Valeska didn’t bother using the stairs.
She grabbed me by the back of my jacket, stepped over the balcony railing, and plunged thirty feet down into the rainy cobblestone street below.
BOOM!
The impact cracked the stone street beneath her armored boots. The shockwave rattled my teeth, and for a second, my knees buckled.
[Innate Trait: [Endless Resilience Lv. 1] Active!]
[Impact Damage Absorbed & Repaired (100%)]
My legs automatically stabilized as my trait absorbed the kinetic shock.
Valeska dropped me onto the wet cobblestones like a bag of laundry. "Stand, mortal," she commanded, her visor glowing red. "I will not carry an insect through the city."
I dusted off my wet jeans and straightened my jacket. "You know, a normal person would use the stairs. But hey, thanks for the free elevator ride."
Valeska’s visor flickered, but she ignored my snark and started walking toward the southern slums. I jogged right beside her.
Shouts, horns, and barking hounds echoed from the upper palace district behind us. Torchlight flickered across the rooftops as the entire capital mobilized to hunt us down.
We wove through the narrow, filthy alleys of the lower slums, heading for the city’s southern exit.
Just as we reached the narrow stone bridge leading out of the capital, ten figures in heavy, black-and-gold armor stepped out from the shadows, blocking our path.
At the front stood a broad-shouldered man with a scar across his eye, holding a massive, two-handed warhammer.
"Kaelen Cross!" the man bellowed, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "Captain Drake of the Imperial Vanguard! High Inquisitor Theron has put a 100,000 gold coin bounty on your head!"
Drake looked at Valeska, then sneered at me.
"An F-Rank peasant somehow summoned a calamity tier entity," Drake laughed, raising his warhammer. "Don’t make it hard for yourself, come with us without resisting, at least we will give you quick death."
I looked at Drake, then glanced at Valeska, whose six-foot-two frame was radiating black, crackling heat.
"Bro," I said to Drake, "stop bullshitting. In fact, she literally broke my ribs twenty minutes ago. Besides, are you sure, the wires in your brain is connected properly? I wouldn’t speak like that if I were in front of a calamity tier disaster like her."
"Shut your mouth, trash!" Drake roared. "Men, kill the boy!"
Valeska stepped in front of me, her greatsword igniting in pitch-black flames that hissed against the falling rain.
"You dare call my vessel ’trash,’ lower creature?" Valeska’s voice echoed with terrifying, cold wrath. "I am the only one permitted to break him."
She swung her greatsword in a horizontal arc.
SWOOSH—BOOM!
A massive wave of black fire swept across the bridge. The stone railing disintegrated, and the entire ten-man squad of Imperial Vanguard was instantly swallowed by black flames.
"AAAARGH!"
Screams echoed for two seconds before Drake and nine of his elite knights were reduced to piles of scorched ash on the wet stone.
Only one paladin, who had been lagging behind, survived the blast. Panicking, he drew a dagger and lunged at me from my blind spot. "Die, Heretic!"
’My turn.’
I didn’t panic. I activated my second trait.
[Innate Trait: [Adaptive Resonance Lv. 1] Active!]
[Body Adapting to Incoming Physical Attack...]
As the paladin’s dagger thrust toward my neck, my muscles instinctively shifted. I caught his wrist with my left hand. The paladin’s blade grazed my forearm, but my skin hardened just enough to deflect the point.
Before he could pull back, I stepped in close and slammed my right fist straight into his throat.
CRACK!
The paladin gurgled, dropped his dagger, and collapsed onto the wet bridge.
[System Notice: Combat Experience Gained!]
[Aether Capacity Increased: 200 -> 250!]
’Nice. Taking down an Imperial paladin boosted my max Aether by 50!’
Valeska turned her featureless helmet toward me, her red visor narrowing as she watched me stand over the fallen paladin.
"You did not die," Valeska noted, her tone almost... disappointed. "Your body adapted to his strike."
"I told you, Empress," I said, wiping the rain from my forehead and picking up the paladin’s discarded steel dagger. "I’m harder to kill than I look."
Valeska scoffed, sheathing her massive greatsword on her back. "Do not celebrate, insect. A hundred thousand gold coins will draw every killer, mercenary, and archon on this continent."
We crossed the ruined bridge and broke out of the capital’s perimeter, plunging into the dark, misty expanse of the Woods of Shadowfen.
I pulled up my System HUD to check our progress as we ran through the dark trees.
[Main Quest: Escape to Oakhaven]
Current Location: Woods of Shadowfen (Outskirts of Capital)
Max Aether Capacity: 250 / 500
Progress to 2nd SSS-Tier Villainess Unlock: 50%
Suddenly, a strange, chilling sound echoed deep inside my mind.
It wasn’t Valeska.
It was an ancient, seductive, and terrifying feminine laugh echoing from the locked database deep within my System interface.
’Fufufu... hurry up and reach 500 Aether, little master... I can’t wait to break you...’
I froze in my tracks for a second, a cold shiver running down my spine.
Valeska stopped, looking back at me through the mist. "What is it, mortal?"
I looked at Valeska, then at my System interface, letting out a dry, nervous laugh.
"Nothing, Empress... I just realized my life is about to get a whole lot worse."