The street had become a graveyard.

Bodies of Raed Circle soldiers littered the pavement, their blood soaking into asphalt, their mana absorbed and converted into Jorghan's reserves. The S-Rank awakeners lay scattered across the battlefield, Marcus unconscious from cerebral hypoxia, Yuki drowning in blood from destroyed lungs, and Wei's brain hemorrhaging from spatial feedback.

But three more hadn't survived Jorghan's restraint failing.

Dr. Raymond lay in two pieces, his body bisected by a blood essence blade when he'd tried one final electromagnetic attack. His upper half had fallen ten feet from his lower, his face frozen in shocked realization that his lightning had finally met something it couldn't overcome.

Cassandra had died attempting to save him.

She'd accelerated toward Jorghan with kinetic manipulation, moving faster than bullets, her hands reaching to slow his killing strike. But Jorghan had been faster. His blood essence had invaded her system through skin contact, compressed every vessel in her brain simultaneously, and killed her before her body even registered the attack. She'd collapsed mid-acceleration, her momentum carrying her corpse into a wall with sickening impact.

The fifth S-Rank awakener, a man named Torres who could manipulate gravity, had made the mistake of trying to crush Jorghan into the pavement. He'd increased local gravity to fifteen times normal, a force that should have pulverized bones and ruptured organs.

Jorghan's Sanguine Sovereignty had simply rejected the gravitational manipulation, his blood essence creating a sphere where his will was absolute law and physics bent to accommodate his existence. Then he'd manifested blood essence as dozens of needles, each one piercing Torres's body with surgical precision, destroying every major organ simultaneously.

The most elite security force on Earth, decimated.

And Jorghan was preparing to kill the fourth.

Marcus had regained consciousness, his stone-enhanced body regenerating from the cerebral damage, his grey skin cracking as he forced himself upright. He saw his dead teammates, saw Cassandra's broken body, and saw Dr. Cross's bisected corpse, and rage overwhelmed tactical judgment.

"YOU KILLED THEM!" Marcus roared, his voice grinding like continental plates shifting.

"THEY WERE MY TEAM! MY FAMILY!"

He charged with abandon, no longer fighting strategically, just pure grief-fueled aggression. His fists swung with force that cracked pavement, his stone-enhanced strength multiplied by anguish.

Jorghan's response was cold and efficient.

Blood essence manifested as a spear, solid as steel, sharp as surgical instruments. It punched through Marcus's stone-enhanced chest, found his heart despite the defensive density, and pierced the organ that had been beating for forty-three years.

Marcus stopped mid-charge, looking down at the crimson blade protruding from his chest with disbelief.

"No," he whispered.

"Not... not like this..."

Jorghan twisted the blood essence spear, destroying what remained of Marcus's heart completely. The massive man collapsed, his stone skin fading back to normal flesh as his abilities cut off with his death.

Four S-rank awakeners are dead.

Luke's Desperate Gambit

Luke had been watching from the shadows, his phone pressed to his ear, speaking rapidly to someone on the other end.

"It's worse than we thought. He's killed four of them. FOUR S-RANKS. We need—"

The voice on the other end interrupted, sharp and commanding.

Luke's face went pale.

"Are you insane? That's going too far! She's just a child—"

More words from the phone, cold and calculating.

Luke closed his eyes, clearly hating himself for what he was about to do.

"Fine. Do it. Take the family. But this is on you. When Jorghan finds out, when he comes for revenge, remember that you ordered this."

He ended the call and made a sharp gesture toward the ruined house where Lizbeth and her family still cowered.

Six figures emerged from vehicles that had been positioned in the darkness beyond the battle. They wore tactical gear similar to the Raed Circle soldiers but moved with more discipline and more purpose. These weren't gang enforcers. These were professional contractors employed directly by the Moorne Corporation.

They entered the house with weapons raised.

Lizbeth's scream cut through the aftermath of battle.

"NO! PLEASE! NOT MY DAUGHTER!"

Jorghan's head snapped toward the sound, his crimson eyes blazing with fury. He started toward the house, blood essence already manifesting for another slaughter.

"JORGHAN!" Luke's voice rang out, and his half-brother's tone carried something that made Jorghan pause.

"They have explosives! You take one more step toward that house and they detonate! The family dies, the entire block dies, everyone within two hundred yards dies!"

Jorghan stopped, his entire body vibrating with barely controlled rage.

"You're using hostages now?"

"I'm buying time," Luke replied, stepping into the light cast by streetlamps.

"Time for what's left of the team to escape. Time to get the family to safety where you can't massacre more people in your quest for revenge."

"They attacked me," Jorghan said, his voice deadly quiet.

"They tried to kill me. I responded appropriately."

"You killed FOUR S-RANK AWAKENERS!" Luke shouted back.

"Do you understand what you've done? Those were members of the Earth's elite! People who've defended against planet incursions, who've saved thousands of lives! And you slaughtered them like they were nothing!"

"They weren't nothing," Jorghan corrected coldly.

"They were capable warriors who fought well. But they chose the wrong enemy and the wrong battle. That's not my fault."

The contractors emerged from the house, dragging the family. Lizbeth fought desperately, screaming for her daughter. Lily cried out for her mother. Margaret and David tried to resist but were overwhelmed by superior numbers and weaponry.

They were loaded into vehicles with brutal quickness.

Jorghan took a step forward.

One of the contractors held up a detonator, his thumb poised over the trigger.

"One more step. Just one. See what happens."

Jorghan's hands clenched into fists, blood essence swirling around him in increasingly violent patterns. Every instinct screamed to attack, to kill these contractors, to save the family he'd promised to protect.

But the explosive threat was real. He could sense the device they'd planted and could feel the concentrated energy that would level everything nearby if detonated.

Lizbeth and Lily would die instantly.

So would dozens of civilians in surrounding houses who had nothing to do with this conflict.

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