By now, it was obvious what [Connect] could really do.
At first glance, its description was simple, the ability to connect to the mind and soul. Adam still hadn’t fully grasped the mind aspect. That part remained vague and distant, like a door he hadn’t yet figured out how to open.
But the soul?
That was a different matter entirely.
If Adam was being honest with himself, the ability to perceive the soul was, in its own way, broken.
Not broken in so absurd, world-ending sense. Not the kind of power that let you annihilate continents or collect every gorgeous woman under the heavens.
No.
On its own, [Connect] wasn’t overwhelmingly destructive.
But in terms of versatility?
It was terrifying.
Adam could sense living beings from extre distances.
He could gauge their power.
He could detect malice through the intensity and distortion of their soul flas.
And more than that.
It allowed him to understand souls, if he observed long enough and studied carefully enough, patterns erged. Intent surfaced. Truth leaked through the cracks.
And what Adam had understood from Henry’s soul...
Didn’t sit right with him.
The steadiness.
The artificial calm.
The complete absence of fluctuation.
It was wrong.
Adam struck the barrier again.
And again.
He ricocheted off surrounding trees, using their trunks as launch points to add montum and angle to his attacks. So of the trees cracked under the strain, essence-infused wood splintering loudly, but they held longer than normal.
It didn’t matter.
He hit the barrier.
Again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
No hesitation or rhythm. Just relentless impact.
Henry had already given up trying to track Adam’s movents.
At first, he acted tense and cautious. But as ti passed and the barrier held, that false tension faded and false relief crept in.
He raised his hand slightly, rubbing the ring on his middle finger.
A Type-2, Tier-4 armant, Henry thought calmly.
There’s no way—
Crack!
Henry’s eyes snapped wide as a small, but unmistakable thin fracture spiderwebbed across the barrier.
The impossible had just happened.
"Impossible."
Henry said it out loud as he stared at the crack spreading across the barrier.
A mont later, the fracture smoothed itself out, the surface returning to its pristine state. But Henry’s expression didn’t relax.
That wasn’t good.
If anything, it was worse.
Because it ant the barrier’s durability was dropping fast.
This isn’t supposed to be possible.
Before the thought could settle, another sharp sound rang out.
Crack!
Henry’s eyes snapped to the side. A new fracture had ford on a different section of the barrier.
It repaired itself just as quickly, but this ti, Henry’s gaze drifted downward.
To the ring on his middle finger.
Tiny fissures had begun to appear on its surface.
Barely visible.
But real.
Henry stared at it for a brief mont, as if weighing sothing internally.
Then he turned back to the floating gem.
Adam’s attacks grew even more rampant.
The cracks multiplied.
This ti, before one fracture could fully nd, another ford.
And another.
And another.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
The barrier struggled to keep up.
Adam didn’t slow down.
His feet slamd into the side of the only intact tree left in the area, bark exploding outward from repeated impacts.
Steam poured off his body, friction-heated air curling around his armor as he coiled his leg.
Essence, ager but focused, flooded into his legs.
Rapid E surged to its absolute limit.
Adam’s eyes locked onto the barrier, now riddled with fractures that couldn’t repair themselves fast enough.
Ti seed to slow.
His muscles tightened.
Then...
Boom!
The tree detonated into splinters as Adam launched forward like a rocket, fist drawn back.
He collided head-on with the barrier as the barrier exploded into fragnts of light.
Adam twisted midair into a tight barrel roll, landed smoothly, and shifted into a low stance in one fluid motion.
His gaze snapped to Henry as he dashed forward.
But he was too late.
The mont the barrier shattered, Henry didn’t hesitate.
Not for a second.
He reached out and grasped the dark gem.
Henry had been given clear instructions.
If anything interfered with the plan, when the gem took too long to activate, then the process was to be skipped entirely.
By sacrifice.
Henry had believed it would never co to that.
His n.
The barrier.
A Type-2, Tier-4 armant.
The manager.
The sector’s power.
Even the other clan heirs.
Everything had been accounted for.
Everything.
Except Adam.
Adam had ruined the plan. Forced his hand.
And there was only one valid sacrifice.
Faraday blood.
Normally, Henry wouldn’t have hesitated. His life had never been his own to begin with.
If dying for the family was required, he would have done it the mont he was ordered to.
But the instructions had been clear.
Only when there is no other option.
And now?
There was a furious lunatic charging straight toward him.
Henry closed his fingers around the gem.
The mont he did, every problem vanished.
Replaced by pain and agony beyond anything he had ever known.
Violet lightning erupted from the gem, flooding into Henry’s body, ripping through his veins, his nerves, his bones. Bolts lashed outward, striking the ground and the air itself.
Adam skidded to a halt, as his instinct scread.
Lightning exploded around him.
He moved instantly dodging and weaving, but no matter how fast he was, the strikes kept spreading.
They were faster, denser and more violent. The air howled under their force.
Henry bore the full brunt of it.
"AHHHHHHH!"
His scream tore through the swamp, as the lightning intensified.
Each strike hit with the force of thunder.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Adam pushed himself harder, but it wasn’t enough.
As a single bolt, as large as a bus, slamd into him.
BOOM!
Adam was hurled through the swamp, crashing into the distance as the world spun violently around him.
Henry’s scream only grew louder.
Blood poured from his eyes.
From his ears.
From his mouth.
From every orifice.
And deep in his mind, the code drilled into him since childhood echoed, over and over.
The Family Is Above All Else.
The Family Is Above All Else.
Your Life Is Not Your Own.
Your Life Exists To Serve The Family.
Henry let out one final, ragged scream.
And his body exploded.
Fire and lightning tore him apart in a grotesque display as his flesh vaporized. Organs and blood were flung in all directions as a massive lightning bolt shot straight into the sky.
BOOM!
The thunderous detonation rolled across the entire Sirens’ Swamp incursion, shaking water, trees, and earth alike.
For a brief mont, the whole incursion went silent.
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