Prime System Champion [A Multi-System Apocalypse LitRPG]

The "First Annual Ferra Sovereignty Tournament" wasn't just a series of fights and crafting competitions; it was a planetary festival.

Bastion was overflowing. The streets were crammed with merchants selling everything from spiced Leviathan skewers to low-tier mana-crystals. The air buzzed with a hundred different languages translated seamlessly by the System. We had delegations from all 47 Nexus points, even the neutral ones and Korg's lockdown zones — a lot more of the people living in the Iron Covenant's Territory came than what we had initially expected, most of them hoping to permanently relocate.

It was mostly due to the legal framework Jeeves has been working on with Lucas and the others. We made sure to add several sections in the deals and treaties signed in the Council that ensured the people the rights to freely move across cities and settlements. We really didn't want any Faction to start kidnapping people or holding hostages to use for their Cores or some other Kyorian inspiration. Ever since then, there have been constant waves of people looking towards the Void Star to set up their new lives.

I sat in the Sovereign's Box, currently ignoring the Tier 3 elemental-shaping competition to watch Anna's new Anima.

It was… aggressively adorable.

"Stop looking at her like that," Anna sighed, swatting my hand away as I tried to poke the tiny, glowing creature hovering near her shoulder.

The Anima, which Anna had happily named 'Tink' after a brief dive into pre-System human mythology, was similar to what we called a Sprite. The fact that she did not have a name like all of our other Anima was not the weirdest thing. She was also six inches tall, made of condensed light-mana and pollen, and possessed wings that looked like spun sugar. Tink was currently sitting on Anna's collarbone, furiously braiding a tiny strand of Anna's hair while emitting a soft, golden aura that passively accelerated ambient mana recovery by around 20%.

"I'm not looking at her weird," I defended, leaning closer. "I'm just trying to figure out exactly why Gluttony is trying to convince me she is edible. The Void-Star is also purring…"

Tink squeaked, a sound like a tiny bell, and hid behind Anna's ear.

"Don't eat Tink!" Eliza scolded from the next seat, adjusting her spectacles. "She's fascinating. A pure manifestation of Life and Light affinity, completely bypassing the aggressive nature of the local mana. Does she have any offensive capabilities, Anna?"

"No," Anna said proudly. "She's purely a support. Grover handles the defense and crowd control anyways."

Grover's evolution had been dramatic following Anna's evolution into Tier 6 at the Zenith.

He wasn't a walking tree-golem anymore. He had taken root.

Specifically, he had rooted himself deep beneath Anna's personal Sanctum in Silverwood Reach. He was now a massive, sentient World-Tree Sapling. His root network spanned the entire underground of the city, acting as a secondary, organic defense grid.

But he wasn't stuck there. Sitting on the table in front of us was a 'Mini-Grover' — a bonsai-sized wooden figure holding a tiny shield. Through some localized Essence-based quantum-tunneling linked to Anna's soul (or something like that), Mini-Grover could access the main root network, allowing him to suddenly erupt massive, Tier 6 reinforced roots from the ground anywhere within a few hundred meters of Anna to block attacks or bind enemies.

"It's a very solid setup," Lucas commented, not taking his eyes off the main arena below. "Tank, Healer, and Damage Dealer all in one package. Your stealth is good enough for scouting too but a good Perception focused addition would round up your squad."

"Speak of the devil," I said, leaning forward. "Silas is up."

The Tier 5 Quarterfinals. The Leadership Bracket.

Silas, dressed in sleek, Void-leather armor, stepped into the ring. His opponent was Korg's Lieutenant — Voros.

Voros was a mountain of a man, encased in heavy, rune-etched iron plate, wielding a massive steam-powered hammer. He looked like he could walk through a wall.

The match started.

Voros roared, "[Iron Avalanche]!" He swung the hammer. The kinetic force sent a shockwave across the arena, shattering the stone floor and creating a wave of debris aimed at Silas.

Silas didn't block. He didn't even try to parry.

He used a form of [Shadow-Step], but it clearly changed.

It wasn't just a teleport. His new technique, born from his Zenith training, was terrifying. He appeared directly behind Voros, but the space he left behind didn't just become empty — it left a river of frost.

"[Absolute Zero Wake]."

The kinetic wave hit the patch of space Silas had occupied and shattered into harmless snow.

Voros spun, bringing the hammer around in a wide arc.

Silas parried. Not with a dagger, but with a spike of solid black ice that grew instantly from his palm. The impact rang out, but Silas used the force to flip over Voros, landing lightly on the brute's shoulder.

He tapped the joints of Voros's armor with his daggers.

"Get off me, insect!" Voros roared, reaching up.

Silas vanished, reappearing ten feet away.

"You missed," Silas smirked.

Voros tried to charge, but his armor locked up. The joints were encased in black, void-infused ice. The steam from his hammer hissed as it hit the cold, turning the arena into a foggy mess.

Silas walked forward leisurely, the fog parting around him. He pressed a dagger against the frozen seam of Voros's neck-plate.

"Yield," Silas whispered.

Voros, completely immobilized and shivering violently, gritted his teeth.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I… I yield."

The crowd erupted.

"Clean," I nodded approvingly. "He didn't waste an ounce of mana. Just exploited the thermal weakness of the opponent's heavy plate."

"Freja is up next," Anna noted, checking the bracket. "Against the Solar Ascendancy champion. This should be bright."

While the tournament raged during the day, my nights were spent on the grind.

Between managing the events, I was portaling across the globe. We had 25 Towers. The core team had cleared them to Floor 60 with my Anima's support and supervision, establishing forward bases and extraction zones.

I was taking them to 80.

Nexus Delta-15. Nexus Delta-22. Nexus Delta-41.

It was a systematic, brutal schedule. I [Void Walked] through the mid-tier floors, annihilating Guardians with practiced efficiency, and claiming the resource maps. We were stockpiling High-Yield ore, rare elemental cores, tough resistant hides, spiritual herbs, Essence dense food, fruit and exotic flora faster than Leoric and Eliza could process them.

"The treasury is sitting at roughly thirty million Quintessence Shards in liquid assets and refined materials, also accounting for Leoric's crafts that currently do not have an assigned user," Jeeves reported one evening as I reviewed the ledgers.

"Good," I said. "Keep saving. My personal bank is at twelve million. Kasian mentioned the Celestial Auction requires a minimum of one hundred million QS just to trigger the invitation. If I want to use my ticket and be able to afford anything, I still need to be richer, a lot richer."

But the real work always came back to Nexus Delta-04. Floor 100.

I returned to the Golden Gate every time the [Glimpse] cooled down.

Vasud of the Bandha was waiting.

Glimpse Run 14.

I tried pure speed. I used my Time integrated [Void Walk] to constantly short-jump around his attacks. It worked for ten minutes, until he used a Domain Expansion that removed the concept of 'Distance' in the room, forcing me into melee range where his six weapons shredded me.

Glimpse Run 22.

I focused on defense, layering [Syntropy] and [Armory] shields. He countered by using his Book to cast a spell that aged my mana constructs into dust, bypassing physical durability entirely.

Every death was a lesson in Authority.

I realized I wasn't fighting a monster; what I was fighting was akin to an operating system. Vasud's power came from absolute, rigid control of his environment. He didn't adapt; he dictated.

"He's a copy," I reasoned, meditating in the safe zone after Run 28. "He has Tier 9 output, but he doesn't have a real Inner World, so it makes it actually possible to fight him. His Authority is broad but shallow. It's drawn from the Tower's database, not a living soul."

I checked my status to confirm my skill evolution.

[Skill Evolution Complete: Armory of the Ashen Soul (Epic) -> Vault of the Void (Legendary).]

[Description: Constructs manifested from the Vault now possess localized conceptual density. They do not merely exist; they assert their existence against opposing Domains. Capable of storing and instantly deploying complex, multi-layered mana-constructs that maintain their structure much more efficiently within the Void.]

It worked.

"I have four Mythics," I whispered, looking at the glowing skills. "Domain. Veil. Hunger. Syntropy. And now three Legendaries derived from the same source: Void Walk, Void Perception, and Vault of the Void."

The idea was reckless. Combining skills usually required a unique System Quest through an epiphany granted by the Prime itself. Trying to force three Legendaries to fuse with a Mythic Foundation was extremely unlikely. Making it four instead, and integrating [Mana Authority] into the final outcome should technically be impossible.

But I lived for such challenges.

"If I can combine the movement of the Walk, the sight of the Perception, the creation of the Vault and the dictation of the Authority… all fueled by the storages within the Hunger…"

I would create my fifth Mythic. And have three extra slots to work with.

I stood up, shaking off the fatigue of the previous simulation.

"Only a few more Glimpses and I should be ready," I muttered, stretching my arms.

I engaged the Glimpse a few days later.

I stood on the plasma star. Vasud opened his galaxy eyes.

"What are your intentions?" the Ascendant construct asked, his six arms readying their weapons.

"I'm stubborn," I replied.

I didn't summon a sword this time.

I activated the [Vault of the Void].

Instead of weapons, I summoned thousands of black, geometric shapes — dense cubes of concentrated Void-Mana — and scattered them throughout the arena.

Vasud attacked, a wave of liquid fire from his chalice.

"Perception," I commanded.

I didn't look at the fire. I looked at the Lattice holding it together.

"Authority."

I dictated the rule.

"Movement."

I didn't move my body. I moved the cubes.

The thousands of Void-Cubes instantly swapped positions with the pockets of space containing the fire-mana. The attack was fragmented, teleported into the cubes, and instantly consumed by the [Hunger] embedded within them.

The fire vanished.

Vasud paused, his arms halting mid-swing.

"A novel application of Spatial Substitution," the construct analyzed.

"I call it rearranging the furniture," I grinned.

I went on the offensive. I didn't try to hit him; I tried to hit the space around him.

I teleported the cubes rapidly, creating a cage of Void-density that his weapons couldn't penetrate. Every time he tried to use an area-wipe or a gravity crush, I used [Apex Mana Authority] to shift the effect into the cubes, feeding my reserves.

For the first time, I was pushing him back, albeit very slowly. The plasma star under our feet flickered as I drained the ambient mana to power the cage.

His movements became rigid. The lag between weapon switches became noticeable.

"Got you," I thought, preparing to collapse the cage and crush him.

Then, Vasud stopped.

He lowered his weapons.

"Ah, how wonderful," the hollow voice echoed. "The Gray."

The singularity orb in his chest didn't just explode this time. It inverted.

It didn't erase the room or anything physical for that matter; it erased the concept of Mana.

A wave of absolute, terrifying silence washed over me. It bypassed the Veil. It ignored the Domain. It didn't deal damage.

I wasn't sure if it turned off my own connection to mana, or somehow removed the existence of mana itself within its Domain.

My cubes dissolved. My constructs sputtered out. My connection to the Lattice felt a lot more distant.

I fell to the floor, feeling heavier than I ever had in my life.

Vasud walked forward, his spear raised.

"Authority over words written is meaningless without the ink to write," the construct said.

He drove the spear through my chest.

The Glimpse shattered.

I gasped, waking up on Floor 99, clutching my chest where the phantom spear had hit.

"Anti-Magic," I wheezed, staring at the Golden Gate. "Absolute, Tier 9 Concept Erasure. He just… uninstalled me."

I lay back on the cold stone, staring at the ceiling, my mind racing.

It was devastating. It felt unfair.

And it was exactly what I needed to see.

"You can't erase what isn't there," I whispered, a slow grin spreading across my face.

The puzzle was complete. I just needed to put the pieces together.

The next time I stepped through that gate, I planned on winning.