Beyond The System-Chapter 280: Outer Regions

“I’ll be honest, this isn’t what I thought we’d be doing,” Sia whispered, bracing a hand against the stone wall and vaulting over it with effortless grace.
I hopped up after her, landing in a tidy garden—finally freed from the rancid stench clinging to the air beyond the barrier. The world warped faintly as the barrier settled back into place, Elric’s advice about shaping Sensory Veil around us proving its worth.
I shrugged. “What? Would you prefer setting everything on fire?”
She nodded with bright, almost manic enthusiasm. “We did that before?”
I tried not to shoot her a look like she was some sort of pyromaniacal beast, but it was difficult. Especially after the incident two weeks ago—just a few days after landing on the mainland again.
The sheer, unrestrained glee on her face when she first combined her newly-gained control over Fire Force with her already built-in ability to wield flame through the system… yeah. Hard to forget.
“We made a commotion last time on purpose. Get our names out there,” I reminded the arsonist.
Sia rolled her eyes. “I know. I was only joking. Like Elric said—‘This time’s hearts and minds.’”
I nodded, crouching through the low bushes to conceal us from a pair of patrolling guards.
Her gaze burned into my back, clearly perplexed. “What are you doing?” she whispered, irritation sharpening the edges of her voice.
“Pretending,” I murmured back. Seriously, how could she not appreciate the romance of the situation? “You really don’t get it? Corrupt officials? Miserable living conditions for the residents? A little undercover justice?”
Sia didn’t answer, and I didn’t feel much like elaborating, perfectly satisfied living out the fantasy already. I hopped through an open window, landing on polished white tiles that gleamed beneath the dim light.
Sia slipped in behind me, straightening immediately and abandoning any attempt at sneaking. “Well, I imagine we’ll find what we need upstairs, right?”
I rolled my eyes—only mildly annoyed—and shifted into a more serious stance beside her. “Probably.”
We moved deeper into the manor, welcomed by ornate decorations: vases perched on intricately carved tables, landscape paintings, and stern family portraits lining the wallpapered green halls.
A man in leather guards stood beneath an archway just ahead. Our footsteps echoed softly as we approached.
He turned. “Wha—WH—!”
Before he could finish, I flicked my hands. The air twisted sharply around him, and his voice collapsed into a croak as an unseen pressure sealed around his mouth.
Sia’s eyes widened, a visible shiver rippling through her. “I’m guessing it’s unique because it’s you, but still… Air Force is pretty terrifying.”
I rushed forward and drove a punch into his stomach, knocking him to his knees as every last breath exploded from his lungs. His eyes rolled back, and I caught him before he hit the floor, lowering him gently. “I still don’t really know much about it,” I admitted. “Pretty sure it has something to do with air pressure, though.”
She shook her head, stepping past me and the unconscious guard. “Whatever that means.”
We continued through the manor, encountering only one more person—this time a woman in a neat dress and apron. Sia dispatched her just as swiftly. Eventually, we reached a staircase leading up to a single door.
“Ready?” Sia asked, hand already on the handle.
I sighed. “Yep.”
She opened it and stepped through calmly.
A large man stood behind a desk, the room crowded with shelves, cabinets stuffed with books and documents, and countless papers spread across the desk before him.
“I told you not to bother me…” He didn’t even look up at first, voice fading as his eyes finally met ours. His expression twisted. “Who are you?!” he barked, lunging to his feet so abruptly his belly shoved the desk forward.
My Inner Realm shifted, the Water Force core sliding into place as it replaced the Natural Force core—settling beside the Fire core in a rotating triangular orbit with Drybel’s steady guidance. I pushed nearly all my power into my feet, moving so quickly the mayor couldn’t react before an ice blade materialized against his throat like a frozen collar.
“Don’t talk,” I ordered. “Just listen.” I tightened the icy ring a fraction, drawing a thin line of blood. “Are we clear?”
His face drained of color, body going rigid. After a long, trembling moment, he nodded.
Sia approached at an unhurried pace, rocking up onto her toes to match the mayor’s height and offering him an almost cherubic smile. “You have a safe?”
He hesitated, lips clamped shut.
“Answer her,” I pressed, my tone sharpening. “Please, for the love of—tell me you understand the situation.” Honestly, it was all bluff. I wasn’t about to kill the man when he hadn’t harmed me directly… even if the conditions outside his manor all but screamed of heavy guilt. Threatening him? Stealing? Absolutely. But taking a life for nothing done to me? I wasn’t hardened enough for that.
He cleared his throat, forcing his back straighter. “Stealing the taxes from the Kingdom of—”
“Rrrgh!” Sia growled, throwing her head back. “I told Elric these guys wouldn’t listen. He should’ve come and persuaded them himself.”
“You two really are a match,” I sighed, shaking my head. My gaze swept the office, looking for anything obvious. “Hmmm.” Just at his feet, half-hidden under the desk: a metal box. A safe. “It might be in there.”
Sia followed my line of sight. “Oh. Yeah. Could be.” She lifted her eyes back to the mayor trapped in my hold. “Well?”
He smirked. “If you were going to k—”
Her smile bloomed again. I still couldn’t tell whether she’d always had that expression tucked away or if Elric had somehow infected her with it, but for once, someone finally understood the sort of smile I meant. Beauty tucked inside something sinister.
“Peter is nice,” she said lightly. “But I’ll kill you.”
He swallowed so hard his throat scraped against the ice blade, drawing a few more droplets of blood. “Th—the orb is in there,” he stammered. “Monitor and documents—” His eyes flicked toward the bookshelf beside us.
I released him and stepped back, glancing over my shoulder. “So suddenly compliant? She’s scary, but—”
“Peter?” the mayor blurted.
I stopped mid-step. “Yep.”
“You wield three elements? That Peter?” he asked, voice shrinking as I gripped the shelf and pulled it aside with a swift tug.
“Looks like news spreads quickly,” Sia commented, hauling the safe onto the desk. A faint shimmer gathered around her fingertip as she pointed at the seam of the door.
Good. If word traveled this fast, then it likely had already reached the people in charge. I reached into a small recessed compartment and retrieved a stack of documents along with a thin black screen, tucking them under my arm.
“I gave you everything,” the mayor panted, sweat pouring down his face. “So, there’s no reason to destroy anything.”
His behavior swung so wildly it was hard to tell whether he was genuinely recovering from fear or if something in his head was loose. Still, I only smiled. “You still have to come with us. All you did was make this job much easier.”
“Wh—what do you mean?” he whispered, voice quivering again as his confidence collapsed.
Sia traced her glowing fingertip across the safe, a red halo aura around her body—the old man’s gift from so long ago surging to life. Her fighter’s strength doubled under the combined force of her Fire, her Precursor Energy, and her buff all working in tandem.
“Lots of people wanna meet you, so…” I flicked my hand, dissolving the icy collar just before driving a fist into his stomach, letting it sink deep until he folded the same way the guard and maid had. “You could’ve just asked him to open it, you know?” I shot Sia a pointed look, brows raised.
“I’m
pretending
,” she defended with a huff.
“…Right.”
Our exit was much faster than our entrance. We slipped back out through the office window, then vaulted clean across the manor grounds, rippling through the barrier that cloaked the estate. My nose crinkled immediately at the smell.
My grip tightened on the mayor’s shirt as we landed again, passing thin, malnourished boys sprinting through mud and filth as if it were simply part of life. A man lay slumped between two warped wooden houses. His unkempt white facial hair was stark against his deeply tanned skin, completely unbothered by the swarm of insects buzzing around him.
This place always hit me with mixed feelings. According to Elric, these outer regions were kept under harsh enforcement, populated mostly by former criminals who had worked off their sentences but still weren’t permitted into the citizen districts of the country.
Most couldn’t complete missions, so they were unable to grow the strength of their blessings, trapped in endless manual labor just to scrape by. Still, there were younger generations here too. Kids born into the same cycle. Paying for sins that weren’t theirs.
And who better to recruit than the cheated.
Those who’d been denied power yet wanted it more than anyone?