First Upgrade

"Where is that device?"

"That!"

"What? Is there any problem?"

"N-No"

"Then take us there." Zero walked out of the room.

Baali and Benard followed.

As they crossed more of the building from the north, they arrived at western building. It was different from usual and hidden with magical devices.

Baali had passed this place but didn't see it before.

They walked towards the door but someone noticed them.

"Oh! Vice-commander! What brings you here?"

A man with a thin physique and white beard stood in front of them.

Zero's system alerted him.

"SIMILAR ENERGY SOURCE FOUND. SYSTEM UPGRADE AVAILABLE."

"Ah! there were some problems with the device before so they were sent here after I reported it."

"Hmmm but your face...?"

Benard was out of words.

Baali said, " We don't have time. Please hurry up."

Benard without answering the man hurried with the words towards the door and closed behind.

"He might cause problems." Baali said with a worried voice.

Zero noticed that the man from before disappeared without any trace behind the door.

"No, he won't."

Baali and Benard looked at each other and Benard led them towards another door at the basement.

Whole facility was way above the expectation Zero thought of. Machines about which he heard when he was child, were before his eyes now.

"I have never seen these before in any of the world I have been to. They really are scary huh?!" Zero thought.

Benard stopped and Baali asked, " What is it?"

Benard couldn't escape even if he planned anything. So with a stone in his heart for survival opened the door.

As the door needed strength and only authorised people could enter, he coughed up blood and dropped down.

Baali held him up straight and Zero entered inside.

Almost empty room with arches on an altar in the middle. Nothing looked any important.

"There is something else too, right?" Zero looked at Benard and he nodded.

Pointing towards the small window, he said, " There... it's there. But it's nothing useful. We couldn't even understand it when we investigated it many times."

Benard was sure that what was behind the window was nothing grand.

He continued, " Everytime they would want, came from these arches. and exited the room. Also to return from here. We tried operating it but mages wouldn't allow much information. They too knew less to operate it, they say."

Zero walked and looked through the window and system again rang,

"UNUSUAL SOURCE FOUND. FORCE UPGRADE INITIATED."

Zero gets dragged breaking the wall and falls on the floor below.

Baali runs toward him but he is already on the floor. He jumps and approaches Zero, but...

"Don't come near." Zero shouts as he was enduring immense pain and grunted as energy was penetrating his whole body.

Benard crawled near the broken walls and looked down. But to his shock, what was happening was something he never thought of.

"He is sucking all the energy from the pillar which was used to store the energy from sacrifices."

'weeeeeng!'

'weeeeeng!'

A loud alert rang across the city.

Benard heard lots of soldiers running towards them and what he feared happened right after that.

"Oh! I was never expecting this..."

The man he saw at the entrance there.

"Oh boy! I thought you brought them to sacrifice even though you were beaten up. But this. I don't need you anymore."

'swoosh!'

That man swung his hand and a thin light swept across Benard's neck.

'Thud!'

His head slipped from his body cleanly. Rolling towards the door, soldiers who approached found it shocking and stopped to find whose head it was.

Slowly turning the face, they stepped back as they saw who it was,

"Vice-commander!"

Another soldier shouted, " Vice-commander is dead. Capture the intruders."

They entered inside hurriedly.

The man who killed Benard hid himself with magic, and soldiers saw what was happening below.

They tried to stop them but Baali stopped them from coming forward.

The man helped the soldier with his magic secretly and all the soldiers jumped at Baali.

Being crushed with lots of soldiers, he was getting suffocated.

When a thought about Zero crossed his mind, with all might he shook his body outwards and soldiers once got thrown away.

With a strange aura and blood filled eyes, the soldier's strength and fighting style totally changed.

Taking one glance at Zero, Baali with all his power engaged in the fight with soldiers.

At the same time, Zero was in the process of system upgrade and that also forcefully.

His eyes were blank.

The man who was hidden came near Zero without any noise and slowly looked at him.

Baali was unaware about it and also almost drained from the fight.

"Haah!" With the last soldier there, thrown to the floor dead, he looked behind.

Only to find Zero in that man's grip.

"Huh! You are from before."

The man turned to Baali and smiled.

"We have quite a nice fellow here. I thought you would be interesting but, this boy broke through my expectations. Now we don't need those worthless sacrifices. His body will act as medium and we can bring a lot of force here."

Baali was shocked but when hearing his aide's death was worthless, he couldn't hold back and jumped at him.

But the man held him with only one hand. Even though he looked thin, his strength was nothing to look down on.

As Baali was already drained from the drag-out fight with strengthened soldiers, his attempt was futile to the man.

"Don't pester me more and stay still." That man shook the Baali and threw it away in one swing.

...

While the fight and deaths continued besides him, Zero was in a trance and was trapped in his memories.

"Father! What should we eat today?"

"Oh boy! We are going to the festival today and we'll eat tasty delicacies there."

"But I want mother's hand made dishes."

Suddenly the father Zero was seeing in front of him, spoke with strange humming voice,

"No...means no... otherwise... you'll be the food..."

Zero looked at him and his father's face changed into that of a monster which he defeated in the world he was dragged into.

"No! father!"

As Zero shouted in fear and being afraid, another voice entered his ears,

"Ho! Are you not my brave boy? I protect you today so when you grow up you can protect me."

Zero recognized it.

"Mother.... mother!!!"

It is his mother's voice.

Zero felt a sudden grip around his neck and when he looked at his own body, it was not that of his childhood. It was soaked in blood and suddenly he remembered the monster in front of him.

"I have already killed you." Zero mumbled and when he realised that he was just seeing things, he grabbed the hands which were gripping his neck and jerked them away.

At the same time, system message rang in his ears,

"SYSTEM UPGRADE COMPLETE. ENERGY ASSIMILATION SUCCESS. SKILLS ARE AVAILABLE TO THE USER'S MANA LEVEL."

The man who held Zero by his hands looked at his hands. They were burned.

Baali felt again the immense increase in power from Zero.

Zero opened his eyes.

"You!"