Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A few minutes ago...

Setkh and Karrun were dragged out to a field full of various healthy crops being grown in large, well organised and tended beds.

Nooses were still slung around their necks but not as tight so as to allow them to breathe and move well.

On the other hand, the people who had been working in the fields were not so lucky. Their bodies were hung in the air, yellow nooses tightly gripping around their necks, with their points of origin being high up in the sky where their ends faded into the dimming daylight.

A judgement from above?

No. It was murder from below.

Close to a hundred of the staff who had worked for the Bryne Family could be seen, and their silent throes gave Setkh a tinge of guilt as he glanced towards them briefly.

This was all his doing.

But what of it?

They were already at this point.

"It should be here, shouldn't it?" Seddrik said as he stopped, a burst of his mana flushing outwards to burn away the crops and clear the ground.

Setkh nodded his head with a conflicted face. He then asked a question, something that had been bugging him.

"How did you know it wasn't in the house? I told you it was here in the field but... even before that, you immediately took me away after I summoned you," he asked.

Seddrik stomped hard on the ground, an intense reverberation humming through the ground for a mile.

With the feedback he received, he narrowed his eyes and pulled out a small vial containing a black liquid. He then swiftly poured half the contents of the vial where he had stomped just now while belatedly answering Setkh's question.

"We have our ways," he said.

The ground was eaten away rapidly, as if a harsh decay had been set loose over it, the disappearing crust revealing a depth that dropped for quite the distance.

Seddrik leapt down while the two were pulled on by his Genuine Incarnation, following him into the darkness.

Soon, the three felt the hard ground under their feet.

There was nothing but pitch black to look at, which led the three to rely on their senses.

Seddrik looked here and there. He then scoffed and pulled out something else from storage. A lamp whose handle was a rusted, blue chain, the light kept within a cracked glass cradling an orange flame that blinked multiple times before drawing a trail of light to his right a very long distance ahead.

...!

Setkh was appalled.

While he had left the Family for a long time, he was still familiar with the defences in place to guard the treasure that represented the Bryne Family.

It hadn't changed.

It was not easy to find where it was buried and if somehow one guessed where, they would have to find a way to breach their way in.

Yet for some reason, Seddrik conveniently had that mysterious black liquid that melted the physical and magical defences set to stop easy intrusion!

The other safety mechanism was the darkness that they had in their company.

No ordinary light was capable of thriving within it, yet not only did Seddrik have an answer to that, the lamp he held also pointed towards the correct way to go in order to reach the desired space that held the treasure he sought.

This...

"No need to be surprised. As I said, the Severed Code may restrict our movements, but we know a great deal," Seddrik said without a shift in his unamused expression. "Your privileges only extend against other Families, and not against us."

Setkh's face darkened.

.....

Soon, after passing several traps and mechanisms using different kinds of artefacts and items, the trio had arrived at the final hurdle.

Seddrik knew the answer to this too.

That was why he had brought Setkh with him.

The last obstacle was a simple brown door with a silver knob erected on it, its entirety planted on a rugged wall of dirt, as was to be expected in this cavern like space – one could only guess.

It looked simple but its impenetrable design is what depicted Setkh's father's fortune and connections to have something like this built.

"Stop!" a familiar voice called from the distance.

It was Stylla who huffed as she glared at the trio seemingly unaffected by the darkness, no ounce of pity visible in her eyes for Karrun and Setkh's sake.

Only hatred burned within her as what she had seen as she raced over here, the dead men and women whom she had grown up seeing and learning from, their lives taken so casually...

It was too cruel.

Ed was by her side, already looking to attack at the first chance he got as the two had prearranged that the redhead would tell him where to send his blade.

"No! Stay away Stylla!" Setkh barked as he turned with urgency.

"SHUT UP!" Stylla barked back with bloodshot eyes. "SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!"

Seddrik ignored the two as he went on to cut up Setkh's palm, drawing blood. He forced the man to grab the knob on the door and turn it, which seamlessly opened the construct without problems, revealing a tiny room, its walls glowing with defence runes of a different calibre.

A Mage of a high level had crafted these personally.

A stone pedestal was erected right in the middle of the room and atop it, a crystal, spherical in shape floated steadily.

It had an ancient air about it, on its glossy surface two different colours, black and white.

The black faded into white at the middle, creating a small portion of grey that enhanced the crystal's beauty several fold.

It was beautiful.

For as long as it had existed in the Bryne Family, this crystal was known as the Harmonic Ember.

Its view, along with the entirety of the interior of the small room was visible to everyone, a dim source of light allowing everyone to see.

...!

The tension rose!

The Harmonic Ember was too precious to let fall in the hands of the enemy and knowing this, Ed zipped forward the moment he saw it in sight, his blade at the ready as he neared Seddrik.

The ordinary faced man didn't show any form anxiety. After all, he had leverage.

"ARGHHH!" Stylla suddenly screamed, a noose having suddenly appeared around her neck and squeezed ruthlessly!

...!

"No!" Setkh screamed in panic but he couldn't rush towards his sister as he intended.

Ed on the other hand, was left torn.

He stopped his advance and turned back to Stylla who was slowly lifted off the ground as she struggled viciously but this lapse in his attention was enough for Seddrik to swipe the Harmonic Ember.

"It's been a pleasure..." Seddrik said as he turned to the anxious Setkh, his words having some form of conclusive intent. Dangerous conclusive intent.

GRRRRRRMMMM!

At the same time, the ground shook as the battle happening within the mansion finally reached a climactic point that exposed itself as the literally dragging of space!

Above ground, the large mansion that had been sandwiched between two smaller buildings suddenly began to sink in on itself as if a black hole had appeared!

Everything that made up its grand appearance vanished, sucked in by a single man's actions, the only enclosed space left revealed being the stairway infested space where a battle had been taking place!

Space folded like a paper and within it, the figures of multiple individuals could be spotted as they tried to resist being drawn into the Mage's hand as he pulled on everything!

Skullius had his [Beads of Malevolence] clustering around him and pulling him back with all the might the Precept of Light could muster.

This was dangerous!

"Tsk! Who ended up getting in whose way?!" the bulky Form User who had only just begun to fight the dark skinned Tier 9 beast grumbled as he was pulled away, spared from the attack.

Red Rage, with a bed encircled by a cylindrical light floating above him, on which an unconscious man slept, was also being pulled in.

In as much as he responded viciously to the violent and guilty, the call of the innocent and those in peril 'spoke' just as loudly to him. He was obligated to respond.

Speaking of those in peril, Red Rage heard a grunt of pain at this moment, and his racial instincts kicked in.

'Someone in need!' he thought.

He then turned to Killin Max who had yet to fulfill his role as he had instructed. The creature set its gaze to him too and nodded in understanding, having already understood what it Master wanted it to do.

An energy bubbled from it.

It wasn't Mana.

It wasn't Aura.

Beasts weren't capable of producing such.

However, in exchange, they had a large advantage that mankind had exploited millenia ago and inserted into their own power system.

His Tier was just one short but he was talented enough to make it work right now!

As this energy bubbled within Killin Max, Red Rage's figure warped in a circular manner, along with the man lying unconsciously on the bed.

Shortly after, the Apostle resisted the pull on space and vanished along with Stylla's father and this marked as the signal for Killin Max to use...IT

The Mage was the first to notice and his eyes narrowed in realisation.