Evolution Online: My 10,000× Reward System Multiplies Everything

After moving through several doors and hallways across the mansion, Kaelen finally stopped before one door.

He stood there for a moment, before his lips curled up coldly and he shoved the grand door open.

The heavy doors opening echoed across the vast hall that looked like a ballroom. It was extremely dark inside, and the light from outside cast a long shadow of Kaelen standing before the door.

The visibility was incredibly poor. Almost impossible to make out anything. But as soon as Kaelen used his [Sharp Senses], the hall brightened before his eyes like daytime.

Snap—

”Basic Fireball.”

Kaelen immediately cast, conjuring several fireballs behind his back that floated inside the room and positioned themselves across every corner of the room, lighting up and leaving little to no hidden shadow.

That was when he saw him.

The Emperor stood directly opposite the hall, standing alone in his golden armour that radiated in the presence of light.

Kaelen didn’t react as he calmly stepped forward, moving towards the Emperor across the room with a calm stride.

”I never took you for someone who’s afraid of the dark.” The Emperor said in slight amusement. ”But even the light shall abandon you in the face of divine judgement.”

As soon as those words left the Emperor’s lips, Kaelen could barely react when several figures appeared around him like they’d perfectly blended into the environment, surrounding him on both sides.

Kaelen’s step didn’t falter for a moment, but as soon as the figures surrounded him, several blades shot out of the shadows, flying towards each of the men like homing missiles.

They were incredibly fast, and the men could barely dodge and deflect them with their blades. As soon as they avoided the fatal attack, they moved in at once, swinging their swords at him.

Kaelen didn’t flinch and kept moving forward with his hands tucked into his pockets, when the blades slicing towards him suddenly either stopped mid-air or missed him by a hair’s breadth. Every single one of them, like Kaelen had an invisible barrier surrounding him.

The men weren’t discouraged by this and swung their swords once more in different directions, slicing at him relentlessly to no avail, when they finally realized the problem wasn’t with their swords, neither did Kaelen have any invisible barrier surrounding him.

Rather, their movements were suddenly limited, and they couldn’t move close enough to Kaelen to get a hit on him.

It was almost like someone—something—was holding them back.

It was at that moment they saw Kaelen’s lips curl up, and his lips parted to speak.

”I learnt from your lackeys that you kept tabs on my abilities.” Kaelen said as he kept moving forward with a calm stride. ”But you see, I have too many abilities that even I often forget I have them until I actually need them... Just like right now.”

Those words sent chills down the spines of the surrounding men, and the Emperor had a bad feeling.

He didn’t wait for Kaelen to explain, because he already had a hunch that made his face turn ashen.

Since Kaelen had walked into the hall, he had only used two abilities. One was to light up the entire room, and the other purpose was to perform a sneak attack... unless that was what he wanted them to think.

The Emperor was smart enough to understand it was impossible for Kaelen to miss nine out of the nine attacks he made.

He had barely dodged the blade sent his way, but strangely, the blade had only grazed his cheek. It was almost like the attack wasn’t meant for them, but was disguised to make them think that.

This prompted the Emperor to look over his shoulder to see the blade that had been used earlier, embedded in the ground behind him.

He shifted his gaze towards his men and the blades used to attack them, to the blades embedded behind their backs as well.

And what all the blades had in common... was that they were pinned to each and every one of their shadows behind them.

The Emperor exhaled softly with an impressed smile.

”I see...”

”You knew the number of each and every one of us in this room before you stepped in.” He decoded. ”The fireballs weren’t to light the room... it was to limit the range of our shadows. And your attack was to pin our shadows to the spot.” The Emperor admitted.

The surrounding men’s eyes widened at the revelation as they turned around to see that indeed, the blades were pinned to the heads of their shadows like nails.

Their first instinct was to uproot the blades, but as they moved towards and reached out to touch them, they realized that just like they couldn’t touch Kaelen, the blades were out of their reach as well.

They also came to realize that Kaelen had thought as far as to make each of their blades out of reach for every other person nailed to the spot in the room.

Unless backup came from outside to free them, they were at the absolute mercy of the monster: Kaelen Cross.

Kaelen smiled coldly.

Just like he said before, he wouldn’t be wasting time with any other person that wasn’t the Emperor himself or the governor who seemed yet to arrive.

These men didn’t know it yet, but their fate had been sealed the moment they fell prey to this ability.

An ability under the Nameless Shadow God he discovered earlier while browsing through his skill list in the World Authority Fragment. The Nameless Shadow ability he’d chosen to call for the first part of it:

Shadow Prison.

The Emperor suddenly laughed in amusement. ”You have quite an interesting set of abilities. But you seem to be forgetting something... I’ve lived and played this game way longer than you. Even before you were conceived. And I’ve seen all kinds of petty tricks like this...” The Emperor’s lips curled up as he drew his sword and dug it into the ground.

”Your darkness cannot swallow up my sun.” As he said this, a burst of bright aura exploded from his entire being, casting away all shadows surrounding him and disintegrating his own shadow under the intense light, cracking the blade that pinned him in place and spilling the light across every nook and corner of the room.

Kaelen didn’t falter in his steps, neither did he shield his eyes from the light as he arrived before the Emperor, who had turned into a pillar of pure energy that kept climbing by the second.

”I never took you for someone who’s afraid of the dark.” He calmly said to the man as he raised his fist above his head. ”But your sun won’t save you from my divine vengeance.”

’Shadow Merge.’