Ethan Cole - The Unlimited System

The morning sun had barely risen when Protector Vareth stepped out in full armor, his cloak trailing behind him as five soldiers marched closely in formation at his back.

These were not just any guards, they bore the golden insignia of the Kannan Empire, stamped clearly on their breastplates and shoulder pads.

Official enforcers, granted full authority within Cahaya Village.

"What's happening?" asked one of the villagers.

"I don't know," answered another.

"I heard they are capturing spies from the other Empire."

"What?! They are here? In our village?"

Vareth and the soldiers didn't say anything. They were focused on the task at hand.

Before arriving at their main destination, they had made stops at a few other homes, quiet visits that ended with screams muffled quickly.

Four individuals had been taken. Two men. Two women.

Each of them was marked by the Elder's private list. Each of them to be used for the Full Veil Ritual.

Now, only one name remained, Alden.

To most villagers, Alden was just a normal, happy man living on the outskirts. He didn't have anyone but he was always available for others.

People loved him.

Other than that, he was also known as the only friend of the crazy witch, Hera.

But a few people in the Empire, those behind the veil of truth, knew otherwise.

They knew Alden's past.

He wasn't just anyone.

He was the White Fang, a former rogue Vessel whose name had once stirred fear and trouble across the northern regions of the Kannan Empire.

A man of wild winds who had gone silent after clashing with the Holy Knights. Rumor had it he had killed two of them before vanishing.

And while the world thought him dead or imprisoned, Elder Harran had always suspected he had taken shelter under a false identity.

Now, that suspicion had turned into fact. That was also the reason he felt that Alden would become one of the best candidates for the sacrifice.

Vareth stopped in front of Hera's house. His hand was already on the hilt of his blade. He looked at the soldiers behind him and nodded.

"On my signal," he said.

Then, he stepped forward and raised his hand to knock.

But his senses were already telling him one thing, something inside was not quite right.

Hera had prepared for this moment, but when the knock came—loud and sudden—she made sure not to appear too composed.

She let out a gasp and placed her teacup down a little too hard, the ceramic clinking against the table.
Alden rushed to the door, heart pounding.

He glanced at her. Hera nodded once, her face drawn with tension.

He opened the door.

Outside stood Protector Vareth, dressed in full armor, his face like stone. Behind him, other than the five soldiers, a number of villagers had also gathered, trailing behind the soldiers from earlier stops.

Whispers filled the air.

"Alden," Vareth said flatly. "By the order of Elder Harran, you are to come with us."

Alden blinked. "W-What?"

Before he could say more, two soldiers surged forward and grabbed him roughly by the arms.

"Wait! What's going on?!" he shouted, struggling in panic. "Let me go! I didn't do anything!"

Inside, Hera rose quickly from her seat and rushed forward.

"Stop!" she called out, her voice sharp, but laced with fear. "What is this about? Where are you taking him?"

A soldier moved to block her path with a spear. Hera froze, her eyes narrowing, her breathing heavy as she looked between Alden and Vareth.

"This is unjust!" she shouted, raising her voice for the watching villagers. "He's done nothing wrong!"

But Vareth didn't flinch. He turned slightly toward the crowd and declared, "This man is being detained under suspicion tied to matters of national security. Elder Harran has given the order himself."

The soldiers began pulling Alden away. He twisted in their grip, his voice frantic.

"Hera! Help me! Please, say something!"

Hera reached out but was stopped again by the spear. Her hand trembled. Her eyes met Alden's.

And at that moment, in the briefest flicker of chaos, Alden smiled, hiding the well-thought-of a hidden plan.

The fear looked real.

The villagers, seeing Hera's panic and Alden's desperation, stepped back. None dared intervene.

"Alden is a spy?!" one of the villagers muttered in disbelief.

"I knew it. He was too kind."

"Yeah. He suddenly came here and befriended that witch."

From the outside, it all looked genuine.

Which was exactly what they wanted.

The truth was that the one being dragged out wasn't Alden. It was Ethan who had perfectly transformed through the Shape Shift skill, his features, voice, and aura all mimicking Alden down to the smallest detail.

Alden, the real one, was already gone.

He had been teleported away minutes earlier, just before Vareth and the soldiers arrived.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Hera had activated an old spatial mark she placed in a hidden region deep beyond the southern forest, an abandoned observatory surrounded by thick forest and forces that interfered with tracking magic.

It was safe for now. She would join him later once her part of the plan was complete.

This was the only way. The only way to stop the ritual… and protect the real Alden.

Ethan knew what he had to do. As the soldiers yanked him from the house and through the crowd, he didn't resist too hard, just enough to sell the fear.

He cried out. He shouted Hera's name. His eyes flicked with enough panic to fool anyone watching.
Inside, his heart was calm.

'This is good. I never knew that I was this good at acting.'

Hera's hands trembled as she reached toward him, her voice breaking as she yelled. But in her eyes, behind the act, was fire.

'Don't fail, Ethan. You're our only chance.'

No one in the village suspected a thing.

As Ethan was forced to his knees and bound, as the villagers whispered and recoiled, believing they had just witnessed the capture of a spy… the real Alden was already far from their reach.

Now, the clock had begun ticking.

After fifteen minutes, they arrived at a building.

Ethan was shoved forward, his hands still bound, the cold metal biting into his wrists as the soldiers dragged him through the heart of Cahaya Village.

They passed confused villagers, some watching with pity, others whispering with fear. No one dared to speak up. Not when Protector Vareth led the charge.

The building they entered stood tall in the center of the village, a structure Ethan had seen before but never thought twice about.

It looked like a modest administrative hall from the outside, simple and worn with age. A place where announcements might be made or public matters resolved.

But once he stepped inside, everything changed.

It wasn't just the stale air or the silence that clung unnaturally to the walls. It was something deeper. Something that made his skin crawl.

The moment the door slammed behind him, Ethan activated his Divine Eyes.

And what he saw made his breath catch.

'What in the world is this?' he wondered.

The walls were inscribed from corner to corner with intricate symbols, lines of magic so dense they looked like they were woven into the structure itself.

The floors, too, bore countless markings in circles and jagged strokes, many of them pulsing faintly with a red glow. Even the ceiling above was not spared.

It was a fortress of enchantments.

Ethan tried to make sense of it all. The symbols were too foreign to fully understand, but the sensation they gave off wasn't subtle.

This wasn't the kind of magic for decoration or basic reinforcement. It was layered, heavy, almost suffocating in its purpose.

'This… this is meant to block everything.'

He could feel it. The suppression of sound beyond the walls, the bending of light around the edges of the room.

He believed that even the Ascendant Elemental Power would feel sluggish here. It was like the building sat in a bubble cut off from the rest of the world.

'A concealment barrier. Not just that, but something stronger. It's more than hiding… It's containment.'

Ethan's mind moved quickly. A building this magically sealed could serve one of two purposes: to hide something… or to keep something from getting out.

Or both.

That was when he realized, this was no administrative hall.

This place was built for rituals. And it was built to ensure that nothing, not even the cries of those within, would ever reach the outside world.

Ethan was dragged deeper into the building, down a narrow hallway lit by torches mounted against the stone walls.

The flickering flames cast long shadows, making the place feel colder than it was. The deeper they went, the thicker the air felt, like it hadn't been breathed in years.

A guard shoved open a thick metal door at the end of the corridor.

"Inside."

Before Ethan could say anything, a boot struck his back, sending him stumbling forward into the cell.

The door clanged shut behind him.

He straightened slowly, brushing dust from his clothes. The cell was larger than he expected. The walls were made of smooth black stone, cold to the touch.

The only light came from a small barred window near the ceiling, barely enough to see by. And then he noticed them.

Two men. Two women.

All four were seated in separate corners of the cell. All four had their arms bound by thick, gray stone cuffs linked to the wall by short chains.

It was the same for him.

The cuffs looked heavy, too heavy for ordinary metal, but none of them tried to struggle. None

They just sat there.

Still. Silent. As if they were drained of energy.

'Wait… something's not right. All of them are Vessels. They should've been able to break free from those chains easily. Unless…'

His thoughts caught on a possibility.

In every story he'd read, every powerful being always had a counter. A flaw. A weakness.

He stared at the stone cuffs again. They weren't just thick for show. The material looked ancient, almost unnatural.

Its surface was rough, and dull in color, but there was a strange shimmer when the torchlight touched it. Not metal. Not ordinary rock either.

'That stone… it's not just for binding. It's suppressing them.'

His pulse quickened.

'If I can figure out what kind of stone that is, maybe I can use it. Maybe it's the key to taking down the LaRues.'

He shifted his gaze back to the others.

Their faces were pale. Their eyes were empty. But the emptiness wasn't from physical pain, it ran deeper. It was the look of people who had been stripped of their strength, their hope.

They weren't just prisoners.

They were broken pieces, waiting to be used.

And Ethan was now among them. For now.

After the guards walked away and the heavy iron door slammed shut, silence returned to the cell.

Ethan waited for the faint hum of footsteps to fade completely before moving. He took a slow breath, then stood up.

Despite the cuffs, he didn't feel weakened. His energy, his connection to his core, it was all still intact.

He stepped closer to one of the men chained to the wall. The man didn't flinch or move. He just sat there, head slightly lowered, as if still processing the reality around him. Ethan activated his Divine Eyes.

This man was a Lower Three-Star. That took Ethan by surprise.

"A Lower Three-Star?" he muttered.

That man was as strong as Duran and still be chosen as one of the candidates for the sacrifice.

Ethan studied him. The man had dark, earth-toned skin, and patches of his arms looked like they were carved from granite. His body was built like a boulder, rough and solid. His eyes, however, were distant, lost.

The second man sat beside him, younger and leaner. He had long silvery hair that fell past his shoulders.

'Higher Two-Star...'

Ethan turned his eyes toward the two women chained in the far side of the cell.

The first woman was a Lower Three-Star, sitting cross-legged, her back straight, posture calm despite the grim surroundings.

She was tall, maybe in her late twenties, with a proud face and sharp amber eyes that glinted like shards of polished stone. Her skin had a bronzed hue, and her hair was pulled back into a tight braid that exposed the strong line of her jaw.

'Pretty strong, too. Only me and even the real Alden are the weak ones here.'

The second woman was different. She was lighter in frame, with shoulder-length black hair that draped softly around her face. She looked no older than Ethan himself, maybe a few years younger.

Her eyes were a cool blue, but they didn't meet him when he looked. However, she could be considered strong. She was a Higher Two-Star.

She was trembling slightly, hands resting on her knees. Her breaths came slowly, deliberately, as if she was trying not to be noticed.

Ethan stepped back slightly, absorbing the reality of it all.

Four powerful Vessels, all bound. All chosen.

Before he could think further, a low voice cut through the silence.

"What are you staring at?" said the man with stone-like arms. He raised his head, his voice rough and dry. "You don't know what kind of place this is?"

Ethan blinked, then nodded. "I do. That's why I'm not planning to stay here for long."

The other three finally turned to look at him. Quiet, unsure. Disbelief written on every face.

The younger woman with wind in her veins narrowed her eyes. "Are you stupid?" she asked flatly. "You think you can just walk out of here? With your power?"

She raised her arms and shook the cuffs.

"This here is Drakiel Stone," she said, her tone sharp. "If you've never heard of it, you're either not from Anterra, or just a lucky idiot."

Ethan didn't mind her language. He was hoping to learn more from her.

"Because if you were raised around here, you'd know this is the kind of stone that eats through Vessel power like sand through a storm," she added.

Ethan's eyes flashed slightly.

Drakiel Stone… That was it.

That was the name.

He didn't let it show, but inside, something clicked. He could search for this material later. Carry it back to Earth through the Inventory in the Unlimited System.

He didn't know if it was possible to bring material from Anterra into his world, but if the system treated it as an item, it should be possible.

He had only tested to keep things he received from Hera in the Inventory and so far, it hadn't rejected any.

Before he could process that thought any further, the silver-haired man leaned against the wall and spoke, his voice calm but tired.

"You do know that this entire cell is built from Drakiel too, right? It's not just the cuffs. The walls. The floor. Even the ceiling. They built this place to keep us in… permanently."

Ethan didn't reply right away.

Instead, he let himself lean back against the wall, head slightly tilted upward.

From anyone's eyes, he looked like a fool.

But inside, he was grinning.

This world is being way too generous with me. Drakiel Stone… a place soaked in it. I just need time. A little more time.

One more day. That was all he needed.

Then he would move.

He would mess with the ritual.

And he would return to Earth.