Humans are like dandelions. No matter how many you pluck, thousands more show up. It is up to you to decide if the dandelion is a flower or a weed.

~Blodeuwedd, Goddess of Flowers and Wisdom

Cameron Belgae fled Oiche with only a hundred of Belgae’s most powerful people. The rest weren’t much of a risk, so at worst, they’d get captured. None of that would matter if he couldn’t get these people to the Belgae ancestral grounds. At least there, they had the tools and formations to hunker down like turtles and ride this calamity out.

Without a doubt, Rulaney would not survive this, and he hoped that while everyone focused on them, he had a small window to escape. Never had he expected that Teonet’s first curse would be so horrifying. If he was Malcolm, he’d have slaughtered any enemy the Maddox clan had. Until the last five curses fell, Teonet was all but indentured to Maddox. The thing he couldn’t resolve was why Duncan remained unscathed out of all four of them. Minor clans aside, they had little say in anything.

“Take nothing except your Elkan beast. We ride hard and stop for no one—our very survival depends on it,” Cameron told his people, and they did just that. Not one of them returned to any of their properties, and they left entire fortunes behind. The men following him weren’t stupid, and they knew dead men couldn’t spend their wealth.

Not a single clan intercepted them as they left Oiche. The road remained empty as their Elkan beasts charged toward the west.

“Where is everyone?” Micah asked. He was Cameron’s second wife’s brother.

“If they are smart, everyone fled or went into seclusion. This is the same road to Rulaney’s ancestral grounds,” Cameron commented uneasily. It was easy to say that but harder to believe. Events like this wouldn’t stop the merchants, traders, and hunters from going about their business.

A short time later, they entered the sunlight, which was the tensest part of their journey. Once they were out from under Father Oak’s canopy, they no longer had his protection. Nothing happened for the next few kilometers, and more than a few sighs of relief could be heard.

After they entered their home forest, they knew their journey was almost at an end. They had the advantage of knowing these lands, so they urged their mounts to move faster. It wasn’t until they reached the halfway point between the edge of the forest and their home that things took a turn for the worst.

A massive mutated Elkan beast blocked the road ahead, and a man was on the side of the road arranging a spike with a head on it. Looking past him, they could see a row of spiked heads on the left side of the road that stretched as far as the Belgae clan could see. What was worse, the head on the front-most spike was Marie, Cameron’s first wife and the person he left in charge while he was away.

“Y-y-you!” Micah sputtered, unable to formulate a single thought.

“Who are you?” Cameron asked, but it felt like his soul had already left his body. It was a sense of danger powerful experts felt when death was close. This man was more powerful than him, but that shouldn’t be possible. Only Conall, son of Niall, had that kind of power, and maybe that hidden monster, Gavin.

The stooped man finished arranging the head, and no one interfered. When he straightened his back, the man’s shoulder-length hair blew gently in the breeze, but all eyes went to the two-pronged spear in his hand.

“Th-that’s the Devil’s Fork!” A Belgae clansman blurted out.

“Y-you are Niall Maddox?”

Niall turned to face the last contingent of the Belgae clan, the only cultivators it had left. As soon as everyone saw his face, they gasped in terror. Above his brow was a large gash that bled profusely, but it had stopped some time ago. The blood that encrusted his face had dried, and when Niall smiled, his white teeth stood in stark contrast to the macabre mask.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Niall said, as if he was having a pleasant conversation with an old friend.

“You killed my clan?” Cameron asked, his heart sinking as the heads already told the story.

“I did.” Niall smiled, and everyone’s hearts went cold. Before them wasn’t a man, but a ghoul. Or worse, a goddamned devil. “I wonder if you knew from the very beginning?”

“Knew what?”

“That your childish tactics were already seen through. Did you know I waited ten long years for this moment?”

“T-ten years?” Cameron’s brow furrowed. “How is that possible? We only formed our alliance five or six years ago—the day Mugna awoke!”

“You see it now, don’t you?”

“I don’t. What did we do wrong?” Cameron asked, and while everyone wanted to kill this devil, they wanted answers more.

“The day he awoke was the day Gideon stole my son’s wife. He is the sect master of the Blood Ember Sect. You were used by that evil bastard. It was only later that he found out Crow was his grandson. Did you know he fears death? A witch once told him that his death would be at the hands of his blood. So, to him, this meant Crow had to die.”

“Th-that has nothing to do with my clan!”

“Liar!” Niall roared. The Devil’s Fork in his hand glowed green and tiny barbs grew from the two prongs. It was those barbs that that terrified Niall’s opponents because just a small touch would tear flesh from bones. They shuddered to think about what would happen should those prongs pierce their bodies. Worse, through Niall’s torn clothing, they could see the Shield glowing beneath.

“How…?” Cameron stared at the old man’s chest. Before, he still had some hope of contending with him and surviving, but not now. “When did you gain an Iron Shield? How come no one knew?”

Cameron and Niall were supposed to be roughly equal in power. Cameron had a Ruby Shield with eight stars, but in the last ten years, he hadn’t climbed the tower at all. He never expected this old man wasn’t hiding in his ancestral grounds for the last ten years. Instead, he’d been climbing the tower, building up his strength. No one in the alliance realized it.

“I had no choice. Mugna knew you’d all rebel, and do you know what he saw from your actions? Father Oak chopped into firewood, and the Druid Order utterly destroyed. That is what your pettiness would have brought on us.”

“Fate is ever-changing!” Camerons shouted out desperately.

“That is true, but until Crow came along, all outcomes led to the same conclusion. Druids becoming extinct. Crow provided an opportunity, but he was Mugna’s gambit, the opening move, the fucking sacrifice!” Niall’s rage boiled over, and his knuckles went white as he gripped his spear. “I had no choice but to use my grandson for the good of the order. Do you know how that tears a man up inside?”

The Belgae clan understood, but they realized much too late. As an unfated, they should have left Crow alone, but repeatedly, they targeted him. Once they realized that it was Heaven’s will that forced their hands, it became all too clear. Only now did they see what had been staring them in the face the entire time.

“I had to force myself to endure as you plotted against him. Tortured him. Cursed him. Forced him to fight. You forged him in fire, quenched him in blood, and sharpened him by grinding away his roughness in the Arena. You turned my grandson into a weapon and stole his innocence. But your biggest sin… you forced me to watch, unable to take action. Until now! Today, I will have my fucking vengeance, or I am not a son of Maddox!”

Arrrgghhh!

Niall’s roar shook the heavens, and his rage washed over the Belgae clan like a forest fire. His body enlarged as a green and silver mana wrapped around him, and beneath his skin, a metallic bark burst free. Crow’s affinity to the wood element was a family trait, but Niall also had a high affinity for the opposing aspect of Metal too. In his youth, he developed a technique by combining Bark Skin and Metal Bones. It had been years since he’d unleashed it, and now that he had an Iron Shield, the effects were beyond his imagination.

“Ironbark Behemoth—the technique is real…? Overwhelm Niall,” Cameron commanded while trying to bury his panic. “If you get past him, don’t stop, run for the—”

From the north, the direction in which the Teonet clan resided, Gavin road among the trees. Behind him were five hundred elders from the Teonet clan. That may have discouraged them, but what finally broke their fighting spirit was Luthais appearing from the south. He led a thousand elders of the Maddox clan, and they showed signs of having recently fought. After setting fire to Belgae’s lands, they hid in the southern woods, waiting for Niall’s signal.

Even Luthais felt his fighting spirit rise from his father’s roar, and he’d heard every word of the old man’s speech. His body shook with anger, knowing the whole truth. In all his time traveling with his brother, he never felt bloodlust like he did today.

“Sons and daughters of Maddox! Wet your blades in the blood of those that dare plot against our own! Kill them all!” Luthais bellowed out the command and charged, Gavin charged, Niall charged, and Belgae despaired.

Niall took the first wave of spells and techniques, but his left hand glowed, and vines crawled forward until they overlapped, forming a semi-spherical shape in front of him. He made the shield from ironwood, a mix of his two elements. No matter how many spells hit it, Niall never slowed down. After covering half the distance to Cameron, the shield finally crumbled. It didn’t matter because the two other armies had reached the road, and smaller battles cropped up everywhere.

Devil’s Fork shot forward like a snake, and Cameron evaded by turning his mount into the blow. In battles like these, Niall wouldn’t hesitate to kill a beast. On the field of battle, beasts were just as intelligent and even more ferocious than a human. Not to mention twice as loyal. As noble as the Elkan were, if they didn’t die with their master, they’d lose their minds and kill indiscriminately.

The Elkan beast barked out a sound that would shake weaker souls, its pain gave it the ability to perform a soul attack, but only those without Shields would suffer from it. Niall’s free hand twitched as he activated Nature’s Wrath. Vines grew out of the ground and wrapped the beast’s legs before thorns appeared and stabbed into the Elkan’s flesh. The beast withered visibly as its blood was drained.

Cameron had no choice but to dismount. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he activated a movement ability. Niall had never seen its like before and thought it was fancy, artistic, and fucking useless. He almost lost his momentum in battle because he couldn’t believe a powerful foe was using such a trash ability.

“Hmph,” Niall grunted as the butt of his spear smashed into his opponent’s knee.

Crack!

Niall grinned when he saw his opponent’s leg snap sideways.

“How did an inexperienced fighter like you gain so much power?” Niall sneered as the prongs of his spear slapped against Cameron’s right hand, the one holding his sword. As he ripped it away, flesh and tendons tore, and the blade fell from lifeless fingers. “Even my second son, Lutahis, would’ve looked down on you during this fight.”

Cameron’s terrified scream broke the will of his followers.

“Wait!” Cameron said through grit teeth, his one good hand held up to stop Niall. “We—”

Smack!

Niall activated Royal Slap*, and Cameron stumbled to the ground nearly senseless.

“You dare surrender? The only mercy you’ll get is that I won’t harm the flesh of your face.” Niall whispered into Cameron’s ear. His rough, blood-stained hand grasped Cameron’s throat and lifted him up, so his feet were off the ground. The man no longer had the ability to struggle, and a half-breath later, piss ran down his leg.

“Belgae clan!” Niall’s voice was neither loud nor soft, but it cut through their hearts, and those still alive trembled. The remaining members of the Belgae clan turned to see their leader held in the air by his neck, dangling like a dead chicken. They watched as Niall flexed his fingers and dug them into Cameron’s neck until the flesh tore. The Ironbark Behemoth technique not only enlarged his body but gave nearly doubled his strength. Rotating his fist, he felt the final resistance give.

Pop!

The sound was soft, but ally and foe knew Niall had just broken the spine and taken the life of a Ruby Shield, a king-like existence among their people. Cameron’s headless body fell to the ground, while Niall still held on to the head. Afterward, the remaining Belgae members practically ran themselves into spears and blades, not willing to be the ones to face Niall in battle. Every single one of them died in the next thirty seconds.

“Is Crow safe?” Niall asked after beheading the last Belgae. He ordered the Teonet clan to add the heads to the row of spikes, saving Cameron’s head for last. It was a reminder to those that followed—never cross a Maddox. Niall had no way of knowing that those spikes would remain for the next hundred years.

“Crow is Crow,” Gavin said mysteriously. “None of this fallout has reached him. Mugna made sure he reached the manor safely, and I ordered all the Maddox clan within Oiche to return to the manor and seal it. Quinn is taking care of it all.”

Luthais limped toward them, and out of the three, he was the most wounded. He had a bandage wrapped around his waist, and his arm was in a splint.

“I knew there was Maddox blood in you, boy!” Niall laughed and slapped his son on the shoulder. “How are your wounds?”

“I’ll live. You should be more worried about Conall. He is going to be pissed that he wasn’t part of this—no, that’s nothing compared to how furious he’ll be about using his son as a pawn.”

“He knew. Knew from the very beginning, even before me,” Niall said. “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors of what he is doing by now. You think that kind of rage is natural? It is the only way he knows how to vent his emotions. I’m just afraid all that bloodlust will turn him into a demon. If it wasn’t for the war, I’d go after him right now.”

“Not to sound callous, but Conall’s goal might be more important than ours. His son and Cia will have to do their part in bringing him back to this side of humanity. Regardless, we’ll cross that bridge in the future,” Gavin said. “We need to get back to Oiche. It is time for the end game.”

“Huh? What does that mean?” Niall asked.

“Eoghan has already called the Druid Council to order. Even those from the tower were told it was mandatory. In a week, they are going to hold the largest council ever held,” Gavin said with a big smile. “You should know something else—we’ve renamed the Temple of Mugna.”

“Stop with the theatrics and tell us already,” Luthais growled, and Niall laughed, looking upon his weaker son in a more favorable light.

“Upon Mugna’s order, they officially changed it to the Temple of the False Dawn.”

“Mother Danu’s tit,” Niall whispered, stunned.