“Surrender now! You are completely surrounded!” the patriarch Marcos shouted coldly at his brother Antonie and the rest of the elders from the second branch who were barricaded inside their base looking out from the windows… “We know that you were the ones behind the Golems!”
“What should we do?” one of the elders asked as he looked at all the players outside. How did they find out? Damn… All the elders from the other branches are fuming with rage. “How did they know?”
“It was probably the kids… Todd was really drunk when they took him away, I couldn’t intervene then… Damn it! NO, IT WAS DEFINITELY THAT ZACK… TODD IS A GOOD KID!” Antonie cursed. This was the only explanation he could think of, and he didn’t expect Ann to question them this fast… “DAMN THAT PIECE OF SH*T VICTOR AND HIS APHRODISIAC!” It ruined everything!
Although the kids didn’t know everything, they knew a few facts about Golems as they were told their routes to avoid them. The question was how much info did Ann get out of them! Did it matter? If that bitch captured them, they would spill the beans sooner or later.
“Should we surrender?” another elder asked fearfully.
Antonie didn’t answer him, but just shot him a glare of disgust before turning to look outside at his elder brother. “Marcos! You pussy-licker son of a b***....” Antonie paused. That bitch was his mother. “You bastard!” He corrected himself. “Instead of supporting us, you are standing with your bitch of a wife!”
“Antonie… You always knew my position…” Marcos, who was not annoyed one bit, answered. His tone was just a little remorseful. “Why are you doing this? Let's stop… “
“It is all because you don’t have the balls to act as a Patriarch! When you took your seat, we expected you to elevate the second branch to become the main, or at least to support us to become the strongest, but instead, you totally ignored us!” Antonie interrupted.
“Antonie… You know how much I helped, bending the rules as much as possible… The second branch was the weakest and almost dissolved! Now it is in the top 5!” Marcos clarified. He really did his best to help without being partial. “You knew about the deal…” he said, not elaborating. He meant the deal he struck with Ann back then, for him to become the patriarch while keeping all the power with the Main branch.
“FUCK YOU AND YOUR PUSSY LICKING DEAL!” Antone screamed. Then he began to laugh like a maniac. “Let me tell you and the bitch who is standing behind you something…” Antone screamed from behind the door. “I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU KNEW ABOUT US, BUT DO YOU KNOW THAT ALL OF YOUR PRECIOUS HEIRS ARE ALREADY NOW IN MY HAND, I GUIDED THEM TO A TRAP WHERE THEY ARE NOW WAITING FOR YOU! I JUST HAVE TO GIVE ONE COMMAND AND LEGIONS OF GOLEMS WOULD DESCEND ON THEM!” he said with an insane laugh. Yes, he still had some cards in his hand! “SO YOU BETTER DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND LET US MAKE A DEAL!” he said. As long as he can make a deal, everything would be fine, he might even be able to secure some benefits!
“Oh… We already know that… The kids are already in a safe place, “ Marcos shrugged. “Do you think it is that easy to manipulate the communications without us noticing?”
“What? HOW? IMPOSSIBLE!” Antoni frowned. Was it not the kids?
“Olaf here already told us!” Marcos said as Olaf walked out from behind him, then gave Antonie a slight bow.
“WHAT? IMPOSSIBLE…….. BASTARD!” Antonie flared in shock. It was Olaf all along! “PIECE OF SHIT! DID YOU FORGET WHO HELPED YOU WHEN YOU WERE JUST A SLAVE!” even in his wildest imagination, he couldn’t believe that Olaf who was the most trustworthy man in the world would betray them!
“My allegiance has always been to the family!” Olaf said in a low firm voice, making Ann nod. Olaf was one of the most trustworthy butlers in the family. She has secretly tested him no less than 10 times and he proved his worth every time.
“FUCK!” Antonie cursed. He was fucked. If Olaf was a spy, then all their info was known to Ann, including their emergency plan and what they planned to do with her after their plan succeeded. She would never forgive them knowing that!
“Now surrender and let us end this quickly… I have many things to do….” Ann, who was losing her patience, said. “Do it quickly and I will leave you a clean corpse…” she added, making her intent to kill all of them clear. The basterds planned to first kill all the main and the strongest branch heirs and then replace them with those from the second branch, the only ones who would be still viable.
They planned to use that leverage to convince the elders to replace Ann and Marcos immediately after that. The elders, other than the die-hard loyalists, would definitely accept.
As Ann’s power would be at its lowest without viable heirs!
This might even cause some of the hidden protector elders to move against her! As she would be the one ruining the family's future at that point!
“...”
“...”
“THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE…” Marcos said after waiting a few minutes in silence. His wife was not helping at all!
“...” Antoni just glared at Marcos, saying nothing as he wondered what to do. His options were very limited.
“ATTACK!” the patriarch commanded, making all the elders at once quickly fire a barrage of fireballs on the building that suddenly began to shine and a sphere of energy engulfed it.
“A SHIELD!” Alfred who was a part of the attacking force said. “It is probably an SS rank, we will need at least 30 minutes to break it!” he explained as the men never stopped throwing their attack at the building.
“How about you use your Witch Touch and end this?” Marcos asked Ann. That was one of the strongest Dark art Ann had, it would dissolve this shield in seconds.
“No… We have all the time in the world,” Ann said coldly as the men attacked.
“What if they summoned the Golems?”
“Let them do that… I always wanted to test the men, and this would be a good chance,” Ann said. After Theodore returned with some suitable candidates, the family needed to be restructured, and this was a good chance to pick up the good from the bad.
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She also was sure of her power, not even a thousand Golems could stop her.
…
“SHIT…” Antoni cursed. “Tell the men to summon all the Golems we can muster…” he told one of the elders behind him. “Even if we were going to lose, I will make sure that Ann would cry tears of blood!” he said, biting his lip and clenching his fist. He was not planning to go down easily.
“Yes sir!” The man hurried down into the hidden chamber, not noticing the reduction in Antonie’s eyes. He planned to sacrifice all the men and create a chance for himself to escape. But he couldn’t tell them that…
His plan was very simple. He had an earth escape Talisman, but in order to make sure that no one notices his absence, he needed as much chaos as possible, allowing him to reach the ocean where he already had an escape submarine just in case… This was something even Olaf had no idea about!
It was moments later when the man returned running in horror.
“What?” Antoni asked.
“The pyramid… It is no longer there… The men are dead…” the man said as he caught his breath.
“WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Anonie exploded.
“That what….”
Antoni ignored the man and quickly ran to the secret chamber where the blood of the three dead men on the ground was still fresh.
It was a clean job!
“We have a mole…” he said angrily, looking around. He saw nothing. “Search the base!” he commanded angrily. SHIT… THIS ONLY LEFT HIM ONLY ONE WAY OUT… He really didn’t want to use it!
That man was right! He was always too careful, and he had to act strong every once in a while!
…
Rita, who got the Edict shard, successfully made her way out of the base from the back, making sure to dodge the guards who were oblivious to her existence.
She also had to avoid Ann by walking as far away as possible while keeping her disguise, according to Victor, that woman had a good hunch.
In the end, she got to a safe zone in a side tunnel that connected to the main cavern. From there, she could watch the show and escape if needed.
… Oh they were making a move!
Rita watched as the light barrier around the building began to dim under the barrage of attacks.
It only took the attackers 10 more Minutes before it exploded outwards.
“ADVANCE…… HALT!” Marcos was about to order the men to enter when all of a sudden, Antonie slowly walked from the inside, followed by 20 men.
Were they planning on surrendering or putting on a last fight? If it was the latter, it would have been very stupid.
“ON THE GROUND!” Alfred commanded, but Antonie ignored him as he looked at Marcos.
“Brother… Can you grant me one last wish?” Antonie said in a sorrowful tone as he looked serious.
“We will talk about this later…” Marcos frowned. “You are not dead yet…”
“I am not… But you are…” Antonie said, throwing something… “Please die!”
Before Marcoss could make out what it was, he felt something grab him from behind and pull him. It was Ann who activated her defensive artifact just in time.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
A loud explosion shook the tunnels, creating an air wave that sent even Rita who was far away flying amid bolts of lightning that began to whizz around the tunnel's iron veins, slowly dissipating.
The next thing she felt was her back hitting the hard ground as she fell.
Her ears were ringing and her legs were wobbly, so it took her a moment to reorient herself.
Before she could spring to her feet, Everything began shaking.
Tunnels were collapsing.
She knew that she had to move away, as seconds later, rocks began to fall from the ceiling.
Sadly, by that time it was too late to do anything, as black iron dust filled everywhere and she could not see anything but crawl to the side as she activated a protection talisman…
She could feel the walls near her starting to crack as the ground shook… Was she going to be trapped under the rubble?
“USE THE CAULDRON! ESCAPE INSIDE OF IT!” Victor, who sounded distressed, told her just at the right time.
She quickly took the cauldron from the storage space and jumped inside of it, just before the tunnel caved in.
…
The bottom chamber where Victor and the rest of the heirs were waiting, shook a little after the explosion. They could hear it from afar!
“What happened?” someone asked.
“A battle?” another wondered.
Thankfully this place is far enough from the explosion that nothing here happens…
That’s what Victor thought of instructing Rita to quickly enter the cauldron, then it happened…
BOOOOOOOOOOM
The sound of an explosion at the small tunnel that acted as the entrance of the hall. It shook the entire hall and forced all the heirs to the ground as a cloud of dust poured in and filled the chamber.
“ACTIVATE YOUR PROTECTION TALISMANS!” Victor heard Mike yelling moments later.
“ACTIVATE YOUR PROTECTION TALISMANS!” Bill, who unfortunately seemed to be fine, yelled right after, probably not liking it as Mike acted as a boss.
Moments later, the chamber shook again and everyone could hear the sounds of collapsing walls.
Was this the end?
Victor silently cursed as grabbed both Kuu and the shocked Zoe, hugging them as he activated his protection talisman. His space-shifting skill was still in cool down, he couldn’t really use it, and his only option now was to count on his defense!
Then nothing happened…
...
..
.
The dust slowly cleared as the heirs stood up and began to look around.
“What just happened?” Mike, who was protected by Alice’s SSS defense artifact, and was completely safe, asked after making sure that Victor was safe.
“A bomb?” someone asked.
“Gunpowder doesn’t work here!” another corrected him.
“Then what?”
“I don’t know… But our exit is closed…” Mike said solemnly, looking at the entrance where a huge Iron boulder fell in the midst of tons of rubble, obstructing it. They were trapped inside, without knowledge of how much of the tunnel outside had collapsed.
“This might be on purpose…” Victor, who carefully inspected the boulder, pondered. Someone planned to trap them here, and it was not the second branch. He could tell as this boulder had slight hidden signs of being dug before and the fact that it was 10% made of Sacred Iron…
And although gunpowder didn’t work here, many kinds of magical bombs did!
Those bombs, despite being both very rare and expensive, were not very popular, as they are easily discoverable with mana sensing Artifacts, and a good protection talisman could easily block their effect if the user was not in the epicenter.
They would not get popular until much later when giant monsters started appearing.
Nowadays those things were not something a branch family could buy though.
Victor wondered.
Why would someone waste this perfect chance? That bomb that had its mana camouflaged by all the sacred iron on the walls, could have easily killed half of them if it were placed on the top of the chamber.
Did someone want them to be trapped here?
He frowned, ignoring Zoe who was fighting hard to get out of his embrace. Pushing him away with no avail. He was stronger than her.
“Let go!” she said, blushing a little as she bit her lip. His hands around her waist felt a little hot.
“Ah… Sorry… Are you two ok?” he asked after a few more minutes.
“Thanks… I am fine…” Zoe spat as she stepped back. She was very thankful that Victor quickly grabbed her, but this made her feel very embarrassed…. Why was she feeling that? He was her cousin…. HE WAS HER FRICKIN COUSIN!
Kuu on the other hand, clung to him like a monkey while looking around fearfully. It was as if she was trying to shield him with her body… What a cute girl. He couldn’t wait to take her in another round. She was a fast learner….
“WHAT IS THAT?” someone suddenly exclaimed as the dust settled., making Victor and everyone else look behind them, at the far corner of the cave where the entire wall collapsed revealing a lake of Lava that cast a dim red light into the cave… A Lava chamber!
That was not what everyone was looking at through… Their eyes were looking up, at the golden shimmering ethereal Gate that hovered silently in mid-air on top of the Lava lake... Pulsating a little, it swayed to the sides like a leaf on a branch.
“I SAW IT FIRST!” some idiot called Bruno said. “THE POINTS ARE MINE!”
Everyone ignored him. They had other things to worry about.