What had actually happened was simpler and more violent.

While Luke and the surviving S-Rank awakeners fled to the Estate, the contractors holding the Chen family had taken them to a safehouse in the industrial district. They'd planned to hold them there until receiving instructions from their corporate superiors about what to do with hostages taken from a battle scene.

Jorghan had tracked them using his blood essence marker, arrived at the safehouse within thirty minutes of their detention, and killed every contractor present. Fifteen more bodies to add to the night's count. Fifteen more sources of mana absorbed and converted.

Then he'd arranged a civilian vehicle, given the family the mansion's address, and sent them ahead while he cleaned up the evidence of the massacre.

But Lizbeth didn't need to know those details. Didn't need the burden of knowing how many people had died to secure her freedom.

"The important thing is you're safe," Jorghan said.

"This mansion belonged to the Moorne family, but they've relocated to a larger estate outside the city. It's empty now, fully furnished, and secure. You can live here."

"Live here?" Margaret spoke up, her elderly voice carrying disbelief.

"This is the Moorne mansion. We can't just... move into someone else's property. They'll come back. They'll have us arrested or worse."

Jorghan's smile was cold and certain.

"Tomorrow, there won't be a Moorne family. I'm going to their estate tonight. By morning, everyone who threatened you, everyone who took your daughter, and everyone who thought they could use you as leverage against me, they'll be gone. This mansion will belong to no one, which means it belongs to whoever claims it first. That's you."

"I'll take care of it. This house will be yours."

Lizbeth stared at him, processing the implications of what he was saying.

"You're going to kill them. All of them. The entire Moorne family."

"Everyone who was involved."

"There are probably hundreds of people at that estate," Lizbeth protested.

"Security forces, corporate staff, families of the people who work there. You can't just—"

"I can," Jorghan interrupted.

"And I will. The Moorne Corporation made the choice to attack my people, to kill my friend, and to take someone under my protection. They created this situation. I'm just finishing it."

Lily looked up at him with wide eyes, seeing something in his expression that made her shrink back against her mother.

"You're scary," she said quietly.

"Mom said you were one of the good ones, but you're scary like the bad people."

Jorghan knelt down to be at eye level with the child, and when he spoke, his voice was gentler.

"I am scary. Your mother is right about that. But I'm scary to people who hurt others, who take things that don't belong to them, and who think power means they can do whatever they want without consequences. I'm not scary to people like you and your mother. Not to people who just want to live in peace."

He stood and looked at Lizbeth.

"The mansion has everything you need and security systems that still function. You'll be safe here while I handle the Moorne situation. By tomorrow evening, you can start rebuilding your lives without fear of the Raed circle or corporate retaliation."

"What about you?" Lizbeth asked.

"After you attack the estate, after you kill all those people, where will you go?"

"Back to my world," Jorghan replied.

He turned toward the gate, preparing to leave.

"Wait," Lizbeth called out.

"Thank you. For saving Lily. For giving us somewhere safe to stay. I know you didn't have to help us, but you did anyway. That means something."

Jorghan nodded acknowledgment without looking back.

"Keep your daughter safe. Teach her to use her abilities wisely. Don't let her become like the people who tried to take her, powerful but cruel. The world has enough of those already."

Then he was gone, disappearing into the night, moving with purpose toward the northwestern district where the Moorne Estate waited.

*

The journey across the city took two hours on foot. Jorghan could have moved faster and could have used blood essence to propel himself at superhuman speeds, but stealth was more valuable than speed right now. And he wanted to walk around the city, to see for himself just how much the city had changed.

The Moorne Corporation would be on high alert after the S-Rank team's defeat. Sensors would be active, security forces mobilized, and every defensive measure engaged.

Walking normally through shadows and empty streets made him harder to detect than blazing across the city like a crimson comet.

He used the time to review what he knew about the Estate's layout from Lizbeth's information and what his Bloodhound Creed was telling him about Luke's current location. The estate was massive, probably two square miles of developed land surrounded by walls and defensive barriers. Main residence in the center, multiple outbuildings for security forces and staff, underground facilities for sensitive operations.

And somewhere inside, Grace was present.

The resentment between them made more sense now. Luke hadn't just been jealous of Jorghan's pure bloodline and greater power. He'd been jealous that his half-brother had become something extraordinary despite lacking the maternal presence Luke had always taken for granted.

And now Luke had killed Scarlett, who was his family too. Had authorized her execution to protect his position in the Moorne Corporation, to maintain his role as the bridge between Earth and the elven realms.

Luke was terrified now.

Jorghan had felt it during their confrontation, seen it in his half-brother's eyes when four S-Rank awakeners lay dead and Jorghan hadn't even been seriously wounded. Luke had known Jorghan as a talented young warrior with impressive potential.

He'd never imagined his half-brother would become this, a force of nature that killed Earth's elite fighters with casual efficiency, that crossed the void between worlds through sheer willpower.

The Jorghan Sol'vur that Luke remembered no longer existed. Something different had emerged. Something that terrified even his own family.

Jorghan stood before the massive gates of the Moorne Estate, moonlight casting his shadow across manicured lawns that would soon be stained with blood. The fortress-like compound sprawled before him—walls reinforced with technology and awakened abilities, guard towers bristling with weapons, searchlights cutting through the darkness in systematic patterns.

Beautiful, secure, and impenetrable.

All meaningless.

He closed his eyes and let the transformation begin.

[BLOODLINE TRANSFORMATION INITIATED]

[Accessing: Primordial Form

Ancestral Integration: 85% → SUFFICIENT

Seven Star Blood Deviant: MANIFESTING

WARNING: Full transformation will alert all essence-sensitive beings within 5 miles

Recommend: Proceed only if stealth is no longer a priority.

Command confirmed. Beginning transformation sequence...]

His body expanded, muscles and bone restructuring with sounds like breaking branches. Five-seven became six feet, then seven, then eight, finally stopping at eight feet four inches of pure elven power made manifest.

His skin shifted from normal flesh tones to pale red, not the crimson of his combat form, but something deeper, older, the color of dried blood on ancient stone. Black-green tattoos emerged across his body like living things, swirling patterns that traced his bloodline's history through symbolic script only the most ancient elves could read.

His eyes transformed last.

The crimson glow he normally carried became something far more terrifying. Molten lava contained within his gaze, heat that suggested volcanic fury barely restrained, and pupils that dilated and contracted independently as they adjusted to seeing the world in ways humans couldn't comprehend.

Through these eyes, he saw blood.

Not metaphorically, he literally saw the circulatory systems of every living thing within his perception. The guards in their towers became maps of flowing crimson, their hearts pumping, their veins carrying life that Jorghan could end with a thought. The plants in the gardens showed slower circulation of sap and nutrients. Even insects in the grass revealed tiny networks of fluid movement.

Every living creature within two miles of him became visible as flowing blood, as vulnerable targets, as potential fuel for his abilities.

His pointed ears extended slightly, becoming more pronounced, marking him unmistakably as elven despite his unusual coloring. His black hair lengthened, falling to his shoulders in waves that moved as if touched by wind that didn't exist.

The red tattoos covering his body began to glow faintly, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat, marking him as something ancient and terrible that had awakened after a long slumber.

This was his Primordial Form.

The closest his current bloodline integration could bring him to the original Sol'vur ancestors who'd walked the world when magic was wilder and power came from blood and will rather than careful cultivation.

[TRANSFORMATION COMPLETE]

[Primordial Form: ACTIVE

Height: 8'4"

Bloodline Progression: 92%

Blood Flow Detection: 5.7 mile radius

Physical Enhancement: +340%

Essence Regeneration: +180%

Intimidation Factor: MAXIMUM]

[All ancestral abilities are available for deployment.

Mana Devouring efficiency increased to 97%.

Blood manipulation range extended to 150 feet]

[ Warning: This form will terrify allies and enemies alike

Maintain control or risk descending into a berserker state]

Jorghan opened his eyes, those molten, terrible eyes, and looked at the gates before him.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.