Chapter 49: Haunting the rank one
Days turned into weeks, and the mystery of the "Epsilon" became a ghost story within the highest circles of power. Arthur found himself unable to sleep. He would spend hours staring at the tracking spell, watching Damon live a life of mundane luxury. Every time Arthur closed his eyes, he saw the moment the S-rank monster had fled in the dungeon. There had been no mana surge. No skill activation. Just... a look.
"Is he a God?" Arthur whispered to the empty air. "Or is he something that existed before the System even arrived?"
The obsession began to consume him. He began to notice strange things through the tracking link. Occasionally, he would see a shadow move in Damon's mansion—a shadow that looked exactly like one of the missing assassins. Then, he felt a flicker of Ryker's old mana signature, but it wasn't coming from Earth. It was leaking through the rift whenever Damon opened a gate to his other world.
The thought lingered like a poison. Arthur realized that he wasn't tracking Damon; Damon was allowing himself to be tracked. It was a silent invitation to witness a power that rendered "ranks" meaningless. He wondered who Damon truly was—a survivor of a previous "Master" universe, or perhaps the master of them all. Damon, sitting in his garden, felt the silver thread of Arthur's spell pulse with agitation. "You're thinking too much, Arthur," Damon murmured. He decided to let the spell remain. It was a leash that kept the strongest man on Earth exactly where Damon wanted him: paralyzed by the unknown.
To be continued....