I Am a Hero With A Hundred Abilities
Chapter 91 - 91: Ch 90. Forced Initiation

Kairo Draeven had always been different.

Even as a child, he saw the world through a lens of superiority. While others laughed, struggled, or reached for friendship, Kairo observed with cold detachment.

Everyone was beneath him. Insignificant. Inconsequential. Playthings wandering in a world that he alone was meant to shape.

This twisted worldview only deepened when he awakened.

The moment his Aether Factor emerged and his ability to control space manifested, it became a divine confirmation of what he already believed:

He was untouchable.

His ability was the perfect extension of his ego—a power that let him bend reality to his will, folding the space around him to ensure that no one he deemed unworthy could ever land a hit. No one could touch him, much less hurt him.

But now…

Here he stood, one eye bleeding, clutching it in his trembling hand—injured by someone he had dismissed as unworthy from the beginning. Sophia Lancaster.

He stared at her with his good eye, rage slowly twisting his features. Sophia stood calmly across the ring, poised and silent, watching him. She hadn't moved. She knew better than to rush an unstable opponent. Especially one like Kairo.

Then the murmuring started.

"You made me bleed… you made me bleed… you made me bleed…"

The whisper turned to a growl. The growl twisted into a scream:

"HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME BLEED!!"

BOOM.

A violent surge of Meta Essence erupted from Kairo's body, far stronger than anything he had previously shown. The ground cracked beneath him as invisible waves distorted the air around the ring.

Sophia's expression hardened.

"Just as I thought… he was hiding something."

But the way the Meta Essence was moving… it wasn't normal. It twisted. Coiled. Focused. Not like an attack—but like something summoning, something binding.

Then her eyes widened in horror.

"He can't be doing that… not here!"

Gasps echoed through the audience. Some contestants stood, faces pale. A few took an unconscious step back from the ring.

Kairo's body trembled, the Meta Essence warping violently around him, swirling like a vortex being ripped from another plane.

Ethan, however, was confused.

"Why is everyone acting like this? What's going on?"

He could feel the energy in the air. It was intense, but… familiar. Something about it tugged at his memory, at his instincts.

And then it clicked.

"Wait… this feels like… when the Sanctum gives me my ability…"

Suddenly, the arena exploded in radiant light.

A column of blinding brilliance shot upward from the ring, engulfing Kairo and Sophia. It was like a miniature sun had ignited within the coliseum, forcing spectators to shield their eyes.

Ethan's eyes narrowed.

Inside the light, Sophia braced herself, sweat beading on her brow.

And standing at the center of it all was Kairo, laughing madly, arms outstretched—his form beginning to shift, the space around him warping unnaturally as if the laws of the world were bending just for him.

Something dangerous was being born.

****

In the world of awakened heroes, cultivating an ability was more than just a matter of will—it was a delicate and rigorous process grounded in the manipulation of Meta Essence, the life-force energy that governed all supernatural growth.

To cultivate an ability, a hero had to store Meta Essence within a special, naturally forming node deep within their body. This node eventually evolved into what was known as a Cortex—an orb-like construct that served as the core of an ability.

Ability were Ranked from Weakest to Strongest:

Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic and Divine

The process always began at the Common level. As the hero poured more condensed Meta Essence into their cortex and reached higher personal levels, the cortex could be upgraded—shifting from one rank to the next. But mere energy was not enough.

Each rank required the hero to be strong enough to handle the power.

For example, a Level 1 hero could never cultivate a Divine ability. Their body, spirit, and mind would be torn apart by the burden.

Only by ascending in level—becoming stronger and more attuned to Meta Essence—could one cultivate higher-ranked abilities.

Now for Kairo's situation he was currently a Level 7 Grandmaster standing at the peak of what most humans could attain before transcending to the highest tiers of power.

At that level, it was indeed possible for him to cultivate an ability of Legendary rank, though not Mythic or Divine.

He had been cultivating a Legendary-rank ability in secret, slowly feeding his cortex with powerful Meta Essence and shaping the orb to completion.

But then Sophia injured him.

Someone he deemed utterly beneath him—an insect in his world—had drawn blood. His mind cracked under the weight of his pride, and his ego couldn't take it. His arrogance refused to wait.

So he made a dangerous choice:

He initiated the ability prematurely.

This process, known as Forced Initiation, was forbidden for a reason. If an ability was used before the cortex fully matured, it came with a cost—

the ability would burn out and vanish forever after a set time.

The hero would have to start from scratch, re-cultivating from the Common rank.

But Kairo didn't care.

Sophia had made him bleed so she had to pay."

As the white light receded from the arena, Kairo was no longer human in form.

His body had mutated under the strain of forced power:

Green tendrils of energy snaked around his limbs, twitching unnaturally.

His good eye had become bloodshot, filled with twisted fury.

His once short black hair had become long and spiked, waving with unstable energy.

And most terrifying of all—his presence had changed. He radiated a suffocating killing intent focused solely on Sophia.

"This... isn't just power," Sophia thought, her hands tightening on her blade.

"This is obsession."

Kairo smiled—wild, unhinged, broken—and in the blink of an eye, he vanished.

Sophia immediately raised her guard, but Kairo reappeared instantly in front of her. His fist, cloaked in warped space and raw Meta Essence, was just inches from her face.

That was all he needed.

BOOM!

The space between them rejected her presence—a side effect of Kairo's warped spatial control—and Sophia was violently repelled, her body crashing against the very edge of the arena.

Before she could even recover, Kairo followed up, stepping through a ripple in the air as he prepared his next devastating strike, the arena warping around him like he was its master.

The real fight had just begun.

And Kairo…

Intended to make Sophia pay at all costs.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.