Infernal Entity: Evolving With My Demonic System-Chapter 68: How Strong

Axel was still passed out, but he heard voices before he felt anything else.

"Get me intel on this kid immediately..."

The words were distorted, like they were passing through water. His head pounded hard, each beat sending pain through his skull. His eyes felt heavy and stuck, like opening them took more effort than it should.

"Open your eyes," Aurora urged inside his mind. "Now. I need to see where we are."

Axel tried to respond, but his thoughts felt slow and scattered. His body wouldn’t listen right away. Still, he forced his eyes open.

The world came into focus in pieces. Cold white light hit him first, and his eyes landed on metal walls. He was in a small room that smelled faintly of oil and disinfectant.

He tried to move, but chains rattled.

"The hell..."

Axel looked down and saw thick restraints locked around his wrists and ankles, binding him to a metal chair bolted into the floor. He tensed and pulled hard. The chains didn’t budge, not even a little.

"Mythic equipment?" he asked as he realized quickly. "This feels like a high-grade chain." There was no breaking out of these with brute strength, not at his current level.

Axel’s memories rushed back as he remembered the pressure he felt in his head. Mental suppression.

"So that’s how they got me," Axel muttered.

His system had tried to resist, but it had failed. Axel turned his head and froze.

Kinsey was there.

She was tied to a chair just like him. Her head was slumped forward, still unconscious. Her chest rose and fell slowly. She was alive, at least.

"This is bad," Aurora said flatly. "Very bad."

Before Axel could answer, the door slid open with a sharp metallic sound.

A female student walked in first. She wore a third-year badge, the Apex mark clearly visible on her collar. Apex 3. Her arms were covered in dark tattoos that ran from her shoulders down to her wrists, sharp lines and symbols mixed together. Her hair was short and dark, cut close to her head. Her eyes were calm, cold, and focused.

Three other male Apex students followed her in, spreading out behind her.

Their formation told Axel instantly who was in charge.

"Apex 3..." Aurora said quietly. "What did you do to get this kind of attention?"

"What do you mean what did I do? You’ve been with me all day, right?"

Axel swallowed and straightened as much as the chains allowed. He looked the girl in the eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked.

The female Apex student didn’t speak right away. She walked closer, her boots tapping softly against the floor, then stopped right in front of Axel. Her eyes moved over him slowly, not in a mocking way, but like she was studying an object she didn’t fully understand yet.

"I’ll start by saying this," she said calmly. "That was a good fight."

"You fought smart," she continued. "You stayed low and you didn’t panic. Usually, when people are going against the prince, they soil themselves, but you... you’re different. You used your size instead of fighting it. And most importantly..." her eyes narrowed a bit, "you ended the fight in one strike."

Axel already knew what she was talking about. From the way she spoke, he could tell she had watched everything.

"Usually," she went on, "when something like that happens, I assume cheating. Ability use. Hidden enhancement or something dirty."

She glanced at the chains on his wrists. "But this time, that wasn’t it. You couldn’t even break a simple chain."

"You probably don’t know this. Not many people do, but the cages are infused with a dampener, so... abilities are off the table."

The dampener was technology designed specifically for people with mutations.

It was built into the metal frame of the cage. Thin emitters were layered between reinforced plates, and they were invisible to the eye.

When activated, they released a controlled electromagnetic field that filled the entire fighting space. The field didn’t harm the body. Instead, it targeted the unstable energy patterns that mutant abilities relied on.

Not many people knew the cage had a dampener because the fighting pits officials wanted to know when someone tried to use an ability. It was a good way of catching defaulters.

The effect of the dampener only worked for people inside the cage. As soon as someone left the cage, the field stopped influencing their body.

That was why the underground pits used it.

Inside the cage, everyone was reduced to what they could do with their body alone.

Or at least, that was how it was supposed to work, but for some reason, Axel had bypassed it.

Something else also clicked in his head.

"That explains why the ID skill failed..."

But then another thought followed immediately.

"Then how did the stun work?"

Axel didn’t say it out loud. He didn’t have an answer, and he wasn’t about to expose himself.

The Apex crossed her arms and continued.

"The Orion Prince was undefeated in the underground pits. Not once did he lose. He wasn’t a Lumina. He was a Spectra 4, so can someone tell me how, in Mother Nature’s name, he lost to a freaking Lumina 3!"

"IN ONE FUCKING STRIKE TO THE HEAD!!!" she screamed, her voice bouncing off the walls of the room.

"She’s pissed... I like her," Aurora whispered.

"Look," Axel said. "I defeated the Orion Prince, fair and square. If there really was a dampener, how would I have cheated?" he pointed out.

"Have you freshmen started your Advancement Training?" she asked all of a sudden.

Axel raised a brow. "Uh... no. Why?" he asked.

"Well, if you’ve started your Advancement Training, it would have been justified. The training helps you grow stronger, so if you were a Lumina 3 today, you could be a Spectra the next day," she pointed out.

"Except, you haven’t done any training, so how did you get stronger?"

"I do my own personal training," Axel said flatly.

The girl stared at him for a long moment. Then she smiled faintly.

"Alright, fair enough... you’re going to show me just how strong you are..."