Chapter 109: Alexis’s Request

"What?"

Webb and Doyle’s expressions shifted hard at the same instant.

Satellite tracking sat locked behind government authority alone no private organization had any legitimate path to that kind of resolution.

If Kael’s claim held up, that meant someone inside official ranks had handed Sterling exactly the coordinates needed to finish the job.

They’d walked in today intending to demand an explanation. Standing here now, the ground under that demand had quietly given out.

If someone on the inside really had been working against him, Kael owed the official structure nothing going forward.

Webb and Doyle exchanged a glance, neither one finding an easy response.Derek broke the silence first, scoffing loud enough to carry.

"That’s just your word. Where’s the proof?"

"You don’t get to throw accusations like that around without backing them up keep talking and I’ll have you up on defamation."

"Finding the proof’s your problem." Kael’s voice stayed flat, uninterested. "Believe it or don’t. Makes no difference to me either way."

With the Lord’s Hall already secured in reality and untouchable from every angle he could think of, Kael’s patience for this particular brand of posturing had run out days ago.

He’d disliked this man from the first conversation they’d ever had.His fist came down without warning.

Crack.

Derek spun half around under the impact, one side of his face already swelling dark.

He stared back in open disbelief, fury cracking his voice. "Kael! You actually hit me?!"

"I represent the government out here. Laying a finger on me is an insult to the entire structure I speak for!"

"Who told you that you get to represent anything." Kael’s second strike landed clean on the other cheek, leaving a matched pair of handprints behind.

Derek never got a third sentence out.

Kael summoned the Hollow Emissary, and it materialized silently behind him, scythe already rising. A single clean stroke ended it on the spot.

Webb and Doyle both froze as Derek’s body dissolved into scattered light.

The uncomfortable truth neither of them wanted to sit with whatever Derek’s temper, the substance of what he’d said hadn’t actually been wrong.

All three of them had come as official envoys, representing the government by title. Killing one of them in the open street read as exactly what it was a flat, deliberate statement of contempt for the authority behind them.

Webb opened his mouth, visibly working toward something.Kael cut him off with a raised hand before the first word landed.

"Save it. I already know what you’re about to say." I’m not anyone’s subordinate. Not a vassal, not an asset on anyone’s roster. Don’t bring me that tone again.

"I don’t think last night’s ambush came down as an official order. I do think there’s a real faction inside your structure actively working against me enough of one that they handed a private club my exact location."

"Pass this up the chain, word for word. Cooperation’s still on the table. I have no interest in burning that bridge for its own sake."

"But it comes with conditions. Drop the condescension. Rein in whoever’s running side plays against me. Stop treating this as a relationship where I answer to you."

"Can’t manage that much? Then there’s no partnership left worth having."

Nothing about the delivery ran hot or theatrical just flat, level fact, every word landing exactly where it was aimed.

Stripped down, the message read simply enough: your own house is a mess. Fix that before you come lecturing me about mine.

Webb and Doyle both understood the shape of it perfectly. They’d arrived expecting to deliver a reprimand. They were leaving having absorbed one instead.

Worse, the actual fault traced straight back to their own side. No leaked coordinates, no ambush, none of this ever happens.

Neither of them had a real counter to offer. Webb managed a strained, apologetic nod.

"We’ll take this back up the chain.

Push for a real answer as fast as we can manage."They said their goodbyes and left without further argument.

Kael watched them go, unbothered either way. Whatever came back from "higher up" depended entirely on people he had no direct leverage over yet.

If the pressure actually corrected their attitude going forward, cooperation on equal footing suited him fine.

If it didn’t, any fallout from that failure would land on them, not him.

With that handled, Kael restocked at the general store and headed out to a fresh leveling ground suited for level 50-plus content.

Between Lyra sitting at 50 and the Hollow Emissary at a full 55, the combined output tore through everything in reach at a pace that made the rest of his roster’s experience climb nearly as fast by proxy.

Across the rest of the server, the Astral Spire’s doors had opened wide the moment players started crossing level 40.

Word of Kael’s clear hours long, capped off with a confirmed Mythic reward had the whole community convinced this was the single most lucrative instance currently live. Top-tier players poured in from every direction, eager for a piece of it.

Not one of them cleared past floor 90.

The forums turned into a graveyard of complaints within hours.

"Floor 90’s guarded by two Legendary-tier quasi-bosses. One skill took half my health off in a single hit. Who’s actually clearing this?"

"If floor 90 hits that hard, I don’t even want to imagine floor 108."

"This map isn’t hard. This map is a punishment."

"How does Unrivaled make this look routine? That’s not normal. That’s not even close to normal."

Reality landed hard for the server’s self-styled elite the actual gap between themselves and Kael running far deeper than anyone had let themselves believe. Moonlight against a firefly’s glow. Not even a contest.

By the following evening, Alexis finally finished offloading every territory.

Thirteen million gold, total a genuinely staggering payout.

She sought Kael out in person to settle the transfer, handing the full sum over without complaint.

Once the exchange closed, she lingered, something visibly caught behind her eyes, clearly working up to a sentence she couldn’t quite finish.

Kael raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong? Spit it out."

"It’s nothing serious." She worried her lower lip, gaze dropping to the ground, color rising faintly in her cheeks.

"I want you to bond me again. Make me your companion."