SSS-RANK: Super Extraction System-Chapter 14: [14] A Monarch’s Gaze

Chapter 14: [14] A Monarch’s Gaze
The apartment smelled like roasted garlic and cheap synthetic beef. To Leon, it smelled like heaven.
It was a sharp contrast to the ozone and sweat of the arena. Here, the lights were warm and yellow, not blinding white. Here, the only noise was the clatter of silverware and the high-pitched excitement of his sisters happy to see him.
Leon sat at the head of the small, scarred kitchen table and started narrating everything that happened during the challenge.
He forced a smile, pushing the food around his plate. His body was exhausted. The level-up energy had faded, leaving his muscles aching and his core throbbing with a dull, hollow ache.
"Eat, Leon," his mom said, dropping a second helping onto his plate. "You’re too skinny."
"I’m eating, Mom."
His dad sat opposite him. The metal fingers of his prosthetic hand tapped rhythmically on the table. He hadn’t said much since Leon got home. He just watched him with a look that was half-pride, half-fear.
"It was... impressive," his dad said finally, his voice gravelly. "That move at the end. The shadow step. I didn’t teach you that."
Leon paused. "I improvised."
"Improvised," his dad repeated. He didn’t buy it. But he didn’t push. "Just be careful. You embarrassed a Horne. They have long memories and deep pockets."
"I can handle Damian," Leon said.
"It’s not Damian I’m worried about."
The mood dipped for a second.
Leon looked at them. This was it. This was why he fought. This tiny, cramped room in Sector 7 was the only thing that mattered. The victory against Damian wasn’t about ego; it was about keeping this room safe. About proving he was strong enough to keep the wolves away.
He took a bite of the synthetic beef. It tasted like ash.
He frowned.
The air in the room suddenly went still.
Not quiet. Still.
The chatter of the twins seemed to dampen, as if someone had thrown a heavy blanket over the world. The warmth from the oven vanished. A creeping, unnatural cold seeped through the walls, through the glass, through Leon’s skin.
It started at the base of his spine, a primal, reptilian shiver.
Leon dropped his fork. It hit the plate with a loud clink.
"Leon?" his mom asked. "What is it?"
Leon didn’t answer. He couldn’t breath.
Something was looking at him.
Not his dad. Not the neighbors.
Something else.
It felt like gravity had rotated ninety degrees. A pressure, heavy and suffocating, pressed against his skull. It came from outside. From the city. From the night.
It pierced through the brick walls of the apartment building as if they were made of wet paper.
Thump.
Leon’s heart hammered against his ribs.
[ WARNING ]
The system interface slammed into his vision, bright red and screaming.
[ WARNING: HOSTILE OBSERVATION DETECTED ]
[ MAGNITUDE: IMMENSE ]
[ SOURCE: 7 KILOMETERS NORTH-EAST ]
[ ENTITY CLASSIFICATION: ROYAL SHADOW ]
[ TIER: MONARCH DETECTED ]
Monarch.
The word froze the blood in his veins.
This wasn’t a beast. This wasn’t a Dungeon Boss. This was a king.
"Leon!" Lily’s voice sounded far away, underwater. "You’re scaring us."
Leon stood up. His chair scraped violently against the floor.
"Get away from the window," he rasped.
"What?" His dad stood up, his combat instincts flaring. "Leon, what’s happening?"
"Get away from the window! Now!"
Leon didn’t wait. He lunged across the small kitchen. He grabbed Maya and Lily by their shoulders, his grip bruisingly hard, and yanked them out of their chairs.
"Ow! Leon!"
"Quiet!"
He dragged them into the hallway, the center of the apartment, the furthest point from the exterior glass. He shoved them behind him, placing his body between them and the city outside.
"Dad, kill the lights," Leon ordered, his voice shaking.
His dad didn’t argue. He slapped the wall panel. The apartment plunged into darkness.
But to Leon, it wasn’t dark.
[ EYES OF THE NIGHT (PASSIVE): ACTIVE ]
The room was washed in monochrome grey. He could see the fear on his sisters’ faces. He could see his mother clutching her chest.
But mostly, he could feel It.
The Gaze intensified. It wasn’t just watching anymore. It was searching. It was a spotlight of pure malice sweeping across Sector 7, looking for the source of the anomaly. Looking for the boy who had commanded the shadows in the arena.
He saw me, Leon realized with sickening clarity. When I used the Manifestation. When I beat Damian. I lit a flare in the dark, and now the sharks are here.
The pressure focused. It drilled into the apartment.
It knew he was here.
[ SYSTEM ALERT ]
[ EMERGENCY: HOST IDENTITY COMPROMISED ]
[ THE ’ROYAL SHADOW’ IS LOCKING ON ]
[ INITIATING EMERGENCY CONCEALMENT PROTOCOL ]
[ WARNING: THIS WILL CONSUME ALL REMAINING RESERVES ]
A new window popped up, frantic and glitching.
[ DIVERTING ENERGY... ]
Leon gasped as he felt a physical pull in his chest. It felt like a syringe had been plunged into his heart and was drawing out his very life force.
The shadows in the hallway began to writhe. They didn’t listen to him this time. They swarmed over him, wrapping around his limbs, his torso, his head. They were cold, suffocatingly cold.
[ SYSTEM STATUS ]
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╔═══════════════════════════════════╗
║ EMERGENCY CONCEALMENT ACTIVE ║
╠═══════════════════════════════════╣
║ HOST: LEON VALE ║
║ LEVEL: 2 ║
║ ║
║ SHADOW ESSENCE: 27/100 -> 0/100 (DRAINED) ║
║ CORE ENERGY: 100% -> 12% (DRAINING) ║
║ ║
║ STR: 14 -> 4 (SUPPRESSED) ║
║ AGL: 20 -> 5 (SUPPRESSED) ║
║ END: 12 -> 3 (SUPPRESSED) ║
║ ║
║ MASKING SIGNAL... ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════╝
His strength evaporated. His knees buckled. He slumped against the wall, sliding down until he hit the floor. He felt weak. Weaker than he had been as an F-Rank. He felt like a husk.
"Leon!" His mom was beside him in the dark, her hands frantic on his face. "Leon, you’re freezing! You’re ice cold!"
"Don’t... turn on... the lights," Leon chattered, his teeth clicking together.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Please pass. Please pass. Don’t look at them. Look at me, but don’t look at them.
The Gaze lingered. It felt heavy, like a physical weight pressing on the roof of the building. Leon imagined a giant eye, burning red, peering through the bricks.
I know you’re there, the presence seemed to whisper. Not in words, but in intent. I smell you, little thief.
The system drained him further.
[ CORE ENERGY: 5%... 2%... 1%... ]
[ SIGNAL MASKED. BIO-SIGNATURE FLATTENED TO BACKGROUND NOISE. ]
Leon stopped breathing. He held perfectly still, his heart rate forcibly slowed by the system to a near-death crawl.
The Gaze hovered for an eternity.
Then, slowly, agonizingly... it swept past.
It moved on, searching the next block. Then the next.
The pressure lifted. The air rushed back into the room. The unnatural cold dissipated, leaving only the chill of Leon’s sweat-soaked skin.
Leon sucked in a desperate breath, coughing as his lungs started working again.
"Oh god," he whispered.
"Leon?" His dad’s voice was close. "It’s gone. Whatever it was... I think it’s gone."
The lights flickered back on.
Leon sat slumped against the hallway wall, looking like a corpse. His skin was grey. His eyes were sunken. He looked like he had aged ten years in ten seconds.
Lily and Maya were huddled together, crying silently. They looked at their big brother, the hero who had won the duel just minutes ago and saw him broken.
"What was that?" Maya whispered, her voice trembling. "Leon... what was that?"
Leon looked at them. He saw the terror in their eyes.
He wanted to tell them the truth. He wanted to scream that a Vampire Lord, a creature from the darkest nightmares of humanity, had just looked into their home. That they were being hunted.
But he couldn’t. If they knew, they would never sleep again.
He forced his lips to curve upwards. It was a painful, brittle expression.
"Just... a reaction," Leon lied, his voice rasping. "From the fight. I pushed too hard. It’s called mana-burn. It happens."
"Mana-burn doesn’t make the room go cold," his dad said quietly.
Leon met his father’s eyes. He put every ounce of pleading he had left into that look. Don’t ask. Please, don’t ask.
His dad held the gaze for a long moment. Then, he looked at the girls.
"It felt like a barrier malfunction at the sector edge," his dad lied smoothly. "Probably a power surge. Leon’s just exhausted."
His mom helped Leon stand. He leaned heavily on her, his legs shaking like jelly.
[ SYSTEM REBOOTING... ]
[ CONCEALMENT SUCCESSFUL ]
[ CURRENT STATUS: CRITICALLY DRAINED ]
[ NOTE: THE ROYAL SHADOW HAS MARKED SECTOR 7 ]
He was alive. They were safe. For tonight.
But as Leon looked at his family,his mother checking his forehead, his sisters wiping their eyes, the cold reality settled into his bones deeper than the chill.
He had painted a target on his back to save himself from bullies.
But in doing so, he had invited a monster to dinner.
He couldn’t stay here. Not for long. Every second he spent in this apartment was a second he risked their lives.
"I’m okay," Leon whispered, pulling his sisters into a hug that was too weak to be comforting. "I promise. It’s nothing."
He looked over their heads at the dark window.
Somewhere out there, in the neon-lit skyline of Neo-Veridia, the Monarch was still watching.
And Leon knew, with terrifying certainty, that the game had just changed from a tournament to a hunt.