The world seemed to explode.

The ground shook violently as the impact rocked the estate, the force of the explosion leveling everything in its path.

Buildings disintegrated, stone and steel alike crumbling into dust. The earth itself seemed to split as the shockwave tore through the landscape, engulfing everything in smoke and fire.

Avalon, the three stars, and the others arrived at the scene at that moment, their utter shock evident on their faces.

Avalon’s gaze frantically searched for his wife and mother amidst the chaos. Relief washed over him as he spotted them, along with Freya and Arya, a distance away from the explosion’s origin. But that relief quickly turned to bafflement.

Not a single whip of hot air or even smoke reached the group. The area around them appeared clear.

Avalon’s gaze narrowed, and he vanished, reappearing in front of the group.

“Ana, Mom, are you guys okay?”

Anastasia turned toward Avalon, relief flooding her features. She nodded with a smile, but it faded as she remembered the situation. Avalon approached and enveloped both of them in a deep hug. He instantly noticed Freya’s frail nature and the exhausted, drained look on his wife, a surge of intense anger settling in.

“You might want to save that for later. We have more pressing matters at hand,” Lyanna’s voice cut through his thoughts. He turned to see her, Sirius, Nathan, and the Ravenstein elders alongside the Sanctum masters hovering above them, their gazes fixed skyward where thick smoke billowed.

There was not a single face among them that wasn’t thoroughly shocked. Although the smoke engulfed the area, they were grandmasters, capable of seeing through it with ease.

“Anastasia, are you sure you gave birth to that boy?”

Nathan’s remark hung in the air. No one laughed. None of them could. The being currently floating high up, cloaked in intense fire, was undeniably Atticus, Avalon’s sixteen-year-old son.

Nathan’s words might have seemed like a joke, but it was what they all wondered: Was that boy even human?

It was as if a nuclear explosion had just unfolded. The battlefield below lay in ruins, and the sky itself was alight with the remnants of Atticus’s devastating power.

With a single thought, Atticus unleashed another shockwave. It radiated from him, a pulse of raw energy that blasted through the smoke, scattering the remnants of dust and ash like paper caught in the wind.

The dust had barely begun to clear when, suddenly, multiple golden lights ignited where the Obsidian Order’s branch heads had been. They shot into the sky with incredible speed, attempting to escape the sector.

The gazes of everyone present sharpened. They were trying to flee.

Lyanna’s voice rang out in anger, her eyes burning. “Don’t let them escape!”

Her fists clenched, her aura flaring with fury. Avalon’s face darkened as well, a deep frown settling over his features, but his mind quickly shifted—he remembered who was floating high above them.

A serene voice suddenly echoed across the entire space, freezing the escaping lights mid-flight. “Surely, you don’t intend to leave after doing all of this, do you?”

The voice carried a calm power that blanketed the entire capital, an aura both serene and deadly.

Seraphina appeared, her presence casting a heavy, overwhelming pressure over the battlefield. Her aura caused every presence to pause, her authority absolute.

Kazimir and the other branch heads, their bodies riddled with burns and blood from Atticus’s earlier assault, exchanged dark looks.

Their gazes narrowed, but none of them panicked. Despite their injuries, they had survived Atticus’s assault. But before they could act, the sky parted once more.

Atticus.

He blazed forward with unreal speed, his katana raised high, a blazing inferno of crimson flames engulfing the blade.

His movements were a blur, like a living flame streaking through the air, his figure trailing fire with every motion. His eyes—cold, emotionless, yet filled with intense fury—locked onto the branch heads as his katana descended with terrifying force.

The sheer heat of his body warped the air around him, the intense flames turning the sky above into a seething cauldron of fire.

The very air seemed to sizzle in his wake, leaving behind blinding afterimages of his speed.

However, the branch heads didn’t even blink.

Suddenly, the air in front of them warped, twisting violently as if reality itself was bending.

Seraphina’s eyes widened in shock, and in an instant, a massive purple hand construct materialized with lightning speed.

The hand grabbed Atticus, pulling him back just before his katana could strike, yanking him toward her.

Seraphina’s aura surged, blanketing the entire space just as the warp in the air solidified. In the blink of an eye, a man appeared from the distortion, floating high in the air.

The man was tall and imposing, with pale skin and short jet-black hair streaked with silver.

His piercing silver eyes glowed faintly, giving him an intense, otherworldly look. He was clad in a sleek, dark cloak that seemed to ripple like shadows, with a black symbol of the Obsidian Order etched into his left arm, subtly glowing.

However, this wasn’t what everyone was focused on. In fact, aside from Seraphina and Atticus, there was not a single person who could move.

The man was a paragon.

Everyone was utterly shocked. Up until now, in all the years since the Obsidian Order had made themselves known in the human domain, never had a paragon appeared amongst their ranks.

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The Obsidian Order had a paragon… this cold fact seemed to wash over everyone present.

“Paragon Blackgate!” The branch heads bowed and greeted him with respect.

The man appeared calm, not a single emotion crossing his face. He was currently in enemy territory and, not only that, a paragon was standing in front of him. Yet he didn’t seem to care.

His silver eyes were focused on only one thing—Atticus.

“What a peculiar child. Your talent is truly immeasurable, so much so that I find it hard to believe you’re human. It’s being wasted here. How about it? Join us, and I’ll let you kill her.”