“How about on your side?” Kostas asked downcastedly, when he saw the elementless core. The awakened dead they targeted didn’t drop a skill core. He was visibly depressed.

“It was a skill core, alright.” Malcolm fished out a blood-colored orb. They didn’t know what skill it was carrying, but it had the characteristic of a skill core.

“Then it means the awakened dead are not dropping Skill Cores every time.” Merlin mused.

“Maybe this awakened dead wasn’t up to standards yet. It was a tad weaker, right?” Malcolm asked Kostas.

“Yeah. It was even weaker than the first one.” Kostas nodded.

“Let’s help father, and return,” Malcolm ordered after they had finished with the battlefield.

***

After Mercer took fifty fighters with him to deal with the Awakened Dead situation, the capital was fretting with unrest. Explosions went off in many places at the same time, and one of the places was Cross Mansion. This mansion was once a place where everyone feared, now blockaded. People with full black clothes and masks were battling with soldiers and guards.

“Protect the entrance. Man the walls, try to call Mercer again!” Kenway ordered with his sword in his hand. The sword was a meter and half long with wingguards. It looked like a giant cross. It was the family heirloom of Cross Family and a gift from Malcolm.

When Kenway was still a teen, his family was killed in a crossfire. At the time, clouded by rage, Kenway was killing criminals in the slums every night. Although the sentiment was good, it was causing an uproar.

Malcolm was one of the officers sent to catch the vigilante. When he went with a team to catch Kenway, he saw him feeding tens of children in an underground facility. Kenway saved all those kids who lost their parents in the battle between the army and criminal parties. Kids with good potentials snatched in a heartbeat, while those with trash elements were left to starve. Kenway found them in the streets and fed them with the little money he was looting from his enemies.

When Malcolm saw the scene, he was flabbergasted. He went to confront Kenway, but the latter refused to battle with him. “I only fight with bad guys.” He said, and surrendered. “Please, just take care of these children.”

Malcolm was so impressed, he pulled some strings to remove his records and took him under his wings. They also transferred the children in their facilities to be raised for Unity. When Malcolm went to fight with Kenway, he was carrying the family heirloom sword on his back. He wasn’t good with the swords, no. The whole purpose was to show they were there to help people. At the time, the name ‘Cross’ was still lauded as traitors more than heroes. Kenway on the other hand was holding a broken sword, so Malcolm gifted the sword to Kenway to show his goodwill.

Ever since that day, Kenway never left that sword. The sword was pretty, but it couldn’t even cut monsters, but Kenway never touched another sword. By increasing its sharpness with his superpower, he used that ornament sword to its finest and washed it with thousands of monsters’ blood. When he leveled up to F-Tier, he didn’t create an ultimate but used his energy to strengthen the very same sword Malcolm gifted him. And something magical happened. The normal steel sword, metamorphosed into a divine artifact.

Now there was a connection between Kenway and the sword. He could even use it telepathically, while the sword without any supplement could cut monsters in pieces. It was as if the whole material changed.

Now that Kenway was in Devote-Rank, the sword was stronger than any artifacts. With his superpower, Kenway cut people in pieces from a distance.

“Were you able to connect with Malcolm or Mercer?” He asked as he cut another black silhouette. There were thousands of men and women attacking the mansion. Superpowers were flying everywhere while guns were firing at them.

“Something blocking our signal sir, we cannot call them.” One of the guards reported.

“Roger, get inside. It is getting dangerous.” Evelyn shouted as she attacked with an orb weapon in hand. When the mansion was attacked, Roger was still there to assist her in the autopsy. Now he was there to defend it with them.

“What use is there if we cannot beat them?” Roger shook his head and a nurse figure flew out of his body. It went to the battlefield and started to slash black figures with the scalpel in her hand.

“I cannot continue like that, my energy is running low.” Gordon, the healing guy, was there to help them. Because Serzen was taken away by Mercer, he was taken to the mansion for his protection. But now, even the mansion was under attack.

“Sir, you go inside first. We will take care of ourselves.” Kenway told him and Gordon nodded. Without energy to heal, he had no use. So staying there would only make it harder for others to battle.

“What the hell is that!” One of the guards shouted and pointed at the sky. There, a space shuttle was moving towards the mansion with its engines on full power!

“Clear the way!” Kenway shouted like a sword, and everyone in front of him moved aside. He locked his penetrating gaze at the ever-growing gigantic object, flying true to the mansion, wanting to destroy the structure with every person living inside of it. The thrusters of the shuttle were fired at full power, increasing its speed and velocity every second, making it more and more dangerous, while Kenway’s aura was rising more and more.

Roger was near Evelyn, trying to pull her out of the mansion’s garden. Evelyn was rooted on the ground, looking helplessly at the shuttle. A bundle of memories of her late-life passed through her life. How for the first time Mercer brought the young couple to the mansion. How she gave birth to three angels, how she watched her children grow…

All of them were about to end with this heinous act. Two lines of tears fell from her beautiful eyes to her cheeks as she clenched her dainty fists in desperation and anger, as she looked at her doom, and accepted it solemnly.

She wouldn't run away. She was the mistress of the mansion and the others were away. She would do her best to protect their sacred home.