Ten minutes later...

Mere minutes had passed, yet it felt like a lifetime. Arnold was restless, and rightfully so. There was nothing more he could do for now. He felt if one could sit in a manner that transmitted a sense of grace and intelligent poise, he had mastered it. So had Johnny, who's broken hand was completely healed now. Alice did an excellent job. If there was going to be a war, Johnny was an inevitable part of it. So were Kolt and Steve.

​​

The family members too were getting ready, equipping top tier gears which Arnold provided to them. Some were excited, some nervous, hell, some were scared shitless yet they decided to answer Arnold's call and fight side by side. All to protect the citizens.

There was only one problem Arnold was facing now: the lack of intel. He didn't know where the enemies were, nor did he know how many of them they'd have to fight. All he knew was, they were Los Angeles' first and last line of defence. If they couldn't stop the enemies in time, all hell would break loose and then they wouldn't be able to bear the guilt of not doing anything while they had the chance to.

Moments ago, the room had been bustling with noise but now a creepy silence surrounded it. Arnold had sent all of the summons to find as many of the white wolves as they could and bring them back alive. Even if Sebastian didn't know everything, they someone else had to. He had finished interrogating a couple of them a while ago and they were clueless about the entire ordeal. He had to be pretty rough with them, but he didn't care. It was something that was needed to be done. No matter how strong they were, the lack of intel was worrying and needed his immediate and undivided attention.

"Nina should've reached the headquarters by now..." Arnold mumbled to himself, "let's say it'll take around 10 minutes for her to explain the situation to them. Then, 5 more minutes should be more than enough to scan the entire city. The only problem was, she wouldn't be able to provide any of us with any information until the communication is re-established from our side."

But he also knew he had done whatever he could at this point. Now he could just sit in a corner and hope everything would work out in the end.

'Hope. The never-ending source of courage. The members of the family needed it more than me right now.'

Every Johnny was gloomy. This all brought back memories from years ago when they failed to control the dungeon break in Florida. The country barely managed to survive that incident and was divided into two parts as a result. He was certain they won't be able to handle it once again. He was supposed to be the world's strongest brawler, yet he couldn't help but feel pathetic at that moment. If enemies were in front of him, he could fight them tooth and nail, but his enemies were hidden away. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Before long, the golems returned with a couple of more attackers. Arnold sighed and pointed his head towards the room that had become his 'palace of pain'. He needed information. He couldn't afford to waste time in thinking whether his methods were correct or not. This time, however, it was different. There was a young woman among the captives. She was probably in her mid-twenties, just like Arnold.

As much as he detested torturing women, in the end, he didn't mind doing it, if it meant he could save millions of lives. Call it a sin. But it was a sin he was more than willing to bear for the rest of his cursed life. Before he could do anything to her though, Allen who had been resting nearby recognised the mask the woman was wearing.

"It's her!" He said, "It's the one who attacked me at the beginning of all this. The one who was told to retreat by that hulk!"

"Told to retreat eh? Then you must be someone really important." A smile formed on Arnold's former tensed face, "Someone important enough to know about the contingency plan."

"I'm not telling you anything, you pig!" She then proceeded to spit on Arnold's face, "My brother is dead because of you. But not to worry, you'll join him soon enough-"

"I don't care about a brat's brother. If what you're saying is true, then I did the world a favour by getting rid of someone like you people." Arnold cut her off. His depressed demeanour was long gone, "As for dying, sorry to disappoint. But I have no intention of dying anytime soon. I'm not sure whether the same goes for you or not though."

He then turned towards Natasha, "Do as you see fit with her. I just need answers, got it?"

"Yes, master. Consider it done." She lusciously smacked her lips and dragged the lady in a different room.

"Give her back! I'll-" One of the other captives went off but couldn't even complete whatever he wanted to say.

Arnold had put a bullet in his knees.

Arnold was back to being a ruthless leader. As far as he was concerned, these people were no less than monsters, if not worse. And as such, they should be treated like one too.

"You... monster!" The man collapsed on the ground, yet his eyes were fixed on Arnold's. There was only one emotion he could feel. Rage. Yet rage alone couldn't help him in this situation, not against the man in front of him.

"You're the ones who don't hesitate before defiling a corpse and yet I'm the monster? Don't make me laugh." Arnold crouch down to face the man, "But before I torture you to death, I'd like to know why you all are so deadly serious about getting rid of me? Hell, I forgot about you guys a long time ago but here you are still stuck up on me."

"You..." The man tried to spit on Arnold's face again, but before he could Arnold slapped the man across the face. A couple of teeth came jumping out of the man's mouth. That slap seemed to have calmed him down a bit. As now, he knew the difference between their strength.

The man finally gave in and started narrating everything he knew, "It all started when you were locked inside the transdimensional dungeon. After it was confirmed that you were trapped inside the dungeon, Nicholas, managed to overthrow the government. The president was captured. While Rion and the others managed to escape in the confusion. After waiting for weeks for you to come back... Nicholas finally declared you dead. As there was no possible way for anyone to return from a closed dungeon. No way that we knew of. That same night, the former president was executed for his 'crimes against the nation'."

Everyone was intently listening to what the man had to say. Especially Arnold. As he didn't know much about those five years he was missing from the planet.

"Although we were shocked, we thought it was enough. Maybe killing the president would satisfy Nicholas. But we were wrong. He targetted us next... Everyone even remotely related to the guild was captured, tortured and then thrown in the prison. We were continuously on the run."

"But then, he and his army eventually caught up to us. We thought we all were gonna die. But Nicholas was only after two people... Rion, the one who came out of the dungeon when you went missing and Mali, our guild master. When we refused to surrender, we were attacked by all sides. Most of us were killed that day. When I think back, we should've simply surrendered. The killings only stopped when Rion and Mali surrendered."

"We thought we would be killed too. But we were allowed to live. Years passed and our wounds started to heal. Then we heard the news of your return. All of us remaining warriors were enraged. We had to endure so much pain, death and sadness. And for what? You were alive and well! We had already been secretly mobilising to fight the new president when you appeared and then we realised something important."

"Fighting against Nicholas meant certain death, but we didn't want to fight with him anymore. After all, you were the reason for our misery, our downfall. Not him. You were the reason all of this happened, not him. You were already presumed dead, and now was the time to make that presumption a reality. Only then would Rion and Mali would rest in peace. Hence we decided to direct our attack on you. But we had to wait. No one could've entered East America without getting permission from the West. So we had to wait for you to come to West America so that we could attack you. Someone with a lot of influence from your country made contact with us. Helped us mobilise and secretly brought us to West America. Once here, we patiently waited for our time to strike and when we found out you were weakened and in a coma, we figured it was time to make our move-"

"All that planning, and yet you spectacularly fell on your a*s." Arnold sniggered, "I knew Nicholas would deal with you people but I never thought he would go scorched earth on you. Although, I'm fairly sure Christina would've pushed him for it. That woman didn't know how to accept rejection in the first place. Either way, I think I'll have to thank him soon. Apart from that though... Who was the one who helped you? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"I don't know..." The man mumbled.

"Okay, onto the next question. Who is that woman, whom you were trying to protect eh?"

"She's... no one."

"Doesn't matter. I'll figure it out, though it would be painful. Not for me, but her."

"No... Please, I'll tell you." The man started sobbing like a newborn, "S-She's the half-sister of Mali."

"Oh... She'll definitely know who is behind all this then. Thanks for your time. As a reward, you'll be kept alive a little longer. But not unscathed though." Arnold snapped his fingers and the golems ripped one of the man's hands off.

Screams, cries, and curses were the only things one could hear after that as slowly... all of the attackers were ripped apart by the golems.

Was it necessary?

No.

Did it increase the morale of his soldiers?

Yup. This was enough reasoning for Arnold to deal punishment to them.