The consortium manor's magical defenses were impressive—layered wards that could repel small armies, detection spells that monitored every approach route, and concealment barriers that made the building nearly invisible to conventional surveillance. Unfortunately for the consortium, Kael's enhanced senses could now perceive magical signatures with startling clarity.
Time to put my new abilities to the test.
"The main building has six distinct magical signatures that feel... wrong," he whispered to Zara and Derek as they crouched in the tree line surrounding the manor. "Enhanced beyond normal human capabilities, but unstable. Like they're forcing their bodies to contain more power than they were designed for."
The consortium leadership. They've been using human sacrifice to boost their magical abilities, but it's not a perfect integration.
"What about the guards?" Zara asked, studying the patrol patterns with professional interest.
"Normal humans with basic combat enhancement spells. Dangerous in groups, but nothing we can't handle with proper tactics."
Especially not when I can absorb their abilities after defeating them.
Derek activated his communication crystal one final time, his face growing pale as new information arrived.
"The ritual has already begun," he reported urgently. "They're using the three captured students as power sources for a summoning ceremony. They're not just trying to enhance themselves—they're trying to summon something."
[CRITICAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATE]
[CONSORTIUM OBJECTIVE: DEMONIC SUMMONING RITUAL]
[POWER SOURCE: HUMAN SACRIFICE]
[ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME: 15 MINUTES]
[THREAT LEVEL: CATASTROPHIC]
A summoning ritual using human sacrifice. That explains the unstable magical signatures—they're not just absorbing power, they're making themselves vessels for demonic energy.
"What kind of summoning?" Kael asked grimly.
"According to the intercepts, they're attempting to manifest a Greater Demon with power over mind control and memory manipulation." Derek's voice was barely audible. "If they succeed, they'll be able to control anyone in the kingdom, including the royal family."
That's not just a threat to my assets—that's a threat to my entire power base.
Kael activated Princess Avaline's emergency communication crystal, sending the coded signal for immediate military intervention. But even with royal forces moving to surround the manor, they wouldn't arrive in time to prevent the summoning.
Which means I need to move now, alone, and trust my new abilities to carry me through.
"Change of plans," he announced, standing and checking his weapons. "I'm going in immediately to disrupt the ritual. You two coordinate with the royal forces when they arrive."
"That's suicide," Zara protested. "Six enhanced enemies plus thirty guards plus unknown demonic magic—"
"Is exactly the kind of challenge I've been preparing for." Kael's smile was sharp and predatory. "Besides, I have advantages they don't know about."
Time to find out exactly what the Power Absorption ability can do.
He approached the manor's perimeter with deliberate boldness, making no attempt at stealth. The first patrol guard who spotted him reacted exactly as expected—raising an alarm while moving to intercept the obvious intruder.
Perfect. Let's see how this works.
The guard was competent—military training, enhanced reflexes, and a sword that hummed with magical sharpness. Under normal circumstances, he would have been a significant threat to a student like Kael.
These weren't normal circumstances.
Kael's enhanced speed and combat reflexes, combined with Marcus's street-fighting experience, made the encounter brutally one-sided. The guard managed exactly one swing before Kael's knife found his throat.
As the guard died, Kael felt the Power Absorption ability activate for the first time.
[POWER ABSORPTION ACTIVATED]
[TARGET: CONSORTIUM GUARD - ENHANCED REFLEXES]
[ABSORPTION SUCCESSFUL]
[HOST SPEED INCREASED BY 15%]
[WARNING: MAGICAL INTEGRATION CAUSING MINOR DISORIENTATION]
The sensation was like lightning running through his veins—sudden, intense, and immediately addictive. The guard's enhanced reflexes flowed into Kael's own capabilities, making him noticeably faster and more coordinated.
This is incredible. No wonder the consortium has been so effective.
The alarm the guard had raised brought three more patrol members running. Kael met them with the fluid violence of someone who'd finally found his element.
Each kill makes me stronger. Each victory provides new capabilities.
By the time he reached the manor's main entrance, Kael had absorbed enhanced reflexes, improved physical conditioning, basic combat magic, and night vision capabilities from six defeated guards. The integration process was becoming smoother with each absorption, and the power boost was exponential.
[MULTIPLE ABSORPTIONS COMPLETE]
[OVERALL CAPABILITY INCREASE: 73%]
[WARNING: RAPID POWER GAIN MAY HAVE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS]
[HOST AGGRESSION LEVELS: SIGNIFICANTLY ELEVATED]
Good. I'm going to need all the aggression I can get.
The manor's interior was a showcase of wealth built on human misery—expensive artwork, rare magical artifacts, and furniture that probably cost more than most families earned in a lifetime. But beneath the luxury, Kael's enhanced senses detected the unmistakable smell of blood and terror.
The ritual chamber is in the basement. Time to crash the party.
He made his way through the building with systematic efficiency, eliminating guards and absorbing their abilities while following the increasing intensity of demonic magical signatures toward the ritual site.
Each absorption makes me more capable, but also more... different. I can feel my personality shifting with each new power integration.
The basement level was a maze of corridors that led to a massive chamber dominated by a ritual circle carved directly into the stone floor. Three unconscious students—two girls and a boy, all appearing to be around sixteen—were chained to altars arranged around the circle's perimeter.
Five consortium leaders stood around the ritual circle, chanting in a language that made Kael's enhanced hearing ache. Their magical signatures were chaotic and unstable, but undeniably powerful.
And at the center of it all, directing the ceremony with the expertise of someone who'd performed similar rituals many times before, stood Professor Morvaine.
Time to interrupt their little ceremony.
"You know," Kael called out conversationally as he entered the chamber, "when I was a student, professors who betrayed their educational responsibilities usually just got fired. Not ritually murdered."
The consortium leaders spun toward him with obvious shock—none of them had expected their security to be breached so completely.
"Mr. Vorthak," Professor Morvaine said with disturbing calm, "how delightful of you to join us. Though I'm afraid you're rather early for your scheduled sacrifice."
My scheduled sacrifice?
"I wasn't aware I had an appointment."
"Oh, but you do. Your unique magical signature has been... observed... for some time now. The Academy's newest hero, with such interesting potential for power enhancement." Her smile was sharp and predatory. "Did you really think your recent activities went unnoticed?"
[MAJOR REVELATION DETECTED]
[PROFESSOR MORVAINE HAS BEEN STUDYING HOST]
[IMPLICATION: KAEL WAS ALWAYS A PLANNED SACRIFICE TARGET]
They've been watching me specifically. This whole situation was designed to bring me here.
"Lady Vaelthorne sends her regrets about the failed recruitment," Professor Morvaine continued. "But she's found a much more productive use for your... talents."
The ritual circle suddenly flared with demonic energy as the professor resumed her chanting. The three captured students began glowing with unnatural light as their life force was slowly drained to power the summoning.
Time to end this.
Kael moved with the enhanced speed and reflexes he'd absorbed from the guards, but the consortium leaders were ready for him. Their magically boosted capabilities made them formidable opponents even individually, and they fought with the coordinated efficiency of people accustomed to working together.
Good thing I'm not planning to fight fair.
The battle was chaos—magical attacks that scorched the stone walls, physical combat that shattered furniture, and the constant underlying threat of the ritual circle's growing power. But each consortium member Kael defeated provided new abilities through his Power Absorption.
Enhanced magical reserves. Improved physical strength. Basic elemental control. Each victory makes the next one easier.
[MULTIPLE HIGH-VALUE ABSORPTIONS DETECTED]
[POWER LEVEL INCREASING EXPONENTIALLY]
[WARNING: RAPID INTEGRATION MAY CAUSE PERSONALITY FRAGMENTATION]
[HOST PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE: SHIFTING TOWARD EXTREME AGGRESSION]
I can feel it—each absorption makes me more violent, more ruthless, more willing to do whatever it takes to win. Is this what happened to the consortium members?
But there was no time for self-reflection. Professor Morvaine had accelerated the ritual in response to his attack, and demonic energy was building toward a critical threshold.
If that summoning completes, everyone in the kingdom becomes a potential victim.
He reached the professor just as the ritual circle reached maximum power. The three student victims were barely conscious, their life force nearly drained completely.
"Too late," Professor Morvaine snarled, raising her hands for the final summoning gesture. "The Greater Demon comes, and with it, a new age of—"
Kael's knife took her in the throat before she could finish the incantation.
[CRITICAL ABSORPTION OPPORTUNITY]
[TARGET: PROFESSOR MORVAINE - DEMONOLOGY EXPERT]
[WARNING: ABSORPTION MAY CONTAIN DEMONIC CONTAMINATION]
[PROCEED? Y/N]
Risk of demonic contamination versus letting the ritual complete. Easy choice.
"Proceed," he decided.
[ABSORPTION INITIATED]
[WARNING: DEMONIC ENERGY DETECTED IN TARGET]
[INTEGRATION PROCEEDING WITH COMPLICATIONS]
[HOST PERSONALITY EXPERIENCING MAJOR ALTERATIONS]
The absorption of Professor Morvaine's abilities hit Kael like a tsunami of dark knowledge and twisted power. Suddenly, he understood demonic magic from the perspective of someone who'd spent years studying it. He could sense the ritual circle's construction, feel the summoning spell's momentum, and most disturbingly, hear whispers from the demonic realm that the ritual had begun to breach.
This is what corruption feels like. No wonder the consortium members were unstable—they were containing fragments of demonic consciousness.
But along with the dark knowledge came the power to complete or terminate the ritual according to his will.
Time to make a choice that will define everything that follows.
The ritual circle pulsed with gathered energy, the three student victims barely clinging to life, and somewhere in the distance, royal forces were breaching the manor's outer defenses.
And in the depths of his consciousness, Kael felt something that definitely wasn't human laughing with anticipation.
The demon they were trying to summon... it's not gone. It's inside the absorbed knowledge, waiting for an opportunity to manifest.
[CRITICAL DECISION POINT]
[CHOICE 1: COMPLETE THE SUMMONING - GAIN DEMONIC ALLIANCE]
[CHOICE 2: DESTROY THE RITUAL - ELIMINATE DEMONIC THREAT]
[CHOICE 3: REDIRECT THE SUMMONING - ATTEMPT TO CONTROL THE DEMON]
[WARNING: ALL CHOICES HAVE SIGNIFICANT CONSEQUENCES]
As Kael stood over the ritual circle with the power to summon or banish a Greater Demon, one final complication emerged from the shadows of the chamber.
"Well, well," a familiar voice said with obvious amusement, "this is quite the predicament."
Kael spun to find a figure he'd never seen before but somehow recognized—a man in Academy robes with the bearing of faculty, but with magical signatures that felt distinctly wrong.
"Allow me to introduce myself," the figure continued with a predatory smile. "Professor Thaine, Advanced Demonology. I believe you've just absorbed my colleague's life work."
Another demon cultist faculty member. How many of them are there?
"And you are?"
"The real power behind the consortium's operations," Professor Thaine replied calmly. "Professor Morvaine was merely an apprentice. I, on the other hand, am the one who designed this entire ritual."
[MAJOR TWIST REVEALED]
[PROFESSOR THAINE: TRUE DEMON CULTIST LEADER]
[IMPLICATION: ACADEMY CORRUPTION RUNS DEEPER THAN SUSPECTED]
[THREAT LEVEL: MAXIMUM]
"I must say, your performance tonight has been quite impressive," Professor Thaine continued. "But now comes the real test—will you complete my summoning ritual, or will you try to stop something far beyond your comprehension?"
As demonic energy swirled around the ritual chamber and the sound of approaching royal forces grew louder, Kael realized that his choice would determine not just the fate of the three captured students, but potentially the entire kingdom.
Time to find out exactly what kind of villain I really am.