Next to the crumbled ruins of once the tall castle, with noises of people working to evacuate the few alive trapped beneath the rumble of the gigantic tower, two holograms were floating in front of Lord Pobis.

“You too got done in by the infiltrators,” He said as a matter of fact. The four explosions occurred at the same moment resulting in the destruction. They had been careless. They should have been more alert to Vissbl not showing up despite his family being destroyed but they had not anything of it, feeling secure in their castles that had been protecting them for years.

“I am going to skin that guy alive when I get my hand on him,” one of the holograms, in the shape of Lord Orpus of the Orpus family said.

“Since all three of us are on the same page, why not join up and head down? Since Vissbl was confident enough to anger us all, it would be wise to set the difference aside for the moment lest we end up like Delos,” Lord Synroa said

“We should but first we first find his whereabouts,” Lord Pobis said.

“My subordinates had found a lead just a few moments before you called,” said Lord Synroa.

“Let's meet up at the Laycore castle, we might find out how Delos was killed. It could give us an idea of what we are against,” said Lord Pobis

With a nod, the other two acknowledged, and then the holograms flickered out.

***

Three grim faces looked at the scene before them. At least a crumbling castle should have greeted them but the things were worse, much worse. There was no castle, not even a sign of it. Only small grains of sand were left behind, golden sand, and here and there, their sense picked on different colored sand and once they had completed their search, they found only a few dead bodies. Bodies that were in the Gas Stage.

“The Core detonated,” Lord Synroa said as he rubbed the golden sand between his fingers.

“Most likely.” Lord Pobis acknowledged

“The primary explosions were not the cause of it otherwise we would have met the same fate. There should have been something else that caused this,” said Lord Orpus

Whatever had resulted in the detonation of the core had created this result. With the barrier still standing at that time, it should have been powerful enough to endure the secondary explosion for a moment, and contain that terrible power that had caused this. And though the barrier would have broken a moment after, by that time everyone was dead.

They came near one of the complete bodies and though it appeared unhurt, a single touch and the body would break off into grains of sand.

“Disintegration. This was why he had been targeted first because even if our cores exploded, it was unlikely we would die, much less likely than Delos. It was not a secret that Laycore’s were working on the power of disintegration.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“It appears so but we must be careful nonetheless.”

“Yes.”

The three of them spent some time searching for the traces of Delos, the Lord of the Laycore family but found none, only a few more of the seemingly intact corpses and many more who had dispersed into the sand.

***

“Where were the traces found?” asked Lord Orpus.

“3rd Layer.”

There was some distance between the three of them, a cautionary distance. After all, they had been fighting each other just a while before, hellbent on killing each other to be the last family remaining so that they could fully control the settlement. Even now, they had joined to kill another Lord who had suddenly emerged as a major threat.

While the Lift came up, they waited until their senses picked up the approaching lift. Their senses scanned the lift, prepared to jump back if they found anything but despite careful checking, they found nothing.

The metallic walls of the lift rippled, moving sideways to open a passage that would allow them entrance but before they could even take a single step forward– as their eyes started widening, as their Qi hurriedly circulated, as barrier upon barrier appeared in front of them, three beams of lights struck them.

Why did we not sense them? So short was the time that their mind was unable to even think, their bodies acting out of pure instinct, the will to survive. All they had been able to be was hastily put up a barrier in the hope of delaying the beams that caused them to be filled with fright.

Effortless. The barriers were unable to do anything.

Massive holes appeared in their torso, there was nothing there, just a thin line of flesh on both sides holding together the upper and lower body otherwise the body would have separated into two.

Harlev stepped forward, took some things out of his storage, and jammed them into the bodies of rapidly dying. Almost immediately, their condition stopped worsening but they were filled with an even greater weakness and they found access to Qi completely cut off. Pain and an even greater feeling of suffocation came, drowning the three who were unable to endure and passed out.

“Start the artificial Qi circulation to keep them alive.”

“Yes sir!”

As the people around him burst into activity, even more approached from afar. They had been left behind to tell them the exact coordinates of the three Lords so that they would know where to aim even before they got the targets in sight.

***

“The remaining three have been captured, sir.”

“Excellent. And did you find leads on what I had asked?”

“None. Everyone was alerted to his possible presence we did not sense anyone else.”

“Humm… Warp up with the things and come down.”

“Yes.”

As the Revensol’s hologram flickered off, Harlev turned to his men who had just finished strapping the last of the three lords to the machines that provide them with life support, keeping them from dying but would also mess up with their natural healing mechanism.

Once they had finished, he started giving orders on how the remaining members of the noble families would be dealt with. Just because all of the Liquid State lords had been captured or killed did not mean there were no more threats. The Gas Stage members still remained and they were capable of causing large damage if they acted carelessly.

Noyb family had been destroyed by the four others. Laycore family had been erased by the explosion and only three remained. Pobis, Orpus, Synroa. Harlev divided his men into three groups, each led by his subordinates who were in Gas State. Even though each team had just one of them, he was unafraid. They were fully equipped and had cycles upon cycles of experience.