Khmerion.
A kingdom situated southwest of Emberlight.
Bordered by Siam to the west.
Flanked by Zyochea on the east and southern fronts.
Roughly five thousand kilometers from Emberlight’s capital, Ashara.
The next morning, Kael and Vale, leading several dozen agents from the Affairs Bureau, boarded a supersonic transport.
The flight took just under three hours.
By mid-afternoon, they were soaring above the mist-laden expanse of Genga Forest, deep in Khmerion territory.
With a hiss of hydraulics, the rear cabin bay slowly opened, unfolding into a ramp of reinforced metal.
“We’re here,” Vale said calmly.
He rose from his seat, turning to address the fully equipped rapid response unit in the cabin.
“Everyone, prepare for descent.”
“Hold up.”
Kael stood, a crooked grin spreading across his face.
“I’ll give them a little warm-up first. You can drop in after.”
“You!” Vale’s brow twitched, but before he could say more, Kael was already in motion.
He shot forward like a thunderbolt, leaping out of the open ramp and vanishing into the clouds below.
WHOOSH!
He plummeted like a bullet through the troposphere, tearing through clouds as his eyes flared with dangerous light.
Below him, the vast forest stretched out endlessly, veiled in toxic miasma.
FWOOOOM!
As the ground approached at terrifying speed, Kael suddenly thrust both feet downward.
BANG!!
The air exploded behind him in a concussive blast as he accelerated like a meteor streaking toward the surface, trailing lethal intent like a tail of fire.
The earth loomed closer.
Closer.
Closer.
With razor-sharp vision, Kael scanned the terrain far below.
A training compound came into focus: Black Skull base. Hundreds of meters down.
There, on the open field, over a hundred armed operatives in combat gear were gathered for drills.
ROOAARRR!!
Kael bellowed mid-fall, unleashing a concentrated shockwave of pure sonic force.
It howled downward like a physical blast.
BUZZ!!
The soldiers on the ground screamed, clutching their ears. Blood spurted from noses, eyes, and mouths. Some dropped instantly.
And then the ground itself trembled.
BOOM!!
Kael crashed down like an artillery shell.
A crimson aura, thick and pulsing like living plasma, surged outward from his body, radiating several meters in diameter.
He struck dead-center in the training field, and all within that radius were instantly vaporized, reduced to mist and shredded gore.
A moment later, jagged waves of golden-red Aether field slashed out in every direction.
The nearest fleeing operatives were torn to pieces, their bodies cleaved into twitching meat.
A brutal maelstrom of kinetic force, laced with malice, followed like a barrage of high-caliber fire, ripping through the remaining squads.
The entire area was engulfed in a rising haze of blood vapor and carnage.
Chaos erupted.
Within mere seconds, Kael alone had slaughtered seventy to eighty percent of the hundred-plus soldiers stationed there: enough manpower to suppress a small city.
Then, he turned.
Farther out across the field, another hundred Black Skull fighters, armed, shouting, and cursing, rushed toward him in fear and rage.
Kael sneered.
He stomped once.
BANG!!
The earth shook.
His form blurred as the air shattered and he launched forward like a warhead.
As Kael charged, the sheer force of his body stirred up a fierce gale, sending leaves scattering and branches cracking. Even the thick trees on both sides of the path groaned under the pressure, their foliage erupting into a chaotic storm.
“Who goes there?!”
“We’re under attack! Enemy incoming!”
“Damn, he’s fast!”
The Black Skull troops roared in alarm, baring their teeth like beasts. In unison, they raised their weapons and opened fire.
CLATTER-CLATTER-CLATTER-CLATTER!
A hail of bullets screamed through the air, closing in on Kael like a swarm of hornets.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Sparks exploded across Kael’s body as the rounds slammed into him, but he didn’t flinch. He didn’t even bother activating his aura. No dodging, no deflection: he simply let them hit.
And yet, none of them could pierce his flesh.
At his current level, not even anti-materiel sniper rounds could penetrate his defenses. These basic firearms? Utterly meaningless.
Unless someone hit him with hundreds of machine guns all at once, or field-clearing monstrosities like Gatling cannons, modern weapons held no threat.
For someone like Kael, a monster-tier martial artist whose raw strength approached a thousand tons and who could break the sound barrier in a few steps, assault rifles and submachine guns might as well be toy guns.
Just then, a flicker of warning sparked in his instincts.
Danger.
Kael reacted instantly, launching himself backward with blinding speed.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Four bone-white spikes sliced through the air where he had just stood. They appeared from nowhere: silent and sudden.
His eyes tracked them midair.
Each spike was finger-thick, with a murky black coating along the tips. The ground where they struck hissed violently, bubbling and rotting as it caved in around the impact sites.
"Poison?"
Kael’s gaze swept the area coldly.
Besides the Black Skull mercenaries still unloading bullets at him, there were no visible enemies.
"Stealth?"
Narrowing his eyes, he sharpened his senses, tapping into his surroundings with razor precision. Then, without warning, he slammed a foot into the ground.
CRACK!
Rock and earth exploded outward.
With a single pivot, Kael spun and swept his leg in a devastating arc.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Dozens, no, hundreds of shattered rock shards blasted outward, each one infused with crushing force.
They tore through the enemy soldiers like hot knives through meat. Bodies were punctured and skulls shattered. Blood sprayed like burst paint bags as they dropped, lifeless.
Suddenly, a shimmer in the air appeared.
A blurred shape leapt sideways, part man and part beast, skin shifting like liquid glass as it tried to flee through the chaos.
"A chameleon, huh? Interesting."
Kael chuckled, spreading his fingers wide.
FWOOSH!
A massive golden-red claw, half-solid and half-ether, materialized in the air. It split the atmosphere with a low thunder, sweeping across hundreds of meters in a single motion, aimed straight at the fleeing predator.
But just as it surged forward...
SHRICKK!
A sudden eruption of dark purple Blackthorn vines burst from the ground beneath him, wrapping and coiling tightly around his limbs and torso like a living net.
"Out of my way!"
Kael snarled, his face contorting into a feral mask as deadly streams of energy burst out from every pore.
The thorned vines shredded into confetti, the violent force scouring four to five meters deep into the rocky terrain below.
Buried beneath the surface, a thin, shadow-skinned figure had only enough time to scream halfway before his flesh was stripped from bone. What remained was little more than a shattered skeleton.
Simultaneously, the hidden superpower user who’d launched the bone spikes didn’t fare any better: the massive Aether claw caught him mid-flight and crushed his entire body into pulp.
Kael, standing in the silence that followed, calmly turned to leave.
At that moment, a sudden wave of killing intent struck.
Kael’s sword-like eyebrows twitched. He quickly turned his head and raised his arm.
BANG!!!
A thunderous crash echoed through the air.
A towering, brown-skinned man, at least two meters tall, stomped down from the sky with a thunderous fist, big as a grown man’s head, aimed straight at Kael.
But he caught it, effortlessly.
The impact between the two sent a shockwave blasting outward, kicking up a storm of dust and debris across the field.
The dozen or so armed soldiers rushing in with rifles were instantly thrown off their feet, sent tumbling dozens of meters away like leaves in a gale.
That brute was Sheng.
He had thought that with his terrifying strength, over 200 tons, he could turn this unknown intruder into a pool of blood with one hit.
But to his shock, the man had blocked him head-on.
And not only that: he looked perfectly calm.
Kael narrowed his eyes, then smirked.
"Is that all? You’re still a few tons short."
Without warning, he lifted his right arm and slammed his left elbow straight into Sheng’s body.
“What?!”
Sheng’s eyes widened in disbelief.
In that instant, an unimaginable force surged through him, like a tsunami crashing down, a mountain collapsing upon his chest.
“No!”
BANG!
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
A chorus of bone-snapping sounds rang out as Sheng’s body was launched into the sky like a ragdoll, crashing deep into the distant forest, screaming in agony.
Just then, Vale, commander of the rapid response unit, arrived at full speed.
The moment he touched down, he let out a frustrated groan.
“You little gremlin! Ignoring protocol again! I told you we needed to train the soldiers, not slaughter them!”
“Heh heh heh heh.”
Kael scratched his head sheepishly, then burst into laughter.
"Sorry, couldn’t help myself."
Then, he swept his gaze across the surroundings.
“Master told us to capture Ling. Did you”
He suddenly paused mid-sentence.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
With a burst of gentle force, he pushed Vale and his team backward, shoving them dozens of meters away from his position.
Then, he turned around, arm already raised.
BANG!!
The air trembled violently.
Sheng had returned.
But now he looked different: his entire body was wrapped in bulging, dark red muscles, grotesque and unnatural.
His strength had at least tripled.
HSSSSHHH
Twin jets of steam hissed from his nostrils as he growled: “Who the hell are you? You even defeated my Demon King form?!”
Kael scoffed.
“Demon King, my ass.”
"A two-bit brute who dies with a single slap, seriously? You call that a Demon King?"
Those words hit deep.
Sheng’s twisted, grotesque face contorted even more, veins bulging with fury.
He let out a guttural, deranged laugh.
“Good… good... GOOD! I don’t care who you are anymore! I’ll tear you apart myself!!”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
With that, a pair of thick, muscular wings unfurled from his back. With a roar, he blasted into the air.
Simultaneously, dozens of bloated, pulsating muscle-lumps erupted across his back and shoulders: each one twitching, writhing, before morphing into crimson muscle propellers, each the size of a soccer ball, buzzing menacingly through the air.
But before Sheng could even launch his next move:
Vale moved.
He raised his massive spear, slamming it down with explosive force.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Seventeen, eighteen jets of deep black energy shot out like thunderbolts.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Each one struck true, ripping through the air and smashing every single muscle propeller mid-flight, scattering chunks of warped flesh and steam.
Upon seeing that unremarkable old man, someone he’d never once taken seriously, effortlessly swat away his much-anticipated ultimate killing move like brushing aside a few pesky mosquitoes, Sheng froze.
That relaxed, leisurely posture, the dark, oppressive aura, those chilling green eyes:
Suddenly, a flood of memories surged within him, and recognition dawned.
Eyes wide in disbelief, he gasped: “You… You’re Dreadlance Vale?!”
“Ah~ Not bad,” Vale replied with a dry cackle, turning his head slightly to glance at him.
“Wherever I go, someone always recognizes this old lady. Hah, feels like I still matter.”
“Tch.”
Kael clicked his tongue in mild irritation. Without warning, his figure blurred, cutting through a hundred meters of air in an instant. He appeared right beside the stunned Sheng and slapped him across the face, hard, dragging him down like a comet from mid-air.
BOOM!!
The earth shuddered under the impact.
Sheng hit the ground like a sack of bricks, blood gushing from his seven orifices, his mind spinning in chaos.
BANG!!
Another slap.
The sound echoed like a thunderclap.
Kael withdrew his hand, crouched down beside the wrecked body, and asked curiously:
“Hey. Where’s your boss, Ling?”
Sheng gasped for air but gave no reply.
His eyes were locked on Vale, who was now slowly walking over behind Kael, hands clasped casually behind his back, his presence deathly quiet.
And that was when Sheng realized:
The leader’s judgment had been wrong.
Terribly wrong.
These two: these two were merely Seraphine’s disciples.
And yet their power:
Then what about Seraphine himself?
How terrifying must she be?!
Could the rumors of that apocalyptic battle in Ashara actually be true?
The ruins, scarred and torn like they'd been struck by a hydrogen bomb, were they real too?!
“Damn it! The intel the leader got… it was all wrong!”
BANG!!
Another slap. This one carried so much force it seemed meant to twist Sheng’s head clean off his shoulders.
Head throbbing, Sheng finally stammered: “The... the leader’s already left. I, I don’t know where he went!”
Kael’s brow twitched.
“Your heart rate’s spiking. You're lying.”
BANG!!
Another resounding blow.
“Gah!”
Sheng spat out a dozen shattered, blood-slick teeth, eyes wide with panic. Then, with a surge of desperation, his voice turned feral: “Do you fools even realize?! What you’re seeing now is just the tip of Black Skull’s power!”
"We still have hundreds of assassins scattered across the world! As soon as the leader gives the word"
BANG!!
Kael slapped him again, more annoyed than angry now.
He clicked his tongue.
“Talk all you want. Doesn’t mean a thing. Just tell me where Ling is or I’ll kill you. Simple as that.”
“Hah... ha ha!”
Sheng let out a bloody laugh.
“Death? You think death scares me? Men of the Khmerion Kingdom have more courage in their bones than you Emberlight cowards could ever understand!”
At that, Vale—who had been silent the entire time—let out a soft chuckle and turned toward him.
“You’ve got spirit. I’ll give you that,” he said dryly.
“In that case,”
Without finishing the sentence, he flicked his fingers, sending a sliver of Dragonwave Crash shooting invisibly through the air and directly into Sheng’s body.
The effect was instant.
Sheng’s entire frame seized up, then collapsed into a spasm of uncontrollable, violent convulsions.
He rolled on the ground, howling in agony.
The force tore through his nerves like wildfire.
It wasn’t just pain. It was destruction, from the crown of his skull to the soles of his feet. It felt as if his entire being was being dissolved into ash, inch by inch, body and soul alike.
In his mind, it was as if he had plunged headlong into a sea made of blades and acid.
Slashing.
Burning.
Freezing.
Crushing.
Pricking.
A thousand agonies layered together, enough to erase thought.
Eventually, like a tide receding, the pain drew back.
And there Sheng lay, soaked in sweat, his face pale-green, unmoving.
A corpse in everything but breath.
Vale finally walked over, his footsteps calm, and leaned in.
His voice was soft, almost kind.
“Willing to talk now?”
“If not…”
"Talk! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!"
Sheng’s entire body trembled as he scrambled to his feet, then dropped to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly. Tears streamed down his face as he clasped his hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
"I’ll tell you everything, Grandpa! I’m begging you! Please, don’t torment me anymore! Uuuu... uuuu... please..."
"Good. Very good."
Vale nodded calmly. "Where did Ling go?"
After drawing several shaky breaths, Sheng confessed honestly:
"The boss… that Ling… before you got here, he’d already left for the airport. He’s heading north to Emberlight, planning to assassinate… assassinate… the Heir Apparent!"
"Huh?!!"
Vale and Kael exchanged glances.
For a long moment, they didn’t know whether to laugh or be furious.
How delusional could this Ling be?
He actually dared to attempt an assassination on their Master?
That wasn’t just reckless, it was insane. Like an ant trying to leap up and bite a god.
"In that case, you’ve outlived your usefulness."
Kael shook his head, lifted a finger, and casually flicked it toward Sheng’s forehead.
BANG!!
Sheng’s skull caved in with a sickening crack. Blood and brain matter burst from his seven orifices.
Dead.
...
Far to the north.
Within the Sapphire Science Research Institute in Jing City, Emberlight.
Seraphine, clad in a long white coat, casually accepted the phone from Yvienne. Holding it to her ear, she asked flatly:
"What is it?"
On the other end, Vale spoke with reverence:
"Master, we have successfully eliminated the Black Skull organization. In addition, we uncovered new intel..."
He proceeded to report in detail the attempted assassination plot orchestrated by Ling.
Seraphine listened silently, her expression as cold as ever.
"...Understood."
She ended the call without another word and handed the phone back to Yvienne.
Lowering her gaze, she turned to the operating table before her; a mangled body lay atop it.
It belonged to a young woman whose flesh and blood had been fused with cybernetic implants.
Formerly an elite agent of the Secret Service, now a spy for the Affairs Bureau—Selene.
"Both legs below the hips are entirely gone," Seraphine noted clinically. "Three major spinal fractures, a shattered skull, fourth-degree thermal burns."
"Sternum’s broken clean through, punctured the lungs. Over 80% surface damage to both."
Serena stepped forward, concern etched across her face. Her dark brows furrowed slightly.
"Your Highness… with injuries this severe, can she really be saved?"
Seraphine set down the case file, looked at the unconscious Selene, and gave a soft smile.
"The damage is substantial, yes. But don’t worry. I’ll give her a new life."
Serena disconnected the suspended cable line, hesitated for a second, then asked:
"Does that mean… you’re going to use it?"
Seraphine slipped her hands into her coat pockets.
"You’ve all seen the material from that superpower component extraction and implantation research, haven’t you?"
Serena nodded, still wide-eyed with disbelief.
"Yes, we saw it. That kind of tech, it’s beyond belief. It feels like something ripped out of the distant future, not of this era at all."
She looked at Seraphine with awe.
"Wait… could it be that you"
"No, no."
Seraphine shook her head lightly.
"That wasn’t my work. I acquired it from an overseas organization. One of my agents is embedded there."
"Overseas?"
Serena frowned in thought.
"They’re ahead in biotechnology… could it be Frankenstein Medical Group?"
Her eyes widened in shock.
"That group is insanely secretive! And they're notorious for never sharing tech. How did you"
"Heh."
Seraphine gave a small, knowing smile and said nothing.
In truth, Abram had been feeding her core confidential tech from Frankenstein for days now, secretly, through the Mind Suppression Seal.
Among them were:
Radiated bacteria synthesis technology.
Nuclear-energy artificial cell cultivation.
Rapid metal cell stamping protocols.
Protein micromachine manufacturing.
Advanced brain repair and maintenance systems.
Artificial heart 3D printing techniques.
And most importantly,
The Aurora Clan Superpower Component Extraction and Implantation Technology.
"The Sacred Zone Research Society really is a black-tech powerhouse," Seraphine murmured.
"Even in this timeline, where they couldn’t obtain the full remains of the Aurora Clan,"
"Just a minuscule sample of Vuron’s blood from the 【Ascension】 project was enough for them to crack superpower extraction and develop a working human-compatible fusion solution."
She sighed and shook her head.
"Unbelievable. The more I learn about them… the more I want to know."
She turned back to Serena and said calmly:
"Even if traditional treatments could keep Selene alive, she’d be crippled at best."
"So I’ll need to take a more radical approach."
Serena froze for a moment. Then her eyes widened.
"You mean… you’re going to initiate that plan?!"
Seraphine nodded.
"Yes. We’re going to activate the 【Titanium Soulform】 protocol."
"...Understood."
Serena’s pupils trembled slightly. Then she bowed and quickly left the lab to organize resources and personnel.
Seraphine, meanwhile, leaned down, whispering softly beside Selene’s sleeping form:
"Trust me. When you wake,"
"You’ll be someone entirely new."
...
Emberlight South, Zen City.
In the beating heart of Zen City, where every square meter of land is worth its weight in gold, there stood a vast, opulent manor.
Surrounding this manor was an expanse of green parkland. Lush, serene, and privately owned, every inch belonged to the Chur family.
That they could afford to claim so much space in such a prime area, constructing both elegant gardens and lavish villas, spoke volumes about the Chur family's overwhelming influence in Zen City.
And tonight, just after nightfall:
More than a dozen seasoned martial operatives had quietly slipped into the shadows. Concealed among the trees, they moved with disciplined silence, constantly shifting positions, suppressing their presence as they carefully surveilled the perimeter of the estate.
Hours passed.
At precisely 10:00 PM, more unidentified personnel arrived, quiet as ghosts, within the boundaries of the park. They were the Affairs Bureau’s mobile assault unit.
Their objective tonight: the complete eradication of the Chur family.
BZZZZZZ!
Over a dozen matte-black drones hovered into the air, gliding silently across the skies above the Chur manor. From top to bottom, they swept the grounds with infrared and heat-source scanners, mapping the terrain with pinpoint precision.
Ten minutes later:
All the scanned data streamed back to the command center. There, technical specialists fed the data into a simulation program, rapidly rendering a 3D model of the estate’s entire structure, including personnel distribution.
This model was then transmitted to the smart tactical interfaces worn on every soldier’s wrist. Each operative was clad in full tactical gear, identities completely obscured.
In the stillness, the field commander issued a single command through their terminals:
“Execute.”
The squad members stationed along the estate’s perimeter launched EMP grenades over the walls.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A rapid succession of dull explosions thundered through the park, followed by a surging electromagnetic pulse that swept across the grounds. In an instant, the estate's electricity grid, communications lines, surveillance systems, and all digital infrastructure were fried, reduced to scrap.
What was once a brightly lit garden now plunged into suffocating darkness.
“What’s going on?!”
“The power’s out! How?!”
“That’s impossible, how did we lose everything?!”
“The whole grid’s been fried! We’re blind!”
Chaos erupted within the manor.
And in that chaos, the Affairs Bureau's assault team infiltrated the garden. Guided by the dynamic maps on their smart interfaces, they began methodically eliminating the Chur family’s security forces.
In this pitch-black battlefield, the mobile squad’s full-spectrum digital night vision devices gave them godlike precision. Their enemies, scattered, uncoordinated, and panicking, were picked off one by one.
The few guards who had reached the Qi and Blood Realm were already marked in advance. These elite soldiers neutralized them using specialized tactics:
Shotguns for limb destruction and crowd control.
Sniper rifles for precision takedowns, cleanly blowing off arms or legs.
Light machine guns for area denial and suppression, turning ambush zones into slaughterfields.
The plan was cold, surgical, and brutally effective.
“AAAAHHH!!”
“Who the hell are you people?!”
“I’ll kill you all!”
“HELP, PLEASE!”
The garden became a theater of blood and screams. Agony echoed across the night sky.
...
Deeper within the estate, near the inner courtyard:
Xander and Meira fled in a panic, flanked by a few personal guards as they bolted toward the back gate.
Xander, pale-faced and sweating, spat out curses as he ran:
“Damn that filthy Taoist, vanished without a word! Completely useless bastard!”
He had been on edge for days now. Somehow, financial media had gotten their hands on leaked specs of the intelligent battle suit, and they wouldn’t stop fanning the flames.
The “Zenbach Armament Engineering leak” was plastered all over the headlines. As a result, the company’s stock had plummeted.
But worse: The Emberlight military, furious over the leak, had declared their partnership with the Chur family null and void.
Xander had tried multiple times to arrange an audience and plead their case, only to be stonewalled at every turn. Meanwhile, those infamous market sharks on the capital exchange, like bloodhounds scenting weakness, began relentlessly shorting Zenbach shares, tearing the company apart from the inside.
Now, everything had come crashing down at once. And Xander Chur was on the brink of collapse.
Amid the chaos in his mind, a small black object suddenly zipped past his eyes.
BOOM!
A massive shockwave erupted. In an instant, Xander, Meira, and several of their bodyguards dropped to the ground, screaming, clutching their ears in agony. Blood streamed from their noses and mouths as their bodies convulsed violently.
A stun grenade.
Then, through their ringing ears and blurry vision, a fully armed assault unit emerged: swift, precise, and surrounding them like a tightening noose.
"You! Who the hell are you?!"
Xander scrambled back on all fours, his voice trembling in terror.
THUD.
Something heavy landed before him. A severed head. Still fresh. Still bleeding. It was unmistakably Alec’s.
For a brief moment, Xander froze, his brain refusing to process what his eyes had just seen. Meira, on the other hand, let out a strangled shriek and threw herself at the head, clutching it to her chest in a frenzy.
“My son! AH! My son!”
Her wails were suddenly cut short. A large, gloved hand grabbed her by the hair and yanked her upward with brutal force.
“Target confirmed.”
A low, emotionless voice murmured by her ear.
“Meira, Her Highness sends her regards.”
The words stabbed deeper than the pain. Her scalp felt like it had been ripped from her skull, but it was that sentence, that voice, that snapped her back to reality. She released her grip on Alec’s head, which rolled away and thudded against the deck.
And then, in front of everyone, she broke. Laughing and crying all at once, she howled:
“HAHAHA… I was wrong! I was wrong!”
“Your Highness, please! Spare me! Spare the Chur family!”
“I shouldn’t have done it, I never should’ve hired Black Skull to kill you! It was all my fault! WAAAAAAH!”
Xander, stunned at first, suddenly understood. He heard everything. And in that instant: rage, grief, betrayal, all collided in his brain like a nuclear explosion.
“You filthy bitch!!!”
His eyes went bloodshot, veins popping. Like a man possessed, he launched himself at Meira, fists swinging wildly.
“You whore! You goddamned whore! You’ve destroyed the entire Chur family!”
Meira didn’t resist. She only laughed: delirious, broken. Even as her husband beat her face into a mess of blood and teeth.
The squad leader nearby glanced at the spectacle with cold indifference. He took out a phone and made the call.
Beep~
The line connected.
“Supervisor… target secured. Situation stable.”
A moment passed.
“Received.”
He ended the call. Then turned to his men and drew a finger across his throat. No words were needed. His squad understood.
One by one, they pulled out tactical daggers: blades sleek, matte, and gleaming faintly with violet light. In unison, they stepped forward.
They seized the couple, who were still locked in their grotesque domestic brawl, and slit their throats clean open.
BLOOD sprayed violently across the floor. The two flailed wildly, twitching and crawling like pigs being butchered during Lunar New Year. Their eyes bulged. Their mouths gurgled. They thrashed for a while, staining everything around them with crimson.
Then fell still. Lifeless.
Across the estate, the chaos finally stirred Zen City’s Patrol Division into motion.
“Move! Move!”
“Everyone! Let’s go!”
“Something’s happening at the Chur estate!”
The police scrambled toward the manor. But as Director Lior arrived at the mansion gates with his team, his phone rang. He answered in a rush, only to freeze halfway through the call.
“What?! You're telling me not to worry?!”
He nearly crushed the phone in his grip.
“There are armed killers inside committing mass murder, and you're telling me to stay calm?!”
His shouting silenced everyone around him. The Affairs Bureau’s mobile unit didn’t even flinch. They stood there: relaxed, composed, untouchable. That blatant arrogance, that unshakable confidence.
Lior was on the verge of exploding. But the voice on the other end of the call suddenly changed tone: low, tired, defeated.
“I’ll be honest with you, Lior. The order came from Ashara.”
Lior stiffened like a man struck by lightning.
“… Ashara?!”
“That’s right. One directive. One line.”
“What did it say?”
“This case… the Chur family... Never exist.”
Lior slowly lowered the phone, his expression blank.
...
Elsewhere.
Cloud City.
Sapphire Research Institute.
Riiing—riiing—
Yvienne picked up. She listened for a while, then calmly gave the command:
“All of them. Kill them.”
