own home.

He had been pinned to the floor, coughing up blood, while the E-Rank rat sitting across from him had managed to lift his head and stare their grandfather down.

Enji marched across the splintered room, he reached down and grabbed Hide by the collar of his jacket, hauling him violently upward.

"How dare you," Enji snarled, his face inches from Hide’s. "How dare a rat like you raise his voice against the clan head?!"

Hide didn’t struggle. He let himself be pulled up, his feet lightly brushing the ruined floor. His glowing blue eyes stared deadpan into Enji’s furious gaze.

The clan head. Hide noticed the specific, sterile choice of words immediately. Enji hadn’t said ’my grandfather.’

He had referred to the man whose blood ran in his own veins by his corporate, syndicate title.

A wave of profound disgust and pity washed over Hide. What a pathetic, miserable place to be. The Sihue Clan possessed untold wealth, unimaginable political influence, and strength that could rival most prominent Agencies.

Yet, what was the value of having so much absolute power when you couldn’t even freely recall upon your own family bonds? They were all just hollow weapons, terrified of the man who wielded them, bound together by fear.

Risa had been discarded because she was a broken tool, and Enji was desperately clinging to his status to avoid the same fate.

That realization alone gave Hide all the reason he needed to stay far, far away from this crazy, sociopathic clan of assassins. He would never pledge loyalty to a man who treated his own grandchildren like disposable assets.

And thankfully, he didn’t have to. The unknown person—or whatever apocalyptic entity it was—that had escaped the watchtowers of Tarita had just bought Hide the most valuable resource in the world: Time.

Hide looked eye to eye with Enji, and slowly, the corners of his mouth stretched upward. He grinned, a mad, terrifying, thoroughly unhinged grin that reached all the way to his glowing blue eyes.

"Are you done crying?" Hide asked softly.

Enji’s pupils shrank. "What did you just say to me?"

"I said, are you done crying?" Hide repeated, his voice dripping with venomous mockery. "You’re shaking, Enji. Is it because the old man hurt your fragile little bones? Or are you just throwing a tantrum because your precious clan head looked at me with more respect in five minutes than he’s given you in your entire, miserable life?"

Enji’s face went completely pale, the sheer audacity of the insult striking the absolute core of his insecurities.

"I’ll kill you!" Enji roared, his purple mana exploding outward in a violent shockwave. He tightened his grip on Hide’s collar, twisting his hips to violently slam Hide into the solid wooden wall behind them.

But suddenly, before Enji could even take a single, agonizing step, the darkness stretching across the splintered floorboards erupted upward like a geyser of corrupted energy.

From the dense, suffocating black mist, another figure stepped out.

It was larger than Zenith. Much larger. Its massive, spiked shoulders scraped against the wooden beams of the ceiling, and as it took a single step forward, the sheer physical mass of the entity tore right through the overhead joists, showering the room in dust and broken wood.

Aegis.

The phantom lowered its massive, horned helmet, glaring down at Enji with hollow eyes. It raised raised one colossal, armored hand, ready to crush Enji’s skull into paste.

Zenith, standing silently on Hide’s other side, simultaneously raised its scythe-like talons.

Hide was entirely surrounded by monsters of his own creation.

But instead of backing down in the face of two terrifying, corrupted monsters, Enji seemed to be driven completely over the edge by his own rage. His pride blinded his survival instincts. He tightened his grip on Hide’s collar even further, his knuckles turning white.

"You insolent bastard..." Enji hissed, his voice vibrating with uncontrollable malice. "First you make a fool out of me in front of the clan head, and now you dare threaten me in my own house... how insolent!"

Hide’s grin didn’t waver.

"Threaten you?" Hide replied, his voice a smooth, cold whisper. "Enji, you’re holding onto my jacket like a toddler holding his mother’s skirt. I’m not threatening you. If I wanted you dead, my phantoms would have already painted these walls with your blood before you could even blink. I’m just showing you what a real monster looks like, unlike some pampered assassin."

The absolute dismissal in Hide’s voice snapped the last thread of Enji’s restraint.

"Die!"

He channeled the absolute peak of his B-Rank agility. He moved with a speed that blurred the air itself, dropping his center of gravity and pivoting with terrifying, explosive force.

He moved faster than Aegis could bring its massive hand down, and faster than Zenith could swipe its talons. With a primal yell, Enji hurled Hide backward with the force of a speeding truck.

Hide flew through the air, bracing his body for the bone-shattering impact against the reinforced wooden wall.

SLAM!

Hide’s back collided violently with the polished wooden panels.

But the wood didn’t splinter or break.

Instead, the moment Hide’s weight pressed against the specific section of the wall, a sharp, heavy CLICK echoed through the room. Hide’s eyes widened in sudden realization.

He remembered his earlier observation—the entire Sihue estate, was a meticulously designed minefield.

He hadn’t just been slammed into a wall. Enji had aimed for a very specific panel.

The section of the wall Hide had struck instantly gave way, flipping backward. At the exact same moment, Enji kicked off the floorboards, jumping high into the air, gracefully twisting his body to cleanly intercept and dodge the retaliatory strikes from both Zenith and Aegis.

Hide grabbed desperately for the edge of the panel, but his fingers found no purchase on the smooth wood. The floor beneath his boots completely vanished.

The trapdoor swallowed him whole, and as the wooden panel snapped violently shut above him, Hide was sent plummeting backward into the pitch-black darkness hidden beneath the floor.