Akechi Goro's body carried the mark Kael had placed, so Kael could clearly sense Goro's movements after leaving the TV station. Though there were brief pauses, he quickly resumed moving. Around one in the afternoon, Goro finally stopped. Kael waited another half hour, noticing Goro hadn't moved again, and judged that he must have arrived home.
Following the mark's location, Kael confirmed his guess. The mark lingered at an apartment building—likely Goro's residence. It looked upscale, with a gated entrance requiring a card. But this was no obstacle for Kael.
He concealed himself and slipped inside as someone exited. Ascending to the seventh floor, he stopped before an apartment door. Goro was inside. The lock was fingerprint-based, unlike Leblanc Café's simple lock, so Kael couldn't open it the same way. Instead, he flicked his finger, sending mana to shatter the lock's core.
Mana could be both fierce and gentle. Fierce like thunder and volcanic eruption, gentle like spring rain and dripping water. Breaking a lock silently was basic skill. With a push, the door opened.
Inside, Goro was at his desk, working on his computer. Kael silently approached and tapped his finger on the back of Goro's head. Goro collapsed unconscious.
Kael didn't reveal himself immediately—he knew the room had hidden surveillance. Such tricks fooled others, but not him.
He took Goro's phone and quickly found what he sought—the Metaverse app. It was the key to entering the cognitive world. But Kael wasn't sure he could use it, not being chosen. So he turned his plan toward Goro.
He forced a drop of blood from his finger into Goro's mouth, then cast the secret technique of the Blood River Art—the Blood Puppet Method.
There were two ways to cultivate it: voluntary and forced. Marin and Saki were voluntary—though deceived, since Kael hadn't told them the drawbacks. They thought it was just a strange technique, unaware Kael could take everything from them. Of course, he would never do so.
Forced cultivation meant turning someone into a puppet against their will. Like what Kael was doing to Goro now. While Goro was unconscious, Kael bound him with restrictions. With a thought, Kael could make him suffer unbearable pain. From then on, Goro's life was under Kael's control. Even suicide was impossible. He was no longer whole, but a puppet. A puppet couldn't control its own fate—it was just a marionette.
When finished, Kael snapped his fingers, waking Goro.
Confused, Goro heard a voice: "Turn off all surveillance in the room."
Though stunned, his body obeyed, shutting down every camera. Only then did Kael reveal himself, sitting casually with legs crossed.
"Kneel."
Goro collapsed to his knees. Shocked, he tried to resist, but pain surged through him like a tidal wave. It wracked his body mercilessly, lasting five minutes before fading. In that time, he was drenched in sweat, pale as paper, utterly broken. To him, those minutes felt like five years.
When it ended, he lay limp, drained of strength. "What… what did you do to me?"
His eyes held deep fear. The agony had been unbearable—he couldn't endure it again.
Kael smiled. "I made you my puppet. Any thought of defiance will bring that pain. Even suicide is impossible. Your life no longer belongs to you—it belongs to me. Don't believe me? Try it."
Goro thought of suicide, but instantly lost control of his body. The pain threatened to return. Terrified, he abandoned the thought.
He realized Kael hadn't lied. Shaken, he couldn't believe he had become someone else's puppet so easily. "Why? Why do this to me? I have no grudge against you."
Kael sighed. "That's a poor question. You had no grudge against others, yet you erased their inner selves, turning them into husks. Why?"
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Let's get into the rankings again this week. GIMME YOUR STONES
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