Absolute Restraint
Description:
A skill that manifests system-backed restraints to bind targets linked to an active case.
Effects:
Summons spectral restraints, chains, or force bindings More effective against guilty or marked targets Reduces movement and physical resistance Interferes with escape attempts Strength increases with confirmed guilt and Authority Absolute Authority
Absolute Authority
Description:
A passive authority skill that amplifies system-backed presence as an enforcer of judgment.
Effects:
Increases the pressure exerts on guilty targets Strengthens the effectiveness of Judgment and Restraint skills Improves interaction with active Case Files Increases the weight of system-recognized truth in confrontations Scales the Authority stat and completed cases
The skill windows faded from his view.
So this is what it feels like...
Theo stared at his hands.
He was glowing white, like something that did not belong to this world. Wind stirred around him in slow, restless currents, and the presence radiating off his body blanketed the entire parking lot like a held breath.
Every person there took a step back.
All eyes had landed on him.
I made a commotion. His cold gaze shifted back to the Hunter bound before him. But it doesn't matter. At least now I know how I'll deliver judgment to Enzo.
His heart was beating faster than he expected.
This was the first time he had used power like this, and some part of him was still catching up to the reality of it.
"Riv Lours." Theo's voice was steady, carrying across the silent lot without effort. "Guilty of criminal intimidation. Guilty of attempted assault. Guilty of verbal abuse."
A holographic screen had appeared before him the moment his skills activated, displaying the charges in clean, systemized text and prompting him to follow protocol. The System wasn't simply giving him power and stepping aside. It required him to state the charges. To ask.
Even now, judgment had rules.
"I am authorized to deliver punishment in accordance with your charges," Theo continued. "Do you plead guilty?"
Riv's eyes darted between the towering Scales of Judgment floating above and the glowing man standing before him. He could move his mouth now. That much the restraints had allowed.
"G-guilty...?" he rasped. "What are you, a fucking judge?!"
The chains wrapped around him had brought a fear he had never felt before. The Scales above pressed down on his chest like a physical weight. And the man standing at the center of it all carried an authority that made something deep inside Riv want to kneel.
What the hell is his Skill?!
"I won't repeat myself," Theo said.
Riv's jaw tightened. Every eye in the lot was still on them. He could feel the stares like needles against his skin.
He was afraid.
But he was also a Hunter.
And Hunters did not bow.
"F... fuck you!"
Theo looked at him for a moment.
"Alright," he said quietly. "It won't change anything."
As the words left his mouth, a second screen materialized between them.
Riv's breath caught. "W-what is that?!"
"You can see it?" Theo said, more to himself than to Riv.
He hadn't expected that. But after a moment, it made sense. The guilty had every right to see the punishment being handed to them. That was how real judgment worked.
The screen filled with text.
[Scales of Judgment — Punishment Processing]
[Absolute Punishment Calculation Complete.]
[Verdict: Riv Lours][Punishment: 3 months as an ordinary human.]
[Scales of Judgment — Punishment Delivered.]
A soft chime followed, and the screen dissolved.
The white light faded from Theo's body. The Scales of Judgment above him broke apart slowly, scattering into drifting motes of light before vanishing entirely. The chains binding Riv unraveled the same way, dissolving thread by thread until nothing remained.
Riv dropped to his knees.
Both hands rose instinctively, trembling, as his eyes shook with something close to disbelief.
"W... what the... what the hell...?"
He couldn't feel his mana.
He couldn't feel the strength that had always coursed through him like a current. He couldn't feel the power that could tear through a tree with a single punch. He couldn't feel anything at all.
Something inside him was gone.
"S-System!" Riv shouted.
Silence.
No interface. No familiar chime. No holographic screen materializing before him.
Nothing.
Riv Lours had become an ordinary human.
"Hmm." Theo studied the result for a moment with quiet, detached interest. "Fair."
"You... what did you do?!" Riv's voice cracked as he tried to stand. His legs gave out beneath him, and he crashed back to his knees. The powerlessness wasn't just physical. It went deeper than that. "What did you do?! My power! Give it back!"
His shouts echoed across the lot.
Theo had already turned away.
He stepped back into the line. The Hunters ahead of him shifted, several taking a few steps back without quite realizing they had done it. He could see their eyes narrowing, their bodies tightening with the kind of alertness that came from facing something they couldn't categorize.
But when Theo simply stood there in silence, the tension bled out of them one breath at a time.
The murmurs began.
"What just happened?"
"That guy's mana disappeared."
"He became a normal human... is that even possible?"
"That guy did something."
"Yeah. That pressure was intense. I can't feel his mana at all. Concealment Skill?"
"Must be. And whatever he used, it wasn't something small."
Theo listened without reacting.
Then he understood.
Only Riv had seen what truly happened. The surrounding Hunters had only felt the weight of his presence, not witnessed the Scales, not seen the chains, not read the verdict screen.
Good, Theo thought.
He glanced back once.
Riv was staggering toward the exit, his entire bearing shattered. His steps were unsteady, like a man who had forgotten how his own body worked.
A Hunter's pride was rooted in power. Take that away suddenly, without warning, without a fight they could point to, and the collapse ran deeper than any wound. Deeper than any loss a normal person could understand.
Theo watched him go.
Then he looked down at his hand and slowly closed it into a fist.
Absolute Authority. Absolute Restraint. Absolute Punishment.
And alongside those, two skills he had not yet used.
Absolute Mark. Absolute Observation.
Five Absolute Skills.
All of them unranked.
His fingers tightened.
"I will avenge you, Lara."
...
The line moved, and soon it was his turn.
The two guards flanking the portal glanced at each other.
They had seen what happened. Incidents between Hunters in the access zone weren't uncommon, and they had witnessed stranger things over the years. But no matter how carefully they studied the black-coated man now standing before the portal, they could not find what they were looking for.
No mana signature.
No system resonance.
No trace of the evolutionary marker that every Hunter carried.
To every instrument and instinct available to them, he was an ordinary person.
"Excuse me," one of the guards said carefully. "You'll need to channel mana to pass through. The portal won't register you otherwise."
"Right," Theo said.
He stood still for a moment.
Mana. I don't have mana.
His eye twitched slightly.
Should I turn back? No. Enzo is in there. I'm not turning back.
Theo exhaled once, raised his hand, and pressed it against the swirling surface of the portal.
[Ding!]
[The Host of the Scales of Judgment requests entry into a D-Rank Portal.]
[Verifying clearance...]
[Cross-referencing active Case File #001...]
[Host Authority Level: Confirmed.]
[Access granted. The Host may proceed.]