The cold, damp stone of the Pit felt more like a cage than a cell now that Evo knew there was a world above it. Kiel, the guard whose will had been replaced by a glowing thread of Evo's energy, stood stiffly in front of him. The man's hands, usually accustomed to swinging a baton, were now carefully unfurling the glowing Baptism Scroll.
"Do it," Evo commanded, his voice a low rasp.
Kiel didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and pressed the shimmering paper against Evo's chest. For a moment, the air in the cell grew heavy, vibrating with a high-pitched hum that made Evo's teeth ache. A faint, white light bled from the scroll, soaking into his skin like ink into parchment.
Suddenly, the world changed.
A semi-transparent script flickered into existence just above his line of sight, solidifying into a sharp, clinical interface.
[Name: Evo] [Level: 2] [Strength: 5] [Defense: 4] [Agility: 7] [Vitality: 6] [Magic: 2]
Evo looked at his hands, then up at the guard. Above Kiel's head, a similar script now hovered: [Kiel - Level 15].
"So this is the 'Lens' the people here sees the world through," Evo remarked, his eyes tracing the glowing numbers. "It feels... reductive. Like looking at a mountain and only seeing the number of stones it's made of."
[Correct,] the cold voice in his head replied. [The Kingdom's Blessing is a quantifying interface. It translates the raw resource of power into a language the inhabitants can understand and utilize. You are now a 'defined' entity within this kingdom's jurisdiction].
Evo stood up, feeling a strange, phantom weight to the script above him. "And what happens if I kill someone now? Does the power still flow to me?".
[It depends,] the voice explained with mechanical indifference. [You have been 'Baptized' into the kingdom's system. In this kingdom, when one baptized soul kills another baptized soul, the experience is not retained by the individual. It is transferred back to the land the kingdom governs. This is also true for when a baptized soul dies of natural causes].
Evo tilted his head, a cynical smile playing on his lips.
"Recycling? The Goddess doesn't like waste, I take it?"
[It is a cycle of renewal,] the voice continued. [The returned power aggregates in the earth, creating anomalies—caves, dungeons, and hidden realms. These, in turn, produce monsters for the kingdom's subjects to hunt, ensuring a constant flow of experience that eventually returns to the Goddess. It is a closed-loop economy of soul-matter].
"A farm," Evo corrected. "She's just rotating the crops." He paced the small cell, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the void where the voice seemed to reside. "You know, we're going to be spending a lot of time together. This 'E-System' name is a bit of a mouthful. And since I'm Evo...".
The voice remained silent for a heartbeat.
"I'll just call you E," Evo decided, his tone mocking. "Short, consistent, and just as mechanical as you are."
A pulse of static flickered across his vision. [Designation: E accepted,] the voice replied, its tone unchanged.
<<----------->>
The walk to the surface was different this time. Through the Link, Evo didn't just feel Kiel's movements; he saw the world through the guard's eyes while his own body followed behind as a 'prisoner'.
As they reached the Gatehouse, the bulky frame of Captain Thorne blocked the exit. The Captain was leaning against a desk, his eyes scanning a ledger before landing on Evo. Above his head, the Level 50 script glowed with a dull, aggressive gold.
"Kiel," Thorne barked, his voice like gravel in a blender. "I see you've got your 'Blanky.' He doesn't look like much of a noble to me."
Kiel let out a loud, raspy laugh, gesturing toward the script floating above Evo's head.
"Look at him, Captain," Kiel sneered, the words perfectly articulated by Evo's will. "The priests got to him. He's already been baptized. He's a Level 2 pittance now."
Thorne straightened up, his eyes narrowing as he saw the status panel above Evo. His expression shifted from hungry greed to a look of profound disappointment. "Baptized? You idiot, why did you let the acolytes touch him?"
"I had no choice, sir," Kiel lied smoothly. "The Church claimed he was under their jurisdiction until his lineage was proven. Now that he's in the system, if you kill him, you get nothing. In the first place, even if he's a noble or not, this level 2 trash will not give you any significant XP".
Thorne spat on the floor, the glob of saliva landing near Evo's boot. "Spoiled useless meat. That's all he is now." He waved a hand dismissively, turning back to his ledgers. "Get him out of here. Take him to the border or dump him in the woods. I don't care, just get his useless script out of my sight".
"Yes, Captain," Kiel said, bowing slightly.
<<----------->>
They didn't head toward the Temple.
Instead, Evo commanded Kiel to lead them into the dense, dark woods that bordered the city. The canopy was thick, blotting out the late afternoon sun and leaving the forest floor in a state of perpetual twilight.
Kiel moved with robotic precision. As a Level 15 guard, his strength and agility far surpassed the natural predators of the woods. Within minutes, a small, slimy creature scurried across a fallen log—a pest that had gorged itself on the mana-rich flora of the region.
Kiel's boot came down with a sickening crunch.
[Experience acquired from Pawn][Convert or Manifest?]
"Convert".
"I was right, these random creatures do provide XP. Care to explain more E?"
[The slime is not part of the Kingdom's system,] E explained. [Creatures of the wild, anomalies, and 'Feral' entities belong to their own independent system. When you or your Links kill an entity from a different system, the power is not recycled back to the land. It is harvested directly].
"So, the Kingdom only protects its own 'crops.' Anything outside the fence is fair game."
Evo's eyes narrowed as he watched Kiel prepare to strike another target. "But what about the 'recycling' you mentioned earlier, E? If I kill a baptized soldier or even Kiel himself, the rules of this world say that power belongs to the land. Does the E-System just let it slip away?"
[No,] E replied, the voice sounding even colder against the backdrop of the rustling leaves. [The Kingdom's system is a shell, an interface built atop reality. Evanescence is the rate of change of power itself. Because the E-System is a manifestation of your innate ability, it operates on a more fundamental level than a kingdom's blessing.]
"Meaning?" Evo prompted.
[Meaning that even if a target is baptized and the land attempts to reclaim the experience, the E-System can intercept that transition. You can choose to convert that power into Evanescence before the kingdom's blessing has the chance to funnel it back into the earth. To the world, it will look like the power simply vanished into a void.]
A slow, predatory grin spread across Evo's face. "So I'm not just a ghost in their machine. I'm a leak in their entire economy."
He watched as Kiel moved through the underbrush like a scythe. A mutated fox, a swarm of stinging insects, rats—Kiel slaughtered them all with clinical efficiency. With every kill, the funnel between Pawn and King grew wider.
In his mind's eye, internal notifications began to scroll, distinct from the Kingdom's UI:
[Experience acquired from Link] [Converting Experience to Evanescence...] [Conversion successful. 3 Stars of Evanescence gained]
Evo stood up, the pool of warmth in his chest now a heavy, pulsing heat. He could feel the 'Stars'—the concentrated units of change—waiting for his command.
"E," Evo said, looking toward the distant, glowing spires of the Grand Temple. "How much 'noise' does one make when controlling people?"
[Far from enough to be heard,] E replied. [If you were to establish a Link with anyone below Level 100, it would still be a whisper.]
Evo adjusted his collar, his Level 2 script flickering harmlessly in the dim forest light. He looked like a peasant, a pittance, a piece of meat. But beneath the Kingdom's lie, the power was swirling, hungry for more.
"That Sister wanted to watch a harvest tonight," Evo said, his voice cold and flat. "It's only fair that I show her a real one."