"Mother!"

Lyra kicked open the door to her VIP Room with the confidence of someone about to drop the hottest gossip of the century.

Instead, she found her mother having a very intense staring contest with the Nephilim Lord Valeroth.

Behind him, the Nephilim Prince stood so stiffly his fists looked like they were trying to fuse into his own spine.

In the corner, the room attendant was currently attempting to become one with the floorboards, shivering so hard he was practically a human vibrator in the presence of such overwhelming existences.

Everyone turned to look at Lyra. The silence was deafening.

"Mother, I saw Necr-"

Lyra's sentence died in her throat. She froze, as she suddenly raised her head.

The two Monarchs didn't even wait for her to finish. In a blur, they vanished, reappearing on the roof of the Auction House.

They were just in time to witness a condensed energy beam falling from the sky. It wasn't aimed at the building, which was a relief for the insurance premiums, but was instead headed straight for the garden.

It wasn't even a full-power blast that the ship could generate, it was more like a flick to the forehead.

Still, it was enough. The garden barrier shattered into a thousand pieces.

Kaelus had just finished carving a bigger hole in the barrier to rescue Reven. He was literally seconds away from a victory lap when the entire sky-dome turned into sparkles.

With the barrier gone, Reven didn't make a heroic exit. He simply became a victim of gravity and hit the grass face-first.

"This is bad," Kaelus exclaimed, recognizing something. "Is father here?!"

Reven pushed himself up, his face filled with pure horror.

"Calling it bad would be an understatement. We are professionally screwed," he said.

Timmy also raised his head, slightly surprised. This was the second time he had seen Kaelus so scared. The first time it had happened, was also when his father was mentioned.

"Should we, uh... run?" Timmy suggested, trying to be helpful.

"Run where? If His Majesty is here, then there's nowhere we can run now," Reven said, falling back onto his butt and hugging his knees like a sad gnome. He had officially retired from the escape attempt.

Kaelus joined him on the grass, staring at the stars with the look of a man who had just seen his browser history flash before his eyes.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted. I wonder if those dungeons still have that damp smell."

While the Dynamic Duo was busy accepting their fate, Leo saw a window of opportunity. Using the barrier's explosion as a distraction, he signaled the ship, but this time, he didn't return to the ship alone.

This time, he selected four people to be pulled back to the ship in the brief moment when the barrier was trying to recover.

It was also because he was certain that the two ancient houses would do something to block any such attempts if he was late.

"And here we go..." Kaelus closed his eyes, feeling the spatial essence around his body.

The next moment, he appeared inside a room that was locked from outside.

Reven was also brought back to a different room, far away from the command center. And so was Timmy.

It was as if Leo was trying his best to keep the three stooges away from each other, and especially from the command center where he had returned to.

Back on the ship, Leo started changing clothes. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

He grabbed extra padding, stuffing it into his clothes to give himself the 'I definitely go to the gym and don't just sit in a pilot's chair' physique.

He placed the Necropolis Mask onto his face and reached for Voldred's Sword.

When he was to stand before the other two ancient houses, this sword was nothing more than a toy in his hand. But still, it made him calmer, preventing him from panicking.

He carried it on back, feeling significantly more like a legendary warrior and significantly less like a guy in a padded suit.

"Just as I thought, they are fast..." Leo had barely taken any time to change, but just as he had expected, the other two ships of the Ancient Houses had already moved.

One of them was blocking his path of retreat. Meanwhile, another was blocking his path forward.

The three ancient houses were finally supposed to be in the same place, but no one knew that one of them was merely a fake.

"Is this their way to invite me down? Fine... If that's the only way.... At least they won't know that the Prince was there."

Leo issued a few instructions to the ship's systems. At the same time, he also used the encrypted systems of the ship to send a message to an unknown destination.

"I just destroyed a small part of a garden. This shouldn't lead to a war, right?" Leo scratched the back of his head, before using his hood to cover his hair as well. "I just have to clear the false rumor about the lotus, right?"

This time, he was properly ready. His physique was different. The only problem was that he wasn't sure if Selene could recognize him through this mask.

"This mask better work. Otherwise I'm screwed..." Leo mumbled, as he reached out his finger.

"Beam me down, scotty," he said, as he pressed the screen, using an ancient line that he always wanted to try.

His body was shrouded in the particles of spatial energy, generated within the powerful undead core of the Necropolis Ship.

His body once again disappeared. This time, he didn't appear in the garden.

Instead, he appeared right before Selene and Valeroth, atop the Auction House.

This time, he was directly facing the two overlords, who were on the same level as Voldred, and didn't look favorably at Necropolis.

All he could rely on was his words and his disguise, which had previously proven to be quite unreliable.

In fact, he had even intended to just give the lotus to these two, and let them pay him with the credits.

After all, this was the way to prove that Necropolis wasn't trying anything suspicious, it was all a misunderstanding.

For a moment, there was only silence in the place.

The silence was broken by Leo, who said, "I-"

Thud-

He had barely uttered a word when something heavy slammed into the back of his head.

In an instant, his world began to spin. The pain bypassed his protective gear entirely, being felt straight into the depths of his soul.

He couldn't tell if the sensation lasted for a second or only a fraction of one before the world turned into a blur. His body fell forward.

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