The morning light through the shutters was thick with dust and the smell of rust. Silas looked older. The green mana that had stabilized Janus all night had left the elf drained, his sharp ears drooping slightly. Lyza sat in the corner, her eyes darting between Janus and the blackened, "unmade" holes in her floorboards.

  "You're awake," Silas said. His voice was like grinding gravel. He didn't look angry; he looked like a man watching a storm he couldn't stop.

  Janus looked at his hands. They felt solid, but the air around his skin still felt... thin. "I'm sorry about the room, Silas. It wasn't... I wasn't in control."

  "The room can be fixed," Silas dismissed with a wave of a hand. "The fact that you were leaking Abomination Mana consuming things and even hurt my daughter? That is harder to repair. Janus, we are at a crossroads. Your power is just too dangerous for you to control. If I weren’t here, you would’ve unmade the whole city Block, maybe more. I was afraid to call your power a ticking time bomb, but now I think that would be an understatement."

  Janus felt a heavy pressure in his chest. He realized that if he said the wrong thing, Silas might kill him simply to protect his family. “I… I know that my power seems out of control, and yes, I don’t understand it very well, but I am getting the hang of it, and I talked to my father in my dream.”

  “And your father made you do this? Was he trying to purify the taint in your Core?” Silas asked, his posture relaxing slightly.

  Janus gulped. What would Silas do if he knew the truth? Would he still keep calm? “Actually, it was Bob who did that?”

  “Who is Bob, Janus? A friend of your father?” Lyza asked from the corner.

  “Ha, I wish. It’s the Rift-Godling that talked to me during the Registration. At least he said he was a Rift-Godling, but I'm not sure if he was serious. He kicked my father out of his dream projection and told me some things. For example, he said I had two Cores.”

  Silas eyes bulged. “But that is impossible!”

  He began forcing his Mana forward, trying to shove the gray fog back into Janus by sheer will. Janus noticed the pressure and closed his eyes, focusing on pulling the surrounding Mana inward. It was much easier than he would have thought. He felt as if a hidden mechanism that was buried deep had finally been activated. Once the gears turned, the Mana began to move with terrifying speed.

  The gray gas entered him first. It tasted like drinking stagnant, dirty water, but he swallowed it down until his chest felt heavy. Then his pull reached further. He started sucking in the vibrant green Mana emanating from Silas. The taste was divine. It was like drinking the finest mana-infused wine while receiving a deep massage. It was incredibly addictive, a rush of pure, golden warmth that made him want to never stop drinking.

  “I SAID STOP!” Janus hears and he notices that he is actively draining Silas Mana. When he stopped, Silas slumped on his knees.

  "You removed one fear by sucking back the tainted mana," Silas panted, "but you terrified me with that drain. Did you not hear me asking you to stop three times?"

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Silas. Everything is so new. I got enraptured in the sensation. I swear that I will be more cautious. I’ve always been.”

  After breathing deeply to calm himself, Silas’s features softened.

  “Fine. Now, let me check your Core, or Cores. At the moment, I can only feel 1 Core.”

  Silas approached and placed a hand on Janus’s chest. Janus felt mana pouring into him and fought the urge to consume it.

  “By the Goddess, you really have two Cores. It’s really difficult to perceive, but knowing what to look for, I can see it. You have the high-frequency of a Perfect Elven Core and a low, subsonic frequency Core that I suspect is the Abomination. And even though their frequencies are different, they are not destroying your body. It’s like your body learned how to synchronize them. Wow.”

  Silas laughed in disbelief when suddenly his face went cold. He leaned forward, his eyes locking onto Janus’s. "I’ve spent twenty years hiding here, playing the 'human' hardware clerk so my family wouldn't end up in an Empire laboratory. But there’s a Rift opened in the sky. Soldiers killing civilians. The rules are gone. We need an insurrection, Janus. Not a riot in the streets; a systematic dismantling of the Empire from the inside."

  "You want me to fight them?" Janus asked, astonished by the sudden shift.

  "I want you to join them," Silas corrected. "You need training. You need to understand how the Sovereigns move, how they use the Codex, and how they hunt. If you stay in the slums, you’ll just be a freak who accidentally deletes a city block. But in the military, you can hide your progress behind their drills. You can get stronger on their coin, using their mana-enrichments."

  Lyza stood up, her face pale. "Dad, you're asking him to walk into the lion’s den. If they scan his core and see that Static..."

  "They won't," Silas said, looking at Janus. "Not if he learns to wrap his Elven frequency around the Void. Use the high pulse to mask the Static. It’s a trick of resonance. If he succeeds, he’ll look like a high-potential human Mage to their machines."

  Silas stood up and placed a heavy, calloused hand on Janus’s shoulder. "Join the military. Become the soldier they think they want. And when the time is right, we will use that Uncreation of yours to finish what the Rift started."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "Uncreation is a weird name, Dad," Lyza muttered, the word feeling heavy in her mouth.

  "When you live more than a hundred years, you get a pass at saying weird things," Silas replied, his gaze never leaving Janus.

  Janus felt a chill that had nothing to do with the morning air. "Bob said the same thing. Not just the advice to join the military. He used that exact word. Uncreation. He called it his domain."

  Silas didn't flinch, but his grip on Janus's shoulder tightened for a fraction of a second.

  "Do you really think I should do it?" Janus asked. He felt lost, caught between a monster in his head and an Empire that would execute him if they knew the truth. He knew his mother would be no help if things went wrong. Joining the military would be easy enough. He had already taken first place in the Military Academy exams. It had been his plan since the beginning, but now the stakes had changed from a career to a survival mission.

  “Yes. Absolutely. I want you to help us, as you are part elven like us, but even if you just want to get powerful for your own pleasure, joining the military is the best for now. The Academy will train you and use you to kill weak monsters.”

  After this, they went to the kitchen and started eating breakfast.

  “Hey, where are your siblings? I thought I would see them here.”

  “Did you forget your stunt in my bedroom? We evacuated them because of you, hahahaha. They went to my aunt’s. So, what are your plans for today?”

  “I’ll try to see if I find my father; if I can’t, I’ll go home. You don’t need to come with me, I don’t think anything special will help.”

  “Yeah, if his city block was destroyed, he would probably move. Did you tell him you were here?”

  “I didn’t have time, Bob appeared before I could.”

  After apologizing once more and thanking them for their care, and being thanked for saving Lyza, Janus left. As the tram station was working, he took a tram to his father’s Sector. By rising above the worst of the smog in the city, he could now see the broken sky. Bob’s rift was still there, but he could see some Hunters pouring Mana into it and closing it slowly. It would take a long time to close it, maybe a month, but at least the worst of it was behind them. The building-sized tentacles were no more and very few creatures were leaving the rift.

  He eventually found the location of his father’s residence after looking for it for some time, but the building was gone. A massive gash in the ground marked where a Mana Sword Move had struck. A soldier stopped him as he approached the rubble.

  "Move along, boy. We are investigating. Apparently, some illegals were living here."

  "Illegals?"

  "Yeah. A powerful Elf lived here. He killed a high-ranked Hunter just because the man hit the building during the fight. We want a whiff of his mana, but it’s difficult to do so with an illegal like that. His Mana is weird. What about you? What are you doing here anyway?"

  “Ah… I was looking for my girlfriend’s house.” Janus lied. “I don’t know these parts very well, so I was just wandering, trying to see if I recognized things…”

  “Too bad. Unfortunately, if she’s not in a shelter, expect the worst outcome. Now go, you can’t stay here.”

  Janus left with a new sense of pride in his father. Theron really had been hiding his power. The Elf the soldier mentioned had to be him. If Theron was an Elf, then Janus was truly a half-breed. He wondered if that was why he was so short. Even at eighteen, he looked like a boy of fourteen reaching only 160cm. He made a mental note to ask Lyza about the Elven growth rate. He knew nothing about how their bodies matured, but the idea that he might just be "younger" rather than "weak" gave him a strange surge of hope.

  And why hide his power? If Theron had killed a B-Rank Hunter, was he also a B, or even an A Rank? Janus felt a bitter surge of irony. If only his mother knew. Kaelen had only slept with Theron because he was a handsome face, a momentary lapse that had cost her everything. That single night had produced a blue-haired mistake, leading her powerful husband to divorce her in a public scandal. She had never remarried, and she had spent eighteen years looking at Janus as the glitch that ruined her status. If she had known Theron was a predator in a scholar’s coat, she might have actually stayed with him.

  Janus headed to the tram station and boarded the transport back to Sector 2. His official Potential Rank of F was no longer a badge of shame. He knew the Codex's machines were blind. He could be as powerful as Rick, even if the golden boy was the one the Empire chose to worship.

  He arrives home and sees his mother eating lunch. She was by herself, wearing her blood-stained armor. She has bags under her eyes and her hair is messy with some blood on it. “Hi, mom. Fierce fight?”

  “Hi, son. You don’t know half of it. I’ve been killing so many Abominations that one time their blood was pooling around me, and it even reached my knees. At least now my work is done, and I got one week's worth of rest. I’ll be taking a shower and going to bed after eating.”

  “You were fighting until now?”

  “Yes. Thank the Codex, its system helps us raise our stamina as well.” Kaelen finishes her food. Her plate is so clean that it looks as if it were recently washed. “I’m impressed by how hungry I was. These damn creatures are too tiresome.”

  She looked at him then, her expression becoming unnervingly serious. “Son, it seems the Abominations have started a war on us, but you have to swear to me. If you find an Abomination, don’t engage it in a fight. Run. I don’t want you to be a coward, but these creatures are not normal. They enter your brain. Their mere presence is like they are crawling inside your head, burying memories you don’t have in your mind. Twisting how your eyes function. Swear to me!”

  Janus was astonished. Never would he have guessed his mother would tell him to run away from a fight. He didn’t want to lie to his mother, but he didn’t need to run away like she wanted him to. Half-joking, he said. “You know me. I’m just a weakling. You don’t have to worry.”

  “Janus, swear to me. I’ve seen you when you are determined. You end up being as stubborn as I am. But you’re not as strong as me yet. I know about your potential Rank F. It’s bullshit. I feel a strong Mana coming from you, and I know you have the capacity to surpass your siblings. The potential Rank from the Codex is like a suggestion, but they keep missing the mark. I have a colleague who was a potential Rank F and in the 10 years of the potential Rank, he was already Rank A. Today, he is stronger than me. That’s High Commander Mozark, you’ll probably meet him when you join the military.”

  She stood up, unclasping her armor and letting it hit the floor with a heavy thud.

  “I would gauge your potential Rank as either A or B. So don’t disappoint me. I expect great things from you. Now go prepare your things to move to the Academy HQ. As you must have guessed, I’m not moving from here because you are an F-Ranker. Be better, raise your Rank, and you may move here again.” With this, she turns on her heels and goes to her room. Before closing her door, she shouts. “And bring hell to the Dwarves!”

  Janus stood in the quiet hallway, flabbergasted. "Dwarves? What?"

  That was his mother. She would make him swear to stay safe in one breath, and then ship him off to war in the next. He thought of the propaganda films he’d seen; the heavy, mana-steam hissing from Dwarven power armor and the ground-shaking thud of their walker-mechs.

  He wasn't just joining the army. He was going to have to find a way to "uncreate" a mountain of steel.