The sphere of black anti mana in Jarek’s chest grew larger pulsing with a gravitational pull that dragged the loose sand and debris across the arena floor.

System Warning.

Core Corruption at 30 Percent.

Left arm motor functions failing.

Glen could barely feel his left hand. The black veins had reached his shoulder and the whispering voices in his head were growing louder turning into a deafening roar of cosmic static. The demon was trying to paralyze him before unleashing its final attack.

Up in the VIP suite Vane leaned forward his black eyes wide with triumph. "It is over Elias. The anomaly is infected. The Lost will consume his core and use his body as a new vessel. We have successfully weaponized the outer worlds."

Elias Vance watched the boy struggling in the sand. A part of him the proud S Class warrior felt a twinge of disgust at using such foul methods. But the Guild Master buried the feeling. Victory was all that mattered.

Down in the arena Glen forced his numb left arm to move. He gripped his own wrist with his right hand steadying himself.

"You think you are the only parasite in this arena?" Glen whispered his dark eyes locking onto the mutated monster. "You think you know how to eat?"

Jarek unleashed the attack.

A massive beam of pure black nothingness erupted from his chest tearing across the arena. Where the beam touched the ground the sand simply ceased to exist leaving a smooth bottomless trench in its wake. It was a wave of absolute erasure.

Glen did not retreat. He activated Predator Domain.

He did not use it to fight. He used it as a smokescreen. The massive dome of pitch black shadows exploded outward swallowing Glen and expanding rapidly toward Jarek.

The demonic beam pierced the domain instantly tearing a massive hole through the shadows. But the split second of visual obstruction was all Glen needed.

He dropped to the ground sliding under the lethal beam of anti mana. The heatless void passed mere inches above his back erasing the top layer of his Abyssal Juggernaut Armor.

Glen popped up from the slide directly at Jarek’s feet. He was inside the monster’s guard.

Jarek looked down his empty black eyes widening in sudden confusion. The monster raised its crystal scythes to crush the boy.

Glen did not strike. He reached out with his right hand and grabbed the massive jagged black crystal protruding directly from the center of Jarek’s chest.

The moment his bare skin touched the core of the demonic infection the world exploded in pain.

System Error.

Lethal Corruption Detected.

Core Corruption at 60 Percent... 70 Percent...

The black energy flooded into Glen’s arm rushing toward his heart like a tidal wave of rotting sludge. The voices in his head screamed in victory ready to consume his soul.

Glen smiled. Blood poured from his nose and his eyes but his smile was wide terrifying and completely insane.

"Take it" Glen roared commanding his spiritual core.

The Skill Predator class was not a normal human ability. It was an anomaly. A glitch. A black hole designed to devour the rules of the universe.

Deep inside Glen’s chest the dark gray core violently expanded. It did not fight the demonic energy. It opened its jaws and swallowed it.

System Override.

Foreign Entity Devoured.

Initiating Core Purge.

The black veins crawling up Glen’s left arm suddenly stopped. The flow of energy reversed. The demonic anti mana that was trying to consume Glen was suddenly being violently sucked out of Jarek’s body and dragged into Glen’s core.

Jarek let out a horrifying mechanical shriek. The monster thrashed wildly trying to pull away but Glen’s grip on the chest crystal was absolute.

"You are in my house now" Glen whispered his eyes glowing with a terrifying mixture of crimson and pitch black light.

The black crystals covering Jarek’s body began to crack and shatter. The demonic energy was being drained at an impossible rate. The anti mana poured into Glen’s chest fueling the endless hunger of the Skill Predator.

System Alert.

Foreign Entity Assimilated.

Core Corruption Purged.

With a final deafening crack the massive black crystal in Jarek’s chest shattered into a million pieces of harmless gray dust.

The demonic presence vanished from the arena instantly. The heavy rotting pressure in the air lifted replaced by the fresh smell of the ocean breeze blowing in from the city.

Jarek collapsed. The boy was unconscious his armor ruined and his body covered in scars but he was breathing. The demon was gone.

Glen stood over the fallen rookie. He was covered in sweat and blood his twin swords melted into slag but he was victorious.

A new system prompt materialized in front of his eyes. It was not written in the standard blue or the burning crimson. The text was a deep abyssal black.

Anomaly Consumed.

Fragment of The Lost assimilated into User Core.

Spiritual Core Mutated.

New Passive Trait Acquired: Void Touch.

Glen closed the screen. He did not know what Void Touch did yet and he did not care. He was alive.

He looked up at the VIP suite. He knew exactly who had arranged this match. He knew exactly who had turned a C Class rookie into a demonic bomb.

Glen raised his hand pointing a single bloodstained finger directly at the glass window where Elias Vance and Vane were standing. He did not smile. He just stared at them his eyes promising absolute violence.

Up in the suite Vane took a trembling step backward his pale face completely drained of color.

"He devoured it" Vane whispered his voice cracking with genuine terror. "Elias... the boy just devoured a fragment of The Lost."

Elias Vance did not speak. The Guild Master stared down at the F Rank Mimic realizing for the first time that he had not just picked a fight with an academy student.

He had picked a fight with a monster.